The creative candidate

I could list many reasons why I am so excited about a potential Obama presidency. But beyond my enthusiasm for what his policies might look like is a sense that he is someone with whom I can relate and someone who I can look up to as a role model. I think that many in my generation feel this way, especially young men. As the Bush presidency has run its course, I think that many of us have been frustrated by, on the one hand, our genuine desire to be proud of our country and our identity as Americans, but, on the other hand, our inability to relate to the man in charge and our anger over the image of the obstinate, ignorant American perpetuated by the administration. Obama looks and acts more like those who we admire, and I think that much of that has to do with a certain right-brained sensibility.

Arts and media have become America's primary export and a central part of our culture, and, for those of us who grew up in a nation whose primary heroes were actors and filmakers, rather than farmers and steelworkers, Obama is a candidate who feels like a natural leader. He seems comfortable in his own skin, lacking the bordering-on-insecure macho posturing of leaders like George Bush and Dick Cheney. He seems comfortable making a joke and even acting a little silly (see "I'll whoop 'em, I'll whoop 'em!"). He possesses a certain right-brained artistic sensibility, which is something that I gleaned from this anecdote in a recent Time magazine profile of his mother:

Ann and her son were the first foreigners to live in the neighborhood, according
to locals who remember them. Two baby crocodiles, along with chickens and birds
of paradise, occupied the backyard. To get to know the kids next door, Obama sat
on the wall between their houses and flapped his arms like a great, big bird,
making cawing noises, remembers Kay Ikranagara, a friend. "That got the kids
laughing, and then they all played together," she says.

These stories and others lead me to connect with the candidate, and I think that others in my generation probably feel the same. As we enter into the stages of our adulthood in which we will raise children, enter into leadership positions, and become role models to our juniors, we want a president who embodies the creative spirit that is central to modern America.

All touchy-feeliness aside, a creative president might benefit our nation's economy and security. If anything, the Bush administration, with all its Nixon-era appointees, has demonstrated that traditional approaches to security often fail to adapt well to modern predicaments. The traditional notion of conflict--lined-up, marching armies of two warring nations fighting a series of battles until the territory is won--is sorely outdated, as demonstrated by America's current struggle against loosely affiliated groups of terrorists, who do most of their damage through small, clandestine groups of operatives. The Bush team demonstrated an inability to think creatively in its response to 9/11, in its declarations of war against the nation-states of Afghanistan and Iraq, in response to a criminal plot perpetrated by a nationless group of religious fanatics. The left brain looks for things that have worked in the past, and tries to replicate those successes by doing those things again. The right brain draws from the lessons of the past, but attempts to craft new, creative solutions. The old ways aren't working to fight terrorism, and are failing in many other areas as well, and a creative, artistic president might be exactly what we need to adjust to a changing world.