GRAY: Why I voted for Obama

Of the legion of reasons why I voted for Barack Obama, I suppose the most telling is the fact that he's a fan of the dearly departed HBO series The Wire. The show was perhaps the most explicit and convincing portrayal of America's wide-ranging, ineffectual, terrifying bureaucracy of our time. That a guy running for president would be an avowed fan of a show so frustrated with government at all levels is a big plus in my book.
It's apparent that Obama "gets" The Wire's fundamental arguments: that power corrupts, idealism can't always - and maybe never - wins the day, and so on. Can he avoid these pitfalls? Can he fix a meaningful part of our broken system? I don't know. But most of his gestures thus far - his impeccably nuanced speech on race in Philadelphia this spring chief among them - suggest that he'll give it a fair shot. Moreover, the motivation and inspiration he's instilled among legions of voters indicates that maybe, for the first time in a while, we as citizens will be willing and driven to help. I'm not worried that Barack Obama's going to disappoint me; I'm worried that I'm going to disappoint Barack Obama. I suspect I'm not alone in this sentiment.
  

 _Christopher Gray, Portland Phoenix

For full coverage of Election Day 2008 click on thephoenix.com/election