Wait a second, you say, after hearing it breathlessly reported in today's news that Barack Obama is running for president. Didn't you just hear about that? Like maybe in the middle of January?
Today's New York Times explains the whole media-age insanity of why candidates go through all these steps. The number one reason, of course, is that they can. In a media saturated world, where news organizations need to feed the beast constantly, it all works for them too, giving them one more thing to cover. Candidates get publicity they don't have to pay for. Everybody wins, supposedly. Still, it does seem a little hypocritical of the networks, which refuse to give nominating conventions gavel-to-gavel coverage anymore because nothing is happening, that they still fall all over themselves to cover the stutter-steps in our candidate's political lives.
Based on this bizarre logic, Hillary Clinton is not officially a candidate...yet. No, Hillary has formed an exploratory committee and despite saying, "I'm in and I'm in it to win" she is really only having a conversation with the American people.
Putting all this posturing aside though, there is something awfully damn compelling about Barack Obama. In his "Announcement 2.0" today, he invoked two presidents. The first was Abraham Lincoln (another gangly, tall Illinois lawyer) who he mentioned directly and repeatedly and the other was John F. Kennedy by inference (who also wanted the torch passed to a new generation).
Anything could happen in the days and months ahead but I have a couple of observations about these Democratic front-runners. Barack Obama speaks to people, directly, like he's really having a conversation. Hillary, despite saying she's having one, just doesn't wear well and I doubt hearing her day-after-day is going to make her more likeable by next year's primaries. Let's give it the dinner guest test. For me, that's easy. If Obama wants to come on over, I'll cook up something nice and open an expensive bottle of wine.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Let's flash forward a year from now. This is my image of the Hillary Clinton candidacy:
{Barack Obama illustration by Zach Trenholm of Salon. Sinkhole photographer unknow - write me if you know}
