Obama's Whitman Sampler

The other night in Chicago, speaking with the counts from the primaries coming in, Barack Obama poetically described his campaign as "a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest." Whatever one feels about his campaign, it's a powerful metaphor, and he delivered it with typical panache. The words and cadence brought to mind the following quote on the national pastime, attributed to Walt Whitman: "I see great things in baseball. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism, tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set, repair those losses and be a blessing to us." These days neither politics nor baseball is quite as salubrious as one would like. Here's hoping for better days ahead, on and off the echoing green.

Comments

[rawdawgbuffalo]

nice blog. what ever the case, none of their wives can touch Obama's. he has a Coretta.

[sam-YF]

kucinich's wife is pretty hot too!

[FenSheaParkway]

I can be as cynical (or more) than the next person about all things current, including Baseball. But I'll come out and say that the things that Whitman describes still applies to my appreciation for the sport.

I don't disdain the modern accessories of sports fandom (fantasy games, gossip, commercialism, irreverence), which are in turns fun, interesting and/or necessary. But I don't think they threaten to consume the sport that they surround. Like Whitman, I also see great things in Baseball and no amount of tribulation could diminish it, only its human transgressors.

[nettles-yf]

#27 in '08!

Obama in '08!

[Atheose]

10 points for the use of the word "salubrious".

Also, Kucinich has the hottest wife by far.

[prufrock]

It's hard to be so hopeful, now that Santana has gone to the Mets.