In this article this morning on Huffington Post, The 2008 Race for President and the Search for Our Better Selves, Arianna Huffington essentially reveals her own feelings about the presidential election and whom she supports. And you just don’t have to read that deeply between the lines to get the gist.
Watching yesterday’s Obama rally in Los Angeles featuring Oprah, Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, and Michelle Obama, I was struck by a point that both Michelle Obama and Maria Shriver made but that is rarely discussed during a presidential campaign: the importance of having someone in the Oval Office who can inspire us to tap into the better angels of our nature — who can stir people to expect more of themselves than they otherwise would.
“The thing I like the best” about Obama, said Shriver, is that “he’s not about himself. He’s about us… He’s about the power of what we can do if we come together.” And she quoted from a Hopi Indian prayer: “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Michelle Obama made a similar point, adding that this “it’s about us” dynamic would require all of us to up our game. “[Barack] is ready,” she said. “The question is, what are we ready for?… Barack Obama will require that you work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism; that you put down your division; that you come out of your isolation; that you move out of your comfort zones; that you push yourself to be better; and that you engage.”
Thank you Arianna: We know where you are coming from.
