The message doesn't work for everyone,so far,Obama's number in the national polls average below 50%.

But his enormous and enthusiastic audiences are evidence that many people are intrigued,if not deeply moved.Yes we can!turns out to be a powerful trademark at an time when 3 out of 4 Americans believe the country is on the wrong track.Many Democrats placed their political bets on anger in recent years,anger at the war,anger over the disputed election in 2000,anger at Bush Administration policies.Obama doubled down on optimism,beginning with his careermaking speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.Hope in the face of difficulty,hope in the face of uncertainty,the audacity of hope.In the end,that is God's greatest gift to us,the bedrock of this nation,a belief in things not seen,a belief that there are better days ahead.



If you click deeply enough into Obama's website,you can find position papers covering enough issues to fill Congressional Quarterly.He has a specific strategy to refocus the military on Afghanistan.He backs a single payer health-care system.But it wasn't some 10-point plan that turned Obama into a politician who fills arenas while others speak in school cafeteria.He knows that detailed policies tend to drive people apart rather than bring them together.People arrived to hear him out of fervor or mere curiosity,and they stayed for the sense of possibility.They heard rhetoric like this ,from his speech claiming victory after his epic nomination battle.If we are willing to work for it and fight for it and believe in it,then I am absolutely certain that generation from now,we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless,this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal,this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last,best hope on Earth.


That's a pretty quick step from an eletion to nirvana,and Obama's opponents would like to turn such oratory againt him.No one does it more effecively than radio host Rush Limbaugh,with his judo-master sense for his foes vulnerabilities.Limbaugh rarely refers to Obama by his name.Instead,he drops his baritone half an octave and calls him the messiah.