Primary Place Online

I got a call early in the week inviting me to see Obama in Rochester.  Even though all the schools were closed around here, I got a call mid-day from the campaign to let me know the event was still on.  So, I braved the bad roads, and came out. 

There was a surprisingly large crowd, and as with many of these events, the candidate was over an hour late.  That gave me a chance to talk to the man next to me, a self-described "recovering Republican" who has been driven into the Democratic Party by the current administration. I thought it was interesting that this man has been a life-long resident of NH and yet this is the first campaign even he has ever attended.  What is it about this candidate that drew him?

I've seen all three of the top Democratic candidates now (and also Kucinich and Romney), and what struck me about Obabama is the ease with which he carries himself in front of an audience.  He seems completely at home--not to be performing, but just being himself.  He also has a wonderful sense of humor.  He told little stories and cracked jokes with a comedian's sense of timing, and really charmed the audience. 

I got less of a clear sense of where precisely he stands on the issues and what his priorities would be than I did from Hillary and Edwards.  The contrast between Obama and Edwards is interesting to me.  Obama wants to be a unifier, the president of all the people who breaks down the divide between red and blue America.  Edwards sees politics as inherently and unavoidablly adversarial.  If you are going to promote policies beneficial to the working and middle classes, you will come up against the privileged classes and the special interests.  Obama tries to smooth over such conflicts and to offer leadership that would bring all Americans together, to come up with policies that will benefit the nation as a whole. 

Part of me thinks this is just the kind of leadership we need, as the antidote to the polarization we've seen in recent years.  He reminds me of Abraham Lincoln, who also tried to bring the country together, and spoke of reconciliation across a bitter divide.  Yet he was not willing to abandon his anti-slavery principles and so he couldn't avoid a Civil War.  My question about Obama is this:  what are the bedrock principles that he will stand up for and refuse to abandon even if it means that it prevents him from bringing blue and red America together or if it turns the business community against him?  I would really like him to answer an entry on this site by a woman named Anita, who lives in the trailer park and pays $500 a month in out-of pocket expenses for her son's medication.  Can he pledge to her that his health care reform will solve her problem--even if it means incurring the wrath of the insurance industry? 

If he can't answer that, then I'd be more inclined to go with Edwards, because he is very clear in saying that he would take the side of middle and working-class Americans against corporations and special interests.  I'm still undecided, though, and I haven't ruled out Clinton, either. I think this is the strongest Democratic field we've had since I've been voting.