Why indeed?

Mac McCaughan (Superchunk/Portastatic) answers the question "Why Obama?" (largehearted boy)

Politics in my adulthood has been a fairly numbing experience. I was first aware of politics when during Watergate my favorite PBS shows in the morning were preempted day after frustrating day. My dad had us stay up to watch Nixon resign. My parents voting for Carter was the first election I clearly remember, and then my teen years were dominated by Reagan. Reagan was good for punk rock but not much else. Democrats in the 80's failed to threaten the falsely-sunny facade of the deregulating Reagan years and while a Clinton win was good (both times), he squandered a lot of his good will with both his sellout moves to the center politically, and of course his dalliances. Of course I voted for the lukewarm and incompetent campaigners Gore and Kerry, but there has never been a politician that I could vote for and also feel emotionally invested in their campaign and how it relates to the future of our country.