Sunday Before the Day

Great post, Joe. I hope Obama turns out to be as revolutionary, as revitalizing as much as you do.
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Here's a thought experiment: The virtues that Joe lists throughout his post (joining the Peace Corps, getting involved in civics, expectation of leaders to do good, creativity and understanding and all that) - do the inhabitants of the crazy Conservative Bizarroverse consider these to be evil, reprehensible acts?
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At this point, I think they do.

Obviously there are things that bind all of us, and are needed for the common good. But to think that different generations don't have different priorities and necessities would be foolhardy. Off the top of my head, the issue of affordable college education is something that I have found there's quite a disconnect in.
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hickoryduck, agreed. But I'm not sure 47 year-olds and 72 year-olds will necessarily see the issue differently. In this particular case, both Obama and McCain have pre-college age children whose education they will easily be able to pay for. 27 year-olds, OTOH, will see it differently... Maybe that's more of an argument to elect younger people to Congress.

HickoryDuck, I have a daughter about your age, slowly working her way through college. I sympathize with your concerns. But let me tell you- grad school is no guarantee - there are no guarantees, beyond what you are doing (being clearly smart, well read, informed, involved). I would not listen to friends of your parents. If there is one thing that characterizes the generations that are now 40-60, it is a complete obliviousness to how lucky they (we) were, in the matter of when and where they were born. I know a lot of these people... They all think they did it on their own. When they have children they are the first people in history to have done so - my God! we need better schools for my incredibly amazing children! When they get sick, no one else has ever experienced it - lo, health insurance is a right - why did no-one realize this (poor Hillary in 92)?! When their parents come down with alzheimers, suddenly stem cell research is the right thing to do. At my business school commencement in the 80s Ivan Boesky spoke and told us "greed is good" (OK, it was Berkeley, so there was a ripple of boos). But that has been this country's mantra for a very very long time: look out for yourself (or be a chump). Now, finally, people are realizing they CAN'T look out for themselves if no one is looking out for the country. I think, believe it or not, you are going to be part of a very lucky generation, a can-do generation that rejects my cohort's frantic "get-ahead" struggle and gets back to the basics of a good life in a good country.

I think it's about an appreciation of history and all forms of information. I'm 45, so Obama and I have at least the same time reference. I've tried to learn a little about everything because that's the way I was raised. I think Obama is the same way. If he appreciates history and technology and all the lessons available and dangers demonstrated by both then there is no crisis he can't be ready for.

Bottom line, if he was never told (as so many Americans apparently have) that certain knowledge is immoral or beneath him or effeminate, then he's far better prepared than most of the people I see around me to handle any situation. Yes, flexibility of mind. Anything, good and bad, is possible. We don't need surprises that are a shock to us and our elected leaders, and we don't need to do it that way because that's the only way we know how.

Joe, I think you should give Obama a better chance of being successful. Yes the problems are huge. But if we've learned anything the past 18 months, it's that Obama is capable overcoming huge problems.

Kathy @ 18 -
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Good point, and I won't totally disagree with you. However, sometimes attrition comes not with electoral/political victory. Sometimes a generation just cycles out. That will happen whether Obama wins or loses, eventually.
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I think I also should have been more specific - I'm focusing for the moment more on the presidential part of our political leadership.
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If Obama wins, seeing as how the youngest of boomers are currently around 50, it's hard to imagine that we will ever have another president for whom Watergate and Vietnam are defining experiences. A 50-ish boomer would have been 14-16 years old when Nixon resigned, right? This is Obama's age, exactly, and while I'm sure he certainly grasps the significance of Nixon and Vietnam, it's pretty obvious to me that neither was a formative event for him, in terms of shaping his relationship to government and how it can and should be run. This means that in George W., we've probably had our second and last boomer president.

Well, whaddaya know, the moderator-bot doesn't hold a post with "Nixon." Perhaps it was the use of "cr@pping" as an expletive?????

Nope, I guess not.

"Donut - until your generation (and mine, for that matter) defeats those with the vietnam era mindset, your generation is also crippled by it."
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And so we shall. Great post btw, Donut.
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Sigh, it had been a long long time, Joe, since you trotted out that ol' boomer cross of gold, JFK, to make pat comparisons to Obama, so much for your streak. At least the 60's wankery was kept to a mim. You are very right about both men bringing about a changed zeitgeist, that's something I had been saying all along about Obama, explaining the push he's fought against from Hillary and now McCain.

