The results of the 2008 elections are, although not entirely known (there are still some provisional ballots to be counted), known with about 99.999999% certainty, in my view.
Starting at the top: the election of our 44th President. I don't know when we've seen in American politics a character like Barack Obama. His story is not one of blind luck and chance, though in politics, as in all professions, a certain amount of good fortune is mixed into any story of someone who achieves high office. He is not someone whose boyhood dream was to be President, nor is he someone born of a family or class to whom high office is viewed as a blood right.
Knowing what I know of his life, his life is one of taking advantage of all life's opportunities. Working hard in childhood to get to Columbia. Going to Harvard Law and becoming the first African-American head of the Harvard Law Review. Going back to Chicago to work, and through his law firm make the most important contacts of his life, most importantly his wife, and start his political career. Winning election to the Illinois State Senate. A spirited run for Congress against a well-known African-American activist (An aside: while people were whining about Obama's knowing Bill Ayers, no one mentioned Bobby Rush's past ties to the Black Panthers). A campaign for the Senate, winning a seat that had elected an African-American in 1992, an experience that didn't go so well (Carol Moseley Braun).
I attended the Obama rally in Baltimore the night before the primary election. He is a man of extraordinary personal gifts: his oratory, his calm, his confidence that he exudes. Even from the back of First Mariner Arena, I got the sense that although he was fairly new to the scene, and although his politics are to the left of mine, that he just would KNOW what to do when he got elected. I got the impression that was simply preternaturally disposed to this job. And it was clear to me that a lot of people around me saw the same thing. And they saw other things. They saw the fulfillment of possibilities in their own lives, that somehow never happened, and they saw another chance to set the wrongs right. They saw the possibility for history to be made by their actions, through this man.
Poor Hillary Clinton. Poor John McCain. In reality, they never really had a chance. Well, they did, in early March, when Jeremiah Wright was the word of the day. But in my view, the watershed moment of the campaign was Obama's race speech in Philadelphia, which he wrote almost entirely himself. In that speech he showed great candor and comfort in confronting the divisive issue of race, and in so doing, indicated that he understood the nature of division in America as it exists today, and indicated that he knew how to bridge these gaps. And that's what the voters decided they needed. Not a return to the 90s. Not an American hero. They needed someone who at least had a chance, a chance, to bridge all the social and economic divisions that keep us apart as a people. They needed to believe in the promise of America again, and this man embodied that promise, that hope. And that's how they voted.
Nothing surprising in the Congressional elections. Sarbanes and Cummings both won big.
The Constitutional amendments both passed. Maryland needs early voting and the passage of question 1 was welcome. The slots measure, question 2-- the best thing I can say about that is that at least it's decided.
Last, but very importantly, the School Board elections. I am very happy for the election of Janet Siddiqui and Allen Dyer. I am not happy about the election of Ellen Giles. In my view she hasn't distinguished herself on the board and I find her to be wholly reactionary. I didn't support her election in 2006 and I think Betsy Grater would've been a better candidate. Although I did not relish electing another over 70-year old member to the school board.
We need better candidates for the school board from Columbia. Faenita Dilworth, the lone candidiate who was elminated in the 2008 primary, was unimpressive. Hopefully in 2009 new candidates will emerge from Columbia. The 2010 primary won't be until September (unless a change is made as was proposed a couple years ago) so that affords potential candidates a long time to consider it.
Comments