This more casual setting has revealed Mr. Obama to be a tactile campaigner; his bony hand grabbing elbows and hands, his long arms thrown over shoulders, drawing voters close in conversation.
And it allowed for moments like one that took place at the V.F.W. Hall in Dakota City, after almost everyone had gone. Mr. Obama was approached by a woman, her eyes wet. She spoke into his ear and began to weep, collapsing into his embrace. They stood like that for a full minute, Mr. Obama looking ashen, before she pulled away. She began crying again, Mr. Obama pulled her in for another embrace.
The woman left declining to give her name or recount their conversation. Mr. Obama said she told him what had happened to her 20-year-old son, who was serving in Iraq.
“Her son died,” he said. He paused. “What can you say? This happens to me every single place I go.”
The next day, at the rally here, Mr. Obama described the encounter for the crowd. The woman, he said, had asked if her son’s death was the result of a mistake by the government. “And I told her the service of our young men and women — the duty they show this country — that’s never a mistake,” he said.
He paused carefully as he reflected on that encounter. “It reminds you why you get into politics,” he said. “It reminds you that this isn’t a game.”
We could really use a president with that kind of attitude.
1 comment:
I think about this a lot -- I've been thinking about it for 2 years now -- that politics is so often played as a game. But that it shapes the world into which the innocent are born -- and if they get a chance, live. The games played by heedless politicians and corporate bosses -- and even we consumer-citizens -- anywhere in the world who are thinking only of their own ambition or place in the game -- deprive so many others of the opportunity for happiness, freedom, a chance to live without untenable pain, and life itself.
It's awareness that's needed, a waking up, a realization that the world is interconnected and that all our actions have consequences. We need a leader in this country who can help that happen. We've had such heartache and there is so much generosity and pain and confusion among people. The time is right for a leader who can help make it clear to people that we are all in this together, that we must work together to restore peace and justice -- and that we can do this. Could Obama be such a leader -- whether or not he attains the presidency? I've been wondering this lately. I've started to read his autobiography -- and he comes across as a real person to me, a person whose humanity and ethical vision has a good chance of staying strong even if he becomes President.
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