The Magic Negro sells the centuries-old vision of collective ascendancy:
Barack Obama gives his folks the ecstatic experience. “They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose,” he told them Thursday night, creating a patriotic lump in every throat in the room.
The interesting thing about Obama is the huge gap that lies between how he is perceived and the policy positions he actually advocates. I’ve seen several references to his being “anti-war”, when he is actually more overtly pro-war than Hillary Clinton. One would assume that Team Clinton will exploit this gap sooner rather than later, but instead, Hillary appears to be rambling on about “change” herself.
I have to admit, I would find it tremendously amusing if the bipartisan ruling party’s two candidates, Clinton and Giuliani, both proved to be so inept that they couldn’t even make it to the main event. The past history of post-Iowa fades, however, make this an extremely unlikely prospect. Mitt Romney has learned that organization isn’t everything, but then, one should not leap to the opposite conclusion and assume that it is nothing either.