The Obama Phenomenon, Bob Herbert - - "Shake hands with tomorrow. It’s here."

[jefferson_dem]

The Obama Phenomenon
By BOB HERBERT
Manchester, N.H.

The historians can put aside their reference material. This is new. America has never seen anything like the Barack Obama phenomenon.

I was surprised all day Thursday, before the results of the Iowa caucuses were in, by the apparent serenity of the Obama forces here in New Hampshire. The stakes were enormous, but the campaign staff members and volunteers seemed as cool as the candidate.

The students, veterans, middle-aged moms, retirees and others working steadily to make Barack Obama president seemed to accept as fact that the country is ready for profound change and that their job is to help make it happen.

“We’ve been busy knocking on doors, making phone calls, inputting data and basically just spreading hope,” said Kathryn Teague, a 19-year-old who has taken a year off from Keene State College to work in the campaign.

There is no longer any doubt that the Obama phenomenon is real. Mr. Obama’s message of hope, healing and change, discounted as fanciful and naïve by skeptics, drew Iowans into the frigid night air by the tens of thousands on Thursday to stand with a man who is not just running for president, but trying to build a new type of political movement.

By midnight, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd had been chased from the race; John Edwards was all but literally on his knees; and the Clintons were trying, for the umpteenth time, to figure out how to remake themselves as the comeback kids.

Shake hands with tomorrow. It’s here.

Senator Obama’s victory speech was a concise oratorical gem. No candidate in either party can move an audience like he can. He characterized his stunning victory as an affirmation of “the most American of ideas — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/opinion/05herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

[BeyondGeography]

1. Nice read

:thumbsup:

[Mythsaje]

2. Okay. So...change it into WHAT? eom

[143tbone]

3. What's with the last line in that article.

Why did the author choose to make THAT correction at the end of THAT article.

[KoKo]

5. That is extremely creepy.....why would Herbert put something like that

at the end of his article. ugh..

[Jim Sagle]

4. Hot air.

:boring:

[TwilightGardener]

6. Wonderful article, and he's right--Obama appeals to the best in us, instead of our fears, our

prejudices, or our anger.

[krabigirl]

9. ? I don't see it. Sorry.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. hop on the freight train or get run over by it

[krabigirl]

8. LOL, drink the kool-aid...

[Adelante]

10. Obama underestimated as a candidate

I think this is so true. The Clinton machine hasn't mown him down because he is a stronger candidate than they ever guessed.

But for all the talk of change, it’s just one of the factors driving the Obama phenomenon. The simple truth is that hardly anyone — in politics, in the news media or anywhere else — realized what an extraordinary candidate Senator Obama would turn out to be.

He’s smart, hard-working, charismatic, good-looking and a whiz at fund-raising.

He has an incandescent smile, but it’s not frozen in place. He seems authentic. When he laughs, you have the feeling it’s because something is funny.

People are lining up to believe in him. He has the easy demeanor (in a long, lanky frame) of someone who’s comfortable with himself. Even when he fires up a crowd, he doesn’t get too hot. He has the cadences that remind you of King but the cool that reminds you of Kennedy — John, not Robert.

[kurth]

11. AND his shit doesn't smell

The guy is a walking miracle.

[Adelante]

12. His shit smells like anybody else's

I imagine.

[silverweb]

13. Very nice piece.

:thumbsup:


GObama!

[K Gardner]

14. Edwards came in 2nd and he was "literally on his knees"?? Puleeze.. good article

but for christ's sake.