I'd stopped thinking I would be right after all

Way back in the winter/spring of 08, I could be found arguing in the comments sections of Ezra Klein or Matt Yglesias on Obama's behalf, arguing that he would do better than Hillary at uniting centrist Americans while at the same time isolating and revealing the far right in their extremist views. I subscribe to the theory of America known as the 30% crazification factor: the percentage of Americans who STILL support Bush after he did his darndest to bring on the End of Times. To my powers of prognostication, Obama looked like the safe bet because he looked so damned presidential all the time but would drive this 30% crazy, making the non-crazy conservatives question the drooling neanderthals they were sharing the party with and thus delivering a Democratic victory.

Well that was before Reverend Wright came out. And then the polls stayed close and McCain actually took the lead in September. At that point I was thinking, man I like Obama but maybe we should have played it safe and gone with a white male, or at least the well known if not well liked white female.

But now Obama-as-uniter is looking likely again. And if you watch TV you are likely to see a republican yelling "terrorist" or holding an "obama bin lyin" sign or praying for God to prove he's bigger than Obama's god or something. It reminds me of something I heard recently about how TV played a huge role in shifting public opinion during the 60s civil rights struggles. People all over America sat in their living rooms and saw cops in Alabama turning fire hoses on peaceful black protesters, beating them in the streets. And maybe the same thing is starting to happen today. The same intolerance is being revealed on live TV. The people who for years have called themselves the "real" americans and held themselves up as paragons of virtue are being revealed as the cheap liars and crazies they have turned into. I know I keep harping on the state of the conservative movement, but its really fascinating the speed at which it they have fallen from rulers of the universe down to being nudged unceremoniously into the bin of bankrupt ideologies. The dissonance between Obama's undeniably reasonable personality and his exotically scary name exploded simple minds, and goaded conservatives into positions and statements and beliefs that uncovered their ridiculousness to everyone but their shrinking pool of fellow inmates. And it has separated the wheat from the chaf, forcing the smart conservatives and honest christians to step forward and decry the direction of the GOP.

And I don't think anyone could have done it but Obama, with an assist from the happy accidents (or not?) that brought a person with his unique attributes to this moment in history.