The Unity Thing

I guess I have to comment on the Obama-Clinton campaign event in Unity, NH. I'm not near a TV and I didn't see the show but I'm sure this is consuming the punditocracy today.

I don't have a lot to say about it other than the fact that this was going to be the obvious conclusion from the very beginning of the primary. Many teeth were gnashed by bloggers and pundits alike that somehow these two hate each other, that they'd never come together, that "the gloves are off" and it's war and blah blah fucking blah. It just wasn't true, and today kind of cinches that. The personality-driven politics practiced through the media demands conflict. It sells papers and puts eyeballs in front of the set. But the conflict is not between two centrist Democrats with almost identical policy platforms. That was a media creation.

That the blogosphere, in many respects, bought into this is pretty depressing but also inevitable. They by and large venerated Obama and vilified Clinton rather than exploring preferences. Every media-generated outrage was outrageous, every show of body language a sign. It was ludicrous. I'm glad that things are coming back to Earth now, although Obama's support of the FISA bill is not the best way for that realization to happen in my view.

As for the future, I hope that bloggers and blog readers understand, and I think they now do, that the movement is more important than any individual candidate, and that our job BEGINS the day after Election Day. Holding Obama accountable and making ourselves known is going to be a great challenge. It's very encouraging that some supporters are using Obama's own social networking tools to express their disappointment with his stance on FISA. They've created a group on My.BarackObama.com called Senator Obama - Please Vote Against FISA that has over 800 members in just under a day. The comments people are leaving are impassioned and thoughtful. Others are creating events designed to get petitions signed at Unite For Change events this weekend to ask Obama to change his vote. If Obama truly wants to open up government and have change come from the bottom up, he'll listen to these voices.