I've lamented the mania surrounding Obama but never really figured he would win so "all" seems a bit sweeping. I imagine others who were made uncomfortable by Obama-mania and publicly stated as much may also have assumed he was going to lose.
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Apologies for the over-post.
The way this debate is proceeding - with Charles B. repeating his assertion that those of us who're concerned about Obama needn't worry because he doesn't have a rabbit's chance on Mars of winning - has made me itchy.
John, you are absolutely right: the best, the most carefully considered critiques of Obama aren't at all fixated on the theorized effects of an imagined BHO presidency. Rather, they're focused on the effects his campaign is having, right now, on progressive politics.
Here is the post I wrote on this topic, "Obama-mania, where is the true danger?" -
<http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20080107/000587.html>
In that post I heavily quote Black Agenda Report's Glen Ford who, in an interview with Doug said:
...why it is so important to understand that this not just an intra-black affair - that is very important to those of us who are black and care first and foremost about the health of the black polity. But if the black polity descends into incoherence - and this is already happening and Barack Obama has not yet won a primary [stated before Iowa: .d.] - but it is already underway. If committed, life long activists like Charles Barron can be paralyzed, put into a kind of comatose stupor just by the presence of this corporate funded black candidate then we are in real trouble. And if the black polity becomes fractured or just paralyzed then there really is no hope for anything resembling a progressive movement in the United States.
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The point here is that the Obama machine's glowing meme cloud of floating hopes, undefined change, post-engagement with racism and bi-partisanship as The Answer (with a good dollop of nationalism added) creates an ersatz progressivism which many real progressives are eagerly buying at the expense of their hard won common sense.
This is an issue because, win or lose (and let's just assume lose), the O machine isn't going away. Capital friendly change-ism - perhaps the first great conquest of left politics, such as they are, of the still young 21st century, will be with us from now on, working its smile inducing magic.
.d.