Destiny vs. Inevitability

Few in August projected the Kansas football team to get to a BCS bowl, while Virginia Tech entered the season in the AP top ten and expecting to return for their fifth major bowl. In December, though, the Orange Bowl announced the unlikely match-up between the Jayhawks and the Hokies. Pundits hailed KU's inspiring Cinderella story, but even Lou Holtz agreed that more experienced Hokies would crush the untested Jayhawks. But when Aqib Talib highstepped into the endzone in the first quarter, it was clear that the Jayhawks possessed an intangible element that not even the vaunted Virginia Tech juggernaut could stop. The Jaykawks' feeling of destiny trumped the Hokies expectations of inevitability last Thursday in Miami.

Destiny and inevitability also squared off hundreds of miles away that night in Iowa. And from the tropical rains of south Florida to the icy tundra of rural Iowa, destiny bested inevitability. "Our moment is now" promises Barack Obama, encapsulating the unique essence of his campaign. Unlike the incessant peons to experience coming from Hillary Clinton, which necessarily emphasