NYT
Derry, N.H.
Some of the people who showed up early to stand in the long line outside the field house of the Pinkerton Academy would end up waiting more than three hours to see the candidate. Barack Obama was running late, held back by huge and enthusiastic crowds at earlier events. Even people who were not planning to vote for him wanted to see him.
When he finally arrived and took the stage, Mr. Obama told the audience, to boisterous cheers: “There’s something going on out there. Something’s stirring in the wind.”
The past week has been a bad one for cynics. For all the criticism of the presidential election process — that it lasts too long, that the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary have too much influence, that the news media’s coverage is too much about the horse race, and so on — for all that, the early stages of this presidential race have been both compelling and heartening.
Voters are excited about this election. They have trudged through snow and frigid air in enormous numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire to see and hear and question the candidates. And most of the candidates are working incredibly hard, fighting their way through exhaustion to attend the next rally or town hall meeting or community breakfast or debate.
What is being fashioned in this process is nothing less than the face of early 21st century America.
Debra Gable and Bill Laprade told me during a chat in a Dunkin’ Donuts here that they had driven from Barre Town in central Vermont to get a closer look at Mr. Obama, Senator Hillary Clinton and maybe Senator John McCain.
Mr. Laprade, who described himself as conservative, quietly expressed his disenchantment with President Bush and said Mr. McCain “sounded sincere and genuine.”
Ms. Gable said she liked Senator McCain as well, but she was leaning toward Senator Obama. “I dislike politics,” she said, “because we focus on our differences even though we have so many more commonalities. That’s what I think I’m hearing from Obama, so I want to see how he is in person.”
No one knows whether Senator Obama can sustain his remarkable quest, or whether Senator Clinton can untangle the snags that have hobbled her campaign, or whether Senator McCain can resurrect a candidacy that not too long ago was pronounced dead.
But something new, not just in American politics but in the society as a whole, is undoubtedly emerging. The change is already under way. It would not have been possible to imagine even just a few years ago that a black man could come out of Iowa (and maybe New Hampshire) leading the charge toward the Democratic presidential nomination.
There are plenty of racists still lurking among us, and they’ll no doubt be agitated by the Obama phenomenon. But it would be hard for anyone to make the case that the U.S. as whole has not become less racially prejudiced over the past several years. Implicit in Mr. Obama’s message of healing and reconciliation is the promise of further progress on this once intractable front.
Senator Clinton’s candidacy is also historic — and emblematic of change. Misogyny still permeates most aspects of society, but there aren’t many people willing to step up and make the case that a woman cannot lead the nation.
If there is a theme running through the nominating process of both parties, it’s the idea that voters are fed up with the con, with the phony, plastic, programmed politicians who are obsessed with power and contemptuous of the real concerns of ordinary men and women.
I think it’s interesting that the people crying out for a new kind of politics are not the down-and-outers, but are educated, middle-class Americans who in some sense understand that they’ve been sold a bill of goods.
They see the value of their homes decreasing and their personal indebtedness climbing to new heights. They know how much it costs to send a son or daughter to college. They are tired of the war in Iraq and concerned about America’s standing in the world. And they are worried that the American dream that has sustained so many generations for so long won’t be there for their children and grandchildren.
When Barack Obama asks how many people in his overflow audience are still undecided and a third of the people raise their hands, it’s a sign that there is a hunger for new leadership but that it won’t be easily satisfied.
Something is stirring all right. Voters are paying attention. Young people are coming into the process. The electorate is fed up and ready to invoke the prerogatives of citizenship to hold the leadership to higher standards.
The textbooks tell us that’s exactly how it’s supposed to work.
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