After weeks of denying it, it’s time to fess up. I have Obama fatigue.
I was an ardent supporter from early on, but lately, I’m having a tough time find that old enthusiasm. Six months ago I could hardly describe the energy I felt watching every step of the race; now I can hardly remember the feeling.
It’s not as though I’m going to vote for McCain; I’ll show up dutifully in November. But the excitement seems to have drained as the Obama camp has practically gone underground these past six weeks. And this convention is hardly winning me back over. Even the high points are falling a little short. Take Hillary’s speech last night. It was great, but the speech picked up right where the primary left off. It’s as though the Democratic party thinks that we’re still in early June, just finally closing the primary with some feel-good loving and beginning to turn to the campaign.
I hope the Obama camp enjoyed their summer vacation. But it’s time to get back to work.
August 27th, 2008
Posted by
Will Thomas |
2008 Election, Barack Obama, Politics, Will Thomas |
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Perhaps it is the organizer in me, but I have an irresistible (that’s too strong a word) urge to lay out in detail precisely what I intend to accomplish with a new project. Thus, a manifesto of sorts is born for this blog. I can only promise that I support what I say, and that what I intend to do here will very likely change soon (but I’ll be in full support of those changes as well).
This blog is intended in large part to detail my return to academia. Here’s the background. I am a former philosophy major from Columbia University. I’ve spent the past two plus years working as a political journalist for Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post. And in one week, I’ll be a student again, pursuing a PhD in philosophy as well as a law degree at the University of Michigan. As some of my future colleagues have asked: “Why?”
Thus, the blog. On the one hand, this is a place to exercise questions of philosophy, as well as indulge my lapses into political analysis (covering an election is kind of like being a day trader, so I’m hoping that my distance from the coverage will provide some more interesting perspective). But it also serves to track my journey from a young and flexible medium into one of the oldest — and arguably stalest — traditions in Western thought. In doing so, I hope to leverage the intellectual and technological tricks I have picked from years working on the Web — (i.e.- ADHD and Wikis).
I’ll be the first to admit: I find the idea of going back to school daunting, and I’m pretty sure that I don’t know a thing about the current world of philosophy. I’m hoping at some point that will be an asset, but right now I’m trying not to embarrass myself.
August 26th, 2008
Posted by
Will Thomas |
Blogging, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Tech Media, Will Thomas |
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