The Morning After

Like many Americans I feel a sense of frustration, sadness and yes, even some anger over the election results last night. While I recognize the "historic" nature of Obama's victory, unlike many I am not really all that moved by the event -- the first black to be elected president. I have never thought that race was a big issue in the country today, and I long ago accepted blacks as equals. While I understand the history of slavery and racism, I believe that we moved past that decades ago; I never accepted the media's view of America as a "racist" nation, and always discounted the notion that race would have an impact on this election in negative terms.

In the end, race did play a role in the election -- but it clearly worked in Obama's favor: it won him the election. There is no doubt that Geraldine Ferraro was correct when she said that Obama's rise and victory over Hillary Clinton in the primaries was largely due to the color of his skin. Without it, he'd have been just another radical Chicago politician still sitting in the Illinois State Senate. Obama being black has much to do with his winning last night. If that's racism (and in some ways it is), I'm sure the left won't be complaining about it any time soon.

Of course, it would have been difficult for any Republican to win yesterday. The Republican brand is now toxic -- associated with graft and pork and the massive downturn in the economy that has wiped trillions from 401k balance sheets across the nation. It matters little that the facts show Democrats to be as (or more) culpable on all these issues. It only matters that a media bent on an Obama victory used its bias to make a powerful case that Republicans are the party of greed. This was a narrative that McCain -- to his detriment -- stepped right into, calling Wall Street "greedy" and talking about the scourge of "predatory lenders" as the root of the problem.

Making matters even worse, tn the wake of the financial crisis, McCain's campaign talking points were virtually indistinguishable from that of his opponent. Rather than reinforce a philosophical opposition to the tax-payer bank bailout that would have given voters a choice on the issue, McCain backed the same rescue plan that Obama did. And when you put into the mix McCain's antics of "suspending his campaign" when it was clear he didn't have a path to fix the problem, he just looked anxious and uncertain. Not good if you are marketing yourself as the candidate of experience and substance.

Last night in my post I discussed some of the feedback from voters garnered in the exit polls in key states. What I took from the results was that this election does not mark a fundamental realignment in our politics from "center-right" to "center-left". It was, to be sure, a bad night for Republicans -- coming off an equally bad night in 2006. Taken together, the Republicans lost over 50 House Seats and 1o Senate seats in those two elections. But both 2006 and 2008 amount to a massive, sustained repudiation of the Bush presidency -- not an overwhelming validation of Barack Obama and what he stands for. This election (and in 2006) was in my view a protest election of the last four years of the Bush presidency.

It is thus no surprise, then, that voters chose the "anti-Bush" on the ballot. Try as he might, John McCain was not able to shake off the Bush brand, and his poor communication and rhetorical skills only made him seem more like the current president. One of the reason voters were so taken by Obama's speeches and rhetorical flourishes is that they have been numbed by Bush's total inability to communicate his ideas and policies effectively. Voters want a president who can speak like John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. Obama beat McCain on this score by a massive margin.

And he beat McCain by seeming to embrace and understand "nuance" -- that slick concept the left embraces because it makes it possible to squirm out of having to take a hard stand on the issues. George Bush was famous for his lack of nuance -- his "with us or against us" mentality, and his willingness to go to the mat to embrace principle over popularity. Many of us have long valued Bush's certitude and clarity on core issues like Iraq and the war on terror, and supported McCain principally because we saw a similar courage of conviction. But we were clearly in the minority; most voters last night understood the value of McCain's experience and judgment, but discounted its importance in favor of the well-spoken guy who might do a better job on the economy. My feeling has always been that if a terrorist detonates a nuclear device in the middle of Manhattan the economy is a moot issue. Obviously, most people don't see it that way.

Barack Obama is now to be our 44th president. It is a day I have long feared, because we know very little about what Obama truly believes. The American people have taken a huge leap of hope and faith, electing an unknown, inexperienced 47 year old man in a time of war. It is incomprehensible to me that this has happened.

But it has. I awoke this morning after to find that it hadn't been all just a bad dream. Now we will see if the bad dream turns into full-fledged nightmare.