Arianna Huffington on the need for Obama’s “righteous rage”

I come from a liberal town and a liberal household, and the members of my family and I want nothing more than for Obama to win the election…

I have a cynical (but “cynical for a reason”, he’s quick to point out) father who firmly believes that we’ll all be disappointed.  He genuinely likes Obama—as opposed to just wanting anyone but McCain—but feels that he is a college professor disguised as a politician who is simply too nice (and the fact that it’s sad that politicians can’t just be nice is not lost on him) and doesn’t have the bite necessary to win the election and put McCain and Palin in their place.  My father acknowledges that he’d like to be wrong and that indeed he hopes he’s wrong, but he is mentally preparing himself for a McCain presidency.

I inherited a healthy does of my father’s cynicism, particularly when you compare me to my mother, who, despite being a perpetual worrier about far-fetched and fantastical what-ifs, is an eternal optimist to a fault.  In fact, I get annoyed with my own blog posts sometimes because I feel like I get too ranty and negative.  But, in talking to my dad about Obama’s potentially disastrous niceness, I’ve realized that I still have a heap of optimism and faith in my people flourishing inside me.  If I may be cheesy, Obama did awaken most of that dormant optimism.  Wait, no, that’s not cheesy…or it shouldn’t be.  We should love the people who are in charge of our country.  We should be inspired by our politicians, not disgusted by them.

Still, foolish optimism has never had a place in my heart.  I don’t agree (yet) with my dad that Obama “doesn’t have it in him” to fight back against the ridiculous bull that’s been pelted his way, particularly since the finale of the Democratic National Convention, but I do agree that if he doesn’t show any of the fighting skills (which I believe he’s got in him), that we may be on the road to heartbreak.  Personally, I feel that we’ve seen those sparks, the evidence of his capacity for retaliation, here and there in his speeches.  I think he does have it in him.  

Anyway, everything else I would say has already been written Arianna Huffington in a good piece on why we need to see his “righteous rage”.  Go here.