Good Men
I’ve had this in my head for a while, since I started getting nasty emails about this post. And I’ve been trying to write down my rationale coherently, and giving up. But now other people are talking about it, so let me try to say this in as non-condescending a way (to either side) as possible…
Obama strikes me as the kind of man who’s never had any real friends. Real friends. Where you sit up until 4am laughing about old times and bad dates and embarrassing memories, and telling goofy or overly-complicated jokes, and trying to go home but getting caught up in one last thing, and just maybe drinking too much. And then you laugh about that night, years later.
We never see pictures of him subtitled “Barack Obama laughs with his lifelong friend, Joe Schmoe.”
(And, correlatively, that’s why he thinks this is funny. Because he doesn’t have any frame of reference.)
And I don’t mean that as negative against him. He spent his childhood abroad, moved around a lot, and he’s pretty nerdy. It’s hard to make real, lasting friendships when you live like that. I can tell you from experience. And it’s lonely.
So he accepted the “friendship” of people who used him, and he ended up with jerks and losers and thugs as his entourage. There are times in your life when that’s better than being alone, trust me. But you do outgrow it, when you find a real friend.
I’m not making excuses for him. He could have ignored his ambitions, and made friends with other hilarious and awesome nerdy people. Ahem. People with no ulterior motives.
But I don’t think that his bad judgment necessarily makes him a bad person.
He clearly adores and respects his wife, and worships his kids. He’s obviously a workaholic, which, as an objectivist, gives him a point or two from me. And I believe that he loves this country — the people, if not the recent administration(s) — even though he has a patently retarded way of showing it. And, you know, he isn’t as in touch with his sappy, doofus side as I am, about it.
Yes, he’s apparently at least a theoretical socialist. And you will never see me defending higher taxes or rewarding suckers of the welfare teat with the benefits of my hard work. Ever.
But painfully naive ideals do not preclude being a good man.
My grandfather was a socialist, and he was a very, very good man.
I could easily be proven wrong in January, and I’ll have no hesitation in admitting it, if that happens. But I have to give him the benefit of the doubt, at least until he gives me good reason to take it away. Because that’s who I am.
In the meantime, if you’re one of those praying types, please send one out that he finds a real friend in someone sensible like Petraeus.
That’s probably too much to ask, actually. Let’s go with Lieberman.
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By Matt, November 6, 2008 @ 11:34 pm
Not to sound like a suck-up, but this is a really great post. It nails one of the things I’ve felt about the people we’ve had to choose from over the past 20 years. Clinton was the same way and I kind of got that vibe from GWB, as well.
I think a big part of it is spending most of your adulthood focusing on the political ends rather than just life. Other than my best friend, who I grew up with, pretty much my entire little circle consists of people I’ve met through work. Not having ever had an actual job that you stayed at more than a year or two would make that a little tougher.
By Mark Alger, November 7, 2008 @ 9:22 am
I think/wonder/suspect/imagine it might be good to decouple the idea of a man’s position on the goodness/evilness spectrum from his value or import in the political arena.
Obama might be a good — albeit stunted — man. But his political policy prescriptions are dangerous for the nation. Hell: for the world.
Worse: the associates he brings along with him are vicious, vituperative, and virulent — poisonous individuals who promise to heterodyne with Obama’s principles, again to society’s detriment.
Still, they are probably good me. Or, at least, nice guys. Das stimmt nichts.
M
By radix, November 7, 2008 @ 9:44 am
This is where the media’s failure leaves us: we have no idea who Obama really is. However, he now has to start making decisions and you can now judge him by his actions:
1) cabinet appointments already starting (interesting that his first pick is a former member of the Daley machine)
2) his first budget
I am going to suspend my better judgement and hope for the best. It would be tragic for everyone if the partisan thermometer is found to have even higher ranges after the spiral we’ve been in for the last sixteen years.
By og, November 7, 2008 @ 10:49 am
I work in Illinois. I have been watching the senator’s career for some time now.
He is not a good man. He loves his wife and children. What man, no matter how evil, does not? he may have been a decent man once, but he is tarnished by association with his horrible, horrible masters. I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but I will not be surprised when he delivers the evil of which I know he is capable.