P.S., I'm pretty sure JFK had more than just one disastrous year as CIC. Unless you don't believe Vietnam, the installation of Sadaam's Baath Party in Iraq, the betrayal of the Kurds, and Alliance for Progress as disasters.

Joe,

I also worry about the huge hurdles the next president will have to face. Outside of FDR, has any other president been handed such a mess? I suspect things are much worse than we even know given the secrecy of the Bush administration. Unlike during JFK's time, a democratic president today will have to not only fight the legitimate battles of the office but--if the Clinton presidency taught us anything--will also be constantly under attack by petty faux outrages by the hard right wing of the Republican party. Maybe we have matured and are past that silliness, but if the reaction to Sarah Palin and the nonsense she spews is any indication, low-information voters with petty grievances and their elected representatives are alive and well and living in "real" America.

Despite that I am hopeful because either candidate will be an agent of change--intentionally or not. At this point, if we don't consciously decide to try other alternatives, they will be forced upon us by circumstances. I am hoping for an Obama win for many reasons, but if McCain should win, he will be our president and he will need the support of the country. We are going to all have to pull together to deal with the challenges ahead. If I were the praying sort, I would be asking God to give the next president wisdom and the rest of the country patience while we work our way through this mess.

@centfan: Prosit! Here's to being 45!
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As long as we're talking about generational issues: what I find fascinating about this election cycle is how quickly the American electorate is ready to "move on" past the baby boom generation to pass the torch to Gen X - a generation for which Obama, centfan and I are the advance guard.
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Think about it: from 1952 to 1992 (40 yrs), the Commanders-In-Chief all served in WWII. From 1992-2008 (16 years), the 2 presidents were boomers. Now, it appears that the next president will be post-boomer.
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I do wonder why this is so. For all their bravado, the "Class of 1968" will be remembered for the impression they *failed* to make on the political landscape.
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@Joe: Re: "what if our first impulse weren't the debilitating assumption of bad intentions on the part of our public figures?"
Yeah, then you'd be in the la-la-land of Jay Carney, who doesn't suspect for a minute that the dismissals of various US Attorneys throughout the country could be part of a Rovian master plan; or the world you yourself inhabited earlier this year when you saw nothing wrong with the "enhancements" to the FISA legislation.
Sorry, Joe. Re-read "The Jungle" if you must, but cynicism is here to stay. Even when Obama gets elected.

Nicely put Joe--the media and citizens alike should never give up entirely their adversarial stance BUT giving the man, the admin (anything but "commander in chief" please) a shot, some time to adjust, would be wise for all of us. Turning on him in the first few mo's, tearing down the living-bronze Obama, is highly counterproductive. He can accomplish much of this by continuing to speak to all segments of America, inviting them into his finer vision--neo-FDR like. But the media too, corp entity that it's become, must not grow too impatient, focusing on the piffle and the sexy in lieu of the transcendant causes that must be addressed. I'll be more impressed if this anti-cynical tone is the one you're using 6 months or a year from now. Otherwise, we'll be posting this momentary thought in response to the same old Joe.

And I say this as the person voted most cyncial of his HS class.

"Outside of FDR, has any other president been handed such a mess?"

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Lincoln.
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You might also make a case for Carter.

...or, as he pronounced, vigah...

Hey, you and the Yankees can sue us. Wicked pissah.

Cynicism is the default pose for a Gen13er (aka GenXer). We grew up in a world that was falling apart, where faith in government was considered laughable but faith in the market was a given. But we don't like it very much. We don't believe in our cynicism; it's just there. The generation after us - the Millennials (or the Echo, or GenY) - are about to rebel against the prevailing tone of the day, as they always do. If that means a rebellion against our default cynicism - and according to Strauss and Howe, they're a Civic generation, so it's likely - then more power to 'em.

I gotta say --

This is one of the best things that I have read from you, Mr. Klein. And yes, that is Mr. Klein, not Joe, not Joke Line. You deserve that respect for writing this.

I have similar trepidations about an Obama Presidency considering the enormous mountain of difficulties that he will encounter. I also have a reasonable amount of - dare I say it - hope that his intelligence, temperament and astounding self-possessed coolness will allow him to transcend those difficulties and leave a great mark on history.

We shall see.

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