The personification of hope

A month or two ago, as I was at Mock Trial State Championships in Springfield, IL. On a dreary Saturday afternoon my team and I went out to lunch at a restaurant called McCarthy’s. They have a few flat screen TV’s mounted on the walls near the bar, and one of them was turned to CNN. As the rest of my team gathered around our coaches and watched some sports game, I made my way over to the CNN TV. It must’ve been on mute, because no sound was coming out. However, Barack Obama was speaking. Though I couldn’t hear a word he said, I stood and watched. Obama’s charisma was visible even without words to convey it, and for some indefinable reason, I find watching him speak comforting.

As I stood there watching the silent TV in the otherwise empty part of the bar area, I saw an African-American man, probably in his early 30’s, sweeping the floor. I noticed that he kept looking up at the TV screen, and that he was likewise watching Obama speak. Gradually, he came closer to where I was standing, and for a moment, he stopped sweeping altogether to watch the silent screen. There we stood- a macchiato-sipping, white, female high school student and an African-American custodian in his 30’s. We stood together in silence and watched Obama speak.

Once Obama’s speech was finished and the screen showed a CNN news anchor instead, the man asked me, “Is there anything I can get you?” The spell had broken.

That moment reminds me of a conversation I later had with Senator Dick Durbin. He said that he has never seen a politician inspire people the way Barack Obama does.

In that moment, in that dark bar at McCarthy’s in Springfield, IL, I experienced that firsthand. The custodian and I were brought together for a brief moment in lives that would probably never again cross paths, yet that moment illustrates Obama’s effect on America. That effect is unification of people from all backgrounds, and it is an effect that we desperately need. Obama brings us back to what it truly means to be an American by bringing people back to the core values of our nation- the belief in the inherent goodness of man, the necessity of a government that truly represents the people, and the inalienable right of freedom.

I realize that hearing Obama’s words as he spoke wouldn’t have been necessary. His message of hope and unity was personified by we, his audience, and in that way he communicated on a level beyond words.

Hillary wants to be shepherdess- this “sheep” says no

Who is Hillary Clinton? Over the course of this election so far, we’ve seen Fighter Hillary, Soft Hillary, Sympathetic Hillary, Angry Hillary, SNL Hillary, Anti-NAFTA Hillary, Everywoman Hillary, Indiana Bar-Hopping Hillary, Bowling Hillary, Inevitable Candidacy Hillary, Underdog Hillary and Hillary the Comeback Kid.

Her most recent incarnation seems to be that of NRA Hillary as she reprimands Barack Obama’s comments that small-town Americans turn to religion and personal armament because of a lack of confidence in their government. HRC has called his comments “elitist and out of touch.”

This coming from the woman who made $109 million in the last few years and whose political career is the definition of elitist politics…

First of all, I know that Obama’s words were chosen poorly, but the meaning shouldn’t insult anyone. Then again, it probably did insult the same crowd whose opinion of him was influenced by his recent bowling mishap. However, with Hillary’s recent pro-gun-totin’ revelation, it should be noted that she thinks we’re idiots.

By “we” I mean everyday people, the non-politicians. If she honestly believes that, after everyone knows that she’s about as liberal as you can get, that suddenly she’s going to be believable as the 2nd amendment crusader, then she must think that we’re all sheep. Not only does she think that we’re sheep- she thinks that we’re sheep who will be swayed by every word she says. Everyone knows that Hillary is a Democrat with a capitalized, bolded, italicized “D.” She wants to be the shepherdess of the “sheep,” but this “sheep” says no, because her thinly-veiled attempt to look like the Everywoman makes her more elitist and out of touch than ever, and it does nothing to help the fact that more people have voted for Obama than either her or Senator McCain.