dagblog - Comments for "Did the Power of Positive Thinking Get President Obama Elected?"

Oh, I've got righteous anger

Orlando — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:41:50 +0000

Oh, I've got righteous anger this week, stilli. But I'm trying to channel it into productive discussion. We'll see how long that can last.

Very nice post, O. I post

stillidealistic — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:22:24 +0000

In reply to Did the Power of Positive Thinking Get President Obama Elected?

Very nice post, O. I post under the moniker "Stillidealistic" because of Obama. Like you, I had become jaded. Not so much because life has smacked me around...life has actually been pretty darn good to me. My jadedness came from the years and years of watching the "Republicrats" put their parties and their own well-being (read: pocketbooks) first, and totally ignoring what is good for the country.

Obama blew on the smoldering ember of idealism still buried beneath the ashes in my heart, and I am changed. Not in the "hey, I just found Jesus" kinda change, but the kind that let's me get up in the morning feeling like maybe we, as a country, will get through this mess in a better place than we have been in decades.

I came over here to dagblog hoping to see a post from you on hating the &^%$#@$%^&* Republicans, but I'm glad I found this instead.

However, I'm still waiting for that post. If you can't do it here, come on back over to the potty mouth place and let 'er rip! It will be cathartic for all of us!

Orlando, I enjoy this

AM — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 20:50:38 +0000

In reply to Did the Power of Positive Thinking Get President Obama Elected?

Orlando, I enjoy this post.... It is hard to grasp just how we got here. Just when economics, politics, war, faith in the world and people and leadership seemed to be in an inevitable downward spiral here comes along a man that says No. It's a bit of a gamble... because he was counting on us to make his words true. I don't think he was worried though. It feels good to have someone believe in you. And it helps to believe in them back. He played on our egos by telling us we were powerful. He was smart enough to know we really were.

On Tuesday I found something on a larger scale that was familiar to me from all my Obama volunteering... this feeling that we had to be good because we are being watched. During our 3 and a half hours in the "blue" line my friend and I started to say "we are being graded on this" because we felt the world was watching. Everyone in my section was smiling and laughing as they helped pass money through the crowd to the "hand warmer lady" so that she could pass back the hand warmer. LIke we had just invented a game called "society working together." There was this strange undertone of "oh, look at us, we are not criminals!"

I think the Kool-Aid accusations have only added to the whole phenomenon. Nobody wants to be exposed as a fraud. It was a difficult weekend but overwhelmingly people reacted at their best, not their worst. But it is so much more than fear of looking bad in the eyes of the world. It's peer pressure of the best kind. If you speak out on the side of what's right and you are joined with many other voices around you... wow! The next time you are going to do it again. People genuinelly want to be hopeful and good to one another. They want to be active and responsible. He heard that and put it into words and just wouldn't let us forget it. And now we are not going to let him forget it.