I’ve been really critical of Obama, because I am irked by cults of personality, he’s no where near as progressive as I want him to be, I can’t stand how he invokes Reagan with such reverence (union busting, voodoo econmics, Iran-Contra, AIDS ignoring Saint Ronnie is a fucking role model?) in his zeal to promote post partisnaship and in general I’m a cynical bastard anyhow, so I’m wont to be a contrarian.

So, okay all that is still true, but I have to give props where they are due. This guy is unbelievably cool. Not cool like a Will.I.am video cool (actually not cool in my book - I want musicians and artists to be political animals, but there’s just something icky to me about directly shilling for any politician like that), but cool as in unflappable and collected and in control. Of course the bar has been set rather low over the last eight years, and McCain is certifuckin’-fiable, but Obama is truly an outstanding, intelligent and thoughtful person, that much is clear. And really what more can we hope for in a president? I mean laying everything else aside, I think we all tend to forget that life itself is inherently imperfect. Perfection is an illusion and what little we can control about our lives via the sphere of politics is always going to involve some kind of compromise, and some kind of unforeseen challenge will always throw things in crazy new directions, and adjustments and further compromises will have to be made.

The question of this election isn’t so much about which guy we like and want to be president, but rather what kind of society do we want? Do we want to continue down the path of fear and loathing, greed, ignorance and stubborness? (we’ve all seen that movie and know how it ends now haven’t we?) Or rather do we want to be open and flexible and give our best effort to make the most of our society given the immediate and unknowable challenges we all must face?

All I know is, I’m actually excited to vote now. I was going to vote absentee, but now I want to be there, at the booths, feeling the vibe and being part of something that’s greater than just my little corner of the world. As much as I admire his unprecedented branding and iconography from a design standpoint, you’ll still never see any propObama on my car or anything, but I’ll be voting glass half full baby! Glass half frickin’ full…