Unreasonable Disagreement

I haven't written much about the election here since the Iowa caucuses. I've stuck by my assessment then, in the waning days of December: that Obama is the more electable Democrat. In Wisconsin, two-third of voters in the Democratic primary agreed with me. He is far more likely than Clinton to build an effective governing majority in the Congress - and, like it or not, to inspire the American people.

Along the way, though, I've met supporters of the other candidates. In fact, in New Hampshire, I spent time with a couple who hosted the Clinton wedding thirty years ago, and with various Edwards and McCain volunteers. They all impressed me with how polite, affable and considerate they were - especially the McCain folks.

The New Hampshire defeat - what can I say? At the time, it was a surprise, and a sad one. But, in retrospect, it extended the contest in a way that has allowed voters in state after state to become part of the process. It's been an amazing form of enfranchisement. Not only does every vote matter, but, for once, every state does too. No matter who wins in the end, at least it wasn't just Iowa and New Hampshire deciding for the rest of us.

But the campaign has also gotten uglier.

* * * *

I met a woman tonight at a dinner I stopped by briefly. (I left before eating.) She belonged to a demographic that has not been voting for Obama in large numbers: older, Jewish, female. Needless to say, I'm related to this demographic down various branches of the family tree.

I've had plenty of conversations with individuals who support other candidates--not just volunteers in New Hampshire, but folks in California and elsewhere -- but this woman was Mark Penn's dream voter. She had absorbed all the Clinton rhetoric, and then some.

I can't vote for someone whose middle name is Hazan, she said. (Someone else at the table corrected her, though she didn't seem keen on Hussein either.) She went on, predictably, to declare Obama a Muslim. Others in the room chimed in. He has no experience, she said. Maybe in four years she could vote for him. (Of course, she earlier said that she could never vote for him, but I let this go.) He has no plans, she said. Millions of Americans are voting for him, she agreed. "But they are American," she said. "They think with their asses."

Her conclusion, with regard to his campaign: "What is this shit?"

My sister was there. At this point in the conversation, she suggested I leave, which seemed prudent.

There is a spiteful part of me that hopes Obama wins just because I want the bigots to be defeated. Maybe they'll see, a few years down the line, that a man with the middle name Hussein can be every bit as American as they are. The strength of this country isn't in those who it excludes, but in those who it embraces.