Invasion 2008

The 1957 or so "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" has spawned whole generations of imitators, among them my favorite series, cancelled, wail, wail, rent clothing. I never, however, expected to see it happening among the ranks of my favorite bloggers. At least two people, whom I respect, have recently heaped encomiums on Obama. I have two choices here: I can assume they've become pod people, Obamasans, or I can think about their words. Okay, so I try to be rational...

won't work.

I am a child of the sixties, whether I like it or not, that means I am a late boomer by birth and a cynic by avocation. I cannot help but look behind the sweetness and light of this Kennedyesque phenomenon and ask where's the rub. First, I think to myself, look what happened with Kennedy, who to my mind is the person most responsible for the combined misery of the Cuban people for the past five decades, after fifo, of course. But that's not fair. Obama is Obama. At this point, he doesn't even have much of a record I can judge. Given the record of some, that's not a bad thing. Although there is that clip showing him decrying the embargo. He is now for it. I can find it in myself to be charitable and figure now that he's running for president, he's learned more about the situation; I can put aside the suspicion that he's pandering for Cuban American votes.

Okay, debate performances.....that's where he lost me. There was an incredible naiveté in his response that he would sit down with some of the worst oppressors in the world, as if they were going to see the light, and we would all end up singing kumbaya. Okay, okay, maybe I half think it wouldn't hurt to make nice noises as long as we hold fast to our principles. And what does he want to do about Iraq? We say "Oops! shouldn'ta done that. We invaded your country, caused huge bloodshed, promised to establish democracy, lost countless beautiful American lives, and now we're going home because we can better use the money to fund healthcare for the children of people who make $81,000 dollars a year. Besides, when we leave the terrorists will be so grateful to us for leaving that they won't turn their attention to killing us in the homeland. So Sayonara, better luck next time. Iran, hope you appreciate our leaving the spoils for you."

I can reach out to my brethren, this much, Obama in a Reaganesque way reaches out, transcends the nitty gritty of policy differences. In short, he has the personality and charisma of a leader But is this really a time and place when we want to take a chance? On the job training doesn't seem to work too well in the White House. I may be wrong; I've been known to be before. I hope I am. I just can't get past the feeling that in Obama you're buying a pig in a poke. And I'd kinda like to know what's in there.