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Highlands Today

Support Him Or Not, Obama Has Made This Election Interesting

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Highlands Today Staff

Published: May 22, 2008

Even Hillary Clinton critics are feeling a bit sorry for her these days. Barack Obama has moved on, and so has the campaign for the presidency. Recall a year ago when most people thought it would be the Republicans who would still be struggling to find a candidate and Hillary would be standing tall, waiting for her next foe. Things change a lot in a year.

Obama has all but won, even if he technically hasn't wrapped up the Democratic nomination. He will, and there's little hope for Clinton. Where did it all go wrong? Most people agree that Clinton got waylaid by an Illinois twister.

Few times in United States history has a political dynamo entered the scene. It happened when Abraham Lincoln ran for office, and again when John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert ran for the presidency. Since then, it's been fairly quiet.

Ross Perot looked like he might catch fire back in the early 1990s, but he fizzled instead. No other presidential candidates have become rock stars like Obama, and whether you support him or someone else, he's a fresh voice on the political scene.

Not since Robert Kennedy have so many people poured into auditoriums to hear a candidate speak. His supporters get weak in the knees hearing him eloquently make his case for change. Even his critics give him grudging respect.

Republicans have been hoping for Clinton to win because they know the difficulties of their candidate beating Obama in November. McCain isn't the same reform candidate he was when he ran against George W. Bush and he's a lot older these days. He's a good man, but he's got his hands full energizing the Republican base and not scaring off a lot of Americans who reject what the Republican base has been selling for many years.

It's a long time until November, and a lot can happen, but the Reverend Wright fiasco happened at the best possible time for Barack, if there is such a thing for in a political race. Now Obama's been inoculated against it because it's old news. Sure, it will be brought up, but it won't put a dent in the final result.

Support him or not, it's fun to see something new and exciting in politics. We usually get the same old politicians saying the same old things. Look where that's gotten us.

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