> I believe that leaves you with, uh, "hope" ...
IMO, it's slightly better than "hope" -- it's hope in the face of a significant increase in the level of consciousness and political involvement of crowds previously not engaged thusly -- especially the younger generation of the working class and Blacks. (By the way, if my radar is any good, I also anticipate Latinos to *strongly* support Obama in November.)
This is not to underestimate the element of risk involved. Obama is not well tested. And all the minuses that have been pointed out here with more than due emphasis are real. Now, it seems to me that we place the cart ahead of the donkey when we expect something better than "hope" to pop up before we get involved. (Again, involvement here doesn't preclude involvment in propaganda work or in the ruthless criticism of all that exists.) But miracles are rare by definition. What's the downside of getting involved and supporting Obama? Mass disappointment? How's that worse than paralysis? From where we are now, how can we minimize the risk? We can't, in advance. We can only minimize it by getting involved. IMO.