"Barack's candidacy is building a new coalition in American politics"

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7959920?nclick_check=1">Herhold: Political pros find Obama remarkable
By Scott Herhold
Mercury News
Article Launched: 01/13/2008 02:16:43 AM PST


They were three years apart at Bellarmine College Prep, and but for the lure of politics, Jude Barry and Tony West might not have talked with each other too much. When Barry was student body president, West was co-president of the freshman class with Barry's brother, Patrick.

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What's more, Barry and West are political pros. They understand the compromises of politics. They understand the opportunities, too. Barry is a strategist for the 49ers in Santa Clara, and West is the brother-in-law of San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.

Yet you sense something different when they describe Obama. This is someone who moves them like no one else they've worked for.

"In New Hampshire, I almost got goose bumps," West told me. "I got the real sense that something incredible is going on, that Barack's candidacy is building a new coalition in American politics."

West told me the story of stopping at the Country Inn in Sunapee, N.H., with his daughter, Meena. In the next booth were three older Republican ladies, one a registrar, who were immersed in the machinery of the election. When the ladies learned the Wests were there for Obama, they talked about their choices, but added of Obama: "But we all like him."

Tips for Obama

At one lunch stop, Barry told me, a young Obama backer tried to persuade a waitress to take off work to vote for her man. The Obama booster even offered to work the waitress's shift - and give her all the tips.

"When was the last time you saw this kind of enthusiasm from young people when there wasn't a draft?" Barry asked me.

I had to think. Certainly Howard Dean benefited from youthful anti-war sentiment in 2004. And among my baby-boomer generation, there was satisfaction when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992. But like this?

West and Barry are partisans. You can take what they say with some salt. But I think the two old student leaders are on to something. With his appeal to unity and to youth - and yes, with his ease with words - Obama defies ordinary divisions. That isn't a platform for governing. But it's an inspiration that leaves even the pros with shivers of excitement.

I am a baby boomer straggler and I can understand that my generation up to the Clintons age need to get out of the way. We've left things a mess on both sides of the political spectrum.

of advocacy for all the human right's issues and have the scars to show for it. You know who I mean, the ones who sacrificed so Obama could be in this race. Time for us to go.

:thumbsup:

ready to turn the page. This week has shown us the gen Xers may not
quite be ready. smart, good potential, but do not try to turn the pag
too soon.

Obama will accomplish a lot in Washington, but the hope and inspiration that he gives Americans to work together to make this country a better place will accomplish much more. We're a "bootstraps" country. If we believe in our country, we'll make it, no matter what Washington does.

This article highlights that. Thanks for posting it.

Of course they do. It means they don't have to THINK.