The Allure of Mystery

Obama has been consistently labeled as dangerous and unknown by the McCain campaign. They, I believe, seek to play on the Bradley effect and hope that a phrase like “thief in the night” and constant bombardment of xenophobic associations will arise subconsciously in November 4th.

This may work.

But to me, examined with full conscious intent, this only heightens my anticipation of a potential Obama presidency. You see I have recently been wary that rather than a van guard politician bringing youth and change to a nation, Obama was in fact what he so often seems: a gifted, if bland, politician recently converted to rank and file Washington politics. But the more I am told of Ayers the more I see potential in Obama. Ayers is interesting not as someone who founded the Weather Underground (of which I know exceedingly little), but rather as a leftist academic who attempts to achieve change in a huge urban education system. If Obama indeed is influenced by these views (rather than those of, say, say the republican president of Northwestern), then I think there is a great potential for significant and monumental change in this country.

And we have recently been given abundant verdict on the failure of our current, in a very large sense, direction.