Here's a link to the video.
And here's the text of a comment I posted:
In your analysis of Barak Obama's allure, don't forget that he's a Democrat. Voters in his party—some half the U.S. population—have been out of power for eight long, dispiriting years. During this time, political leaders have committed so many shocking, horrifying acts that it’s hard to feel anything but numb. Many people stopped, or never started, participating in public life because genuine debate on serious issues was usurped, and demeaned, by the likes of the “analysts” at Fox News.
Now Obama promises “change”—and lets people fill in a lot of the specifics themselves. Who from the disenfranchised part of the population wouldn’t want to believe in this candidate? Who wouldn’t want to participate in that future?
Meanwhile, Republican candidates still cast about for an inspiring message. Apparently "I'm not George Bush" isn't enough to unify their party.
I’m an outsider to Canadian politics—as a U.S. citizen and relatively recent landed immigrant, I can't vote in Canada and don't have the deep perspective that develops with years of daily exposure to specific politicians and parties.
Still, it seems to me that a similar scenario played out up here two years ago. In bringing down a largely unpopular government, Stephen Harper led a once-fragmented Conservative party with a unifying message based on “change.” The Liberal party was—and to a large extent, remains—unsure of its message, mission, and role. Apparently “I’m not a crook, like that last batch of Liberals” isn’t working for Stephane Dion.
Harper has found it more difficult to win a majority, and thereby effect some of his more controversial changes, than it was to campaign on "change." That’s a lesson Senator Obama should keep in mind, should today’s momentum carry him into the White House.
What everybody seems to be curious about, of course, is why Obama seems to appeal to younger voters. I think that's harder to pinpoint. But I do think that everyone responds to a positive message, and if some Democrats are positive that Senator Obama--or Senator Clinton, for that matter--has good leadership potential, then their teens or their students or their sales clerks or the neighbo(u)rs feel that.
See? No detainees or isotopes.
