Hope For the Hopeless

It's good to know that I'm not alone in my emotional roller coaster concerning Barack Obama. William Kristol, too, has his ups and downs -- and, from what I read in his opinion column in the New York Times, they occur frequently throughout his days. Why my misery loves having this company, I do not know. But reading his column warmed me right up. And it warmed me right up so much that I just have to share pieces of it with you.

Mr. Kristol was irritated that Der Spiegel's Gerhard Sporl wrote, "Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessaule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States." Kristol's response to this was, "It was just another journalist fawning over Obama." Ahh... yes, fawning. Too true. But then Kristol goes on to say:

Not so fast... Don't the American people get a chance to weigh in on this in November? Maybe they'll decide it's more important to have John McCain as commander in chief than Barack Obama as orator in chief. Maybe they'll further suspect that 200,000 Germans can't be right.

So, yes. I think this is funny. "Orator in chief." Ha!

But then Kristol goes the next morning, driving around the Washington suburbs and sees a couple really nice cars with the Obama campaign bumper sticker. "Got hope?" 

Got hope? Are my own neighbors' lives so bleak that they place their hopes in Barack Obama? Are they impressed by the cleverness of a political slogan that plays off a rather cheesy (sorry!) campaign to get people to drink milk? And what is it the bumper-sticker affixers are trying to say? Do they really believe their fellow citizens who happen to prefer McCain are hopeless? After all, just because you haven't swooned like Herr Sporl doesn't mean you don't hope for a better world. Don't McCain backers also have hope - for an America that wins its wars, protects its unborn children and allows its citizens to keep more of their hard-earned income?

Further despair came to Kristol when he read of a fund raising letter saying that the Democrats must have a "deadlock-proof Democratic majority." But hope came in the form of:

It occured to me that one man's "deadlock-proof" Democratic majority is another's unchecked Democratic majority... it will become increasingly obvious, as we approach November, that the Democrats will continue to control Congress for the next couple of years. But if the voters elect Obama as president, they'll be putting Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in untrammeled control of our future... and McCain will assert that if you don't like the Congress in which Senator Obama serves in the majority right now, you really should be alarmed about a President Obama rubber-stamping the deeds of a Democratic Congress next year. 

Reading that someone who closely follows the news is feeling very much the same way I am somehow helps me. I don't know how it helps me, but it does.