The Pachyderm Post

I listened to a caller on CSPAN this evening, who has been in general supportive of Barack Obama and his possible Presidential candidacy. He’s had doubts, however, about Obama’s realistic chances to be elected.

The caller’s doubts were dissolved today as he saw the sea of people of all sorts who filled a gigantic space in Springfield, Illinois to hear Obama enter the race.

The 17,000 or so faces and voices were stunning to see and hear. The scene was more like a party nominee’s late October election year rally than an announcement almost two years before. And the wind chill factor was five degrees fahrenheit.

In the midst of this massiveness, it was details that told the tale:

The bodyguards, who seemed particularly vigilant, perhaps sensitive to the grim reality that there has not been a presidential campaign with such potential for political violence since that of Bobby Kennedy.

The family…impossibly right for the White House…all waving like practiced professionals, including the little girls…as if they know.

Goodness, they’ll give John Edwards a run for the money in the photogenic family race.

And, speaking of family, think about Mrs. Obama. Michelle’s poise and beauty (and the hairstyle on their website) remind me of Jackie. Her intelligence and professional accomplishment remind me of Hillary.

Those who hesitate to deny the country its first woman President by voting for Obama may come to believe that Michelle could do what Jackie and Hillary might have done, if they could have been genetically fused: captivate the country and then lead it too.

There were many more such details, but the one that transfixed me (and perhaps the CSPAN caller as well) were the Two Women.

Two apparently completely average, “Middle American” white women stood with each other and proudly held portraits of Obama.

I have not seen a display of affection and pride for a politician since I last saw pictures of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King on the mantels of similar women of a generation before.

When have you last seen such a display?

And they were far from the only ones. Others included men and families with images of the candidate held aloft.

I do not believe that these were political functionaries, and though the campaign may have provided the pictures (I simply don’t know), nothing could make attendees at such a political rally hold such images aloft other than unabashed affection for and belief in the candidate.

These women aren’t Emma Goldman and Rosa Luxemburg, revolutionaries of another era.

They are Laverne and Shirley.

They are factory workers in one context; soccer moms in another; revolutionaries of today, empowered as such by the mere ability to support and vote for Barack Obama.

Or at least they seem to be, which is most of what matters to observers of this incredible scene.

Look at that picture again.

Look at their faces.

Obama can win.

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