I Just Can't Help It...

Yep, I'm feeling that righteous yet pragmatic hope. Much of it due to Michelle Obama, but that's fine by me--clearly Barack Obama has the wisdom to listen to her since a recent Wall Street Journal article quoted him as saying: "She's too smart to run. It is true my wife is smarter, better looking. She's a little meaner than I am." (I'd like to think he was referring to her sarcastic humor, not a generally mean disposition). Admittedly, I was having some trouble with his waffling, and the whole campaigning with black southern homophobes (OK, still have a problem with that) before she took a more prominent role in the election. So just for the ease of access I'm putting will.i.am's "Yes We Can" Obama song below. Definitely an improvement over his "I Got It From My Mama" celebration of female intergenerational inheritance which focused exclusively on corporeal aspects of legacy. Too bad he wasn't talking about those various women's integrity, intelligence, creativity, leadership skills, athleticism, and/or artistry, to which a self-assured and sensual voice (instead of the eternally girlishly coy one in the song) could respond: "I got it from my mama." Would have been a great Camille Yarborough moment--but that's another conversation.

Speaking of other conversations. I was reading Maureen Dowd's February 6th New York Times column, "Darkness and Light." I've been appreciating Dowd's perspective on this election, and the Clinton force that is "Billary" as she's termed the election campaign partnership of Bill and Hillary, as well as the complex gender and partnership dynamics at play with any consideration of Hillary Clinton as president elect. But this column really broke down some key aspects of Hillary Clinton's relationship to power, and what may be at stake for nation in staying with the old versus reaching for the "audacity of hope." At then end of the column Dowd also addresses what Obama will have to do to prove he's ready to handle the Republican attack machine. Below a couple of striking quotes from Dowd:

"Hillary Clinton denounced Dick Cheney as Darth Vader, but she did not absorb the ultimate lesson of the destructive vice president:

"Don’t become so paranoid that you let yourself be overwhelmed by a dark vision...."

And later in the column she nails the key dilemma, and then compels questioning of what the true nature of that dilemma is:

"Better the devil you know than the diffident debutante you don’t. Better to go with the Clintons, with all their dysfunction and chaos — the same kind that fueled the Republican hate machine — than to risk the chance that Obama would be mauled like a chew toy in the general election. Better to blow off all the inspiration and the young voters, the independents and the Republicans that Obama is attracting than to take a chance on something as ephemeral as hope. Now that’s Cheney-level paranoia."

You can read the entire column "Darkness and Light," here.