Debating the Campaign (cont'd)

In case my readers haven't seen it, I commend David Brooks' column today, Why Experience Matters.

It really struck a chord with me, and I think actually goes some way toward explaining my support for Obama. He says,"Conservatism was once a frankly elitist movement. "Conservatives stood against radical egalitarianism and the destruction of rigorous standards. They stood up for classical education, hard-earned knowledge, experience and prudence. Wisdom was acquired through immersion in the best that has been thought and said." Well, that's what I stood and stand for (or against), although I might be a little soft on "radical egalitarianism." I don't think I'm radical anything, unfortunately.

What we have had for the last eight years is a kind of neo-Know-Nothingism, at least in the Oval Office, which has brought us to a crisis in governance -- a totally consumer-driven economy that is finally near collapse, a foreign policy that has morphed us into a global pariah -- and I could go on.

Against this, Barack Obama presents a thoughtful leadership that demonstrates to me his "immersion in the best that has been thought and said." At the same time, he has had a life experience that few of us WASPs would trade for (is this just white guilt on my part?), and has the kind of experience that the Founders would have saluted -- from community organization to State legislature to the Senate. I you're interested in his resume, you can find it at Barack Obama's Résumé.

Brooks goes on to say, "The elitists favor sophistication, but the common-sense folk favor simplicity. The elitists favor deliberation, but the populists favor instinct." OK, I'm an elitist. We live in a complex world, and we need leaders who understand that complexity, and can articulate it to the nation.

Anyway, I suspect Brooks shares many of the doubts my readers do about Obama. God knows, I have my doubts too. It is, however, impossible to deny that he has performed an extraordinary feat merely to have gotten this far. At the moment, it appears he's bucking some headwinds. How he gets though this patch will say a lot about his fitness. Maybe I'm bedazzled by the historic watershed his candidacy represents, but I do believe he's the best we have at this moment. I could get negative about John McCain, for whom I always had great respect, until he picked Sarah Palin in a grossly cynical moment and embarked on a dirty, Rovian campaign that makes me long for November 5.