Denver
I was struck by this picture on the front page of the Times (New York) this morning.
It’s a good picture. It kind of gets it all in – the blue sky, the autumn trees, the capitol in the distance, the huge crowd in front, the bare stage, and the single slight figure outlined against it all. The hundred thousand people facing us, and the one guy facing them frozen in a wave or a benediction. If you hate him, of course, it’s of no interest, or it’s portentous and irritating. If you like him, it’s pretty affecting. For a lot of reasons. There’s some echo of that other senator from Illinois – and doubtless some kind of secular echo of religious iconography – and the echo of the march on Washington and the crowd filling the Mall on that day – and the beauty of the shot itself. It all adds up. I’m being a little mawkish, but…well why not, dammit?
Of course, the picture will become a depressing souvenir if things go wrong (yes, wrong) a week from tomorrow, but meanwhile, it’s a nice snap.
Yes, it struck me the same way. A very moving photograph. It even gives one a sense of the hope that filled the crowd. I hope things don’t go wrong. I speak as a Canadian, but with deep concern for our neighbours, who have sufferred enough bad government recently. At least we have a minority government, so the Prime Minister has to seek some measure of consensus.
Oh good, I’m glad I’m not the only one. In truth I think it’s a knockout, but I don’t want to be too mawkish on the main page.
A crowd of a hundred thousand in Denver is remarkable.
Yeah I hope things don’t go wrong too (she said very quietly). I’m preparing to gnaw off a limb if they do.
Nice pic. Three words the world currently dreads more than any others:
“Four More Years.”
Good luck. And make it someone elses limb if it goes wrong.
Eric – I work for a minority government – not a party I support – but I have to admit they’re actually doing a pretty good job job, and I think the fact they need opposition party votes to get anything through Parliament goes a long way to explaining this.
I don’t know if its a positive sign, a straw in the wind or whatever, but I was talking this weekend to a couple of expat Americans who said they used to be supporters of McCain – they’re Republicans who voted for him in 2000 in the Primaries – who are so horrified by his campaign (and, I think, his choice of VP) that they’ve cast their absentee ballots for Obama. If even his core support is wavering, there’s a good chance that Obama can get in whatever the voting machines do…
I heard mention, by an American, the other evening, on a popular Irish telly programme, of the Green Party in America.
I was rather taken aback to hear that one even existed there – as it never seems, from my perception, anyway, to get a proper ‘limb’ in, in the world-wide media.
I looked at the Green-Party website and saw this “Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney in Seattle October 26-27.
The American, whose name was Rosanne, is/was a comedienne/Actor I think, ascertained to the presenter/audience that she is voting American Greens; because of her utter disappointment of Hilary Clinton not winning the Democratic Party ticket.
Hi Marie
I was in the company on Saturday night of a brother and sister originally from Kansas, now living in New York and Florida respecively. My original quip above acurately reflects their view; they had been Nader suppporters in 2000, and Al Gore supporters the last time. The sister has been a major Hilary suppporter, but she said that her and her brother both categorically have to vote Obama. (And they hope that the under 30 Democrat registration records being broken currently actually equate into votes.) Green ? I wish. But I have everything crossed right now that it ain’t “red”…
Marie,
Google Cynthia McKinney. You probably won’t like what you find. I’ve supported Green candidates in the past (I knew Peter Camejo personally and respected him a lot), but McKinney is every bit as gimmicky and disastrous a nominee as Sarah Palin.
From reading wiki it would appear that her reason for joining the Greens was an opportunistic one”…[t]he congresswoman had little to do with the party apart from having had Green Party loyalists working on her congressional campaigns. This changed drastically following her defeat in the 2006 election. McKinney attended the California Green Party strategy retreat in Sonoma, California, where she was the keynote speaker.”
I have encountered others like her who have gotten on particular political party tickets, just to better themselves – and to hell with the policies of the respective party politics.
Peter Camejo, I see, has just recently died. May he rest in peace.
“Green ? I wish.”
“I can’t hardly wait for 2008. Ms. McKinney, in 2008, what color is your parachute?” McKinney responds from the audience, “it’s not red and it’s not blue. Yeah you got it, Nick.
Patrick, your expats are indeed representative of something: a lot of Republicans have switched to Obama because of McCain’s choice of Palin and/or his campaign. The Palin move, which so many people hailed as political genius at the time, has apparently turned out to be the kiss of death. (Unless McCain wins, of course.)
It’s interesting to hear references to McCain supporters switching to Obama.
I was surprised a few weeks ago to get an e-mail from a friend of mine, a fellow historian, with whom I’ve had an ongoing debate about politics over the last few years.
He’s consistently (and insistently) backed the Republicans — even the Bush administration in its darkest days — and he was a McCain supporter going back to the start of the primaries.
Anyway, he wrote to me a few weeks ago after I’d snarkily prodded him about some poll or another, and said that he’d switched to Obama, in large measure because of Palin.
Of course, as he’s in Texas, that kind of shift is unlikely to add any electoral votes to the Obama column, but it’s still a remarkable thing to hear.
That dyed-in-the-wool Republicans are voting for Obama (even if they’re not doing it with much enthusiasm) puts all the smears about Obama’s radical ‘Marxism’ or whatever into perspective.
A good sign.
And, yes, a wonderful photo.
Fingers crossed. Or, as they say here in Germany, thumbs pressed.
Well, this ex-pat is also nervous…if cautiously optimistic. The signs that the Obama campaign has a solid get-out-the-vote operation in action is encouraging.
That ad is wonderful. I blogged about it a few days ago.
It’s been a long time since a political campaign was this…cool. Hip. Whatever the kids are saying these days.
Very moving?
Tsk tsk.
I thought on this website we used our heads, not our hearts.