Obama and Bobby Kennedy

Tucked at the bottom of a piece in the Mail and Guardian about Hillary's Iowa trip was this:

As she flew into Iowa, the man who might yet top her was slumped asleep in economy class on a flight from Washington to Chicago, travelling home after a week in the Senate. By Obama's side was a biography of a Democrat with the same ability to rouse crowds with passionate speeches, Robert Kennedy.

What was remarkable was not just that he was travelling economy -- but that the man with a chance of becoming US president had no entourage with him. No aides, no press secretaries: just another Joe going home. It was a powerful image, one Clinton needs to worry about.

There is a part of me that hates to admit how taken I am with Obama. I desperately want to stay neutral in this primary race, but it is very difficult. I am immeasurably excited about Obama's potential.

I remember seeing old clips of Bobby Kennedy speak when I was a boy and he represented such an emotional force to me. Bobby Kennedy seemed to reflect something about the American soul in 1968, and huge crowds of people responded to that reflection. Maybe that is little more than documentary narration speaking through the lens of history, but those scenes seemed genuinely uplifting to me.

Kennedy was, and still is the standard to which I hold all politicians. I want to believe that Obama will manifest all that promise and all that hope that his supporters believe that he represents. I want to believe that Obama reflects the American soul in 2008. I won't be cynical about it. I want to believe.
And I will continue to believe--unless he proves me wrong.

(Tip to John R. Bohrer)