The Obama connection

Roger Cohen's thought-provoking opinion in the NYTimes on Obama as the first 21st century politician.

clipped from www.nytimes.com More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead over Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has been so 20th-century. His has been of the century we’re in. This cultural failure has been devastating for Clinton. I’ve searched in vain for a sense of this pivotal historical moment in Clinton. Her threat to “totally obliterate” Iran, her stomach-turning reference to the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as a reason to stay in the race, her Bosnian fabrications, all reflect a view of history as something that’s there for political ends rather than as a source of inspiration or reflection. Obama has promised to appoint a chief technology officer, to open up government via the Web It’s the networks, stupid, and the generations that go with them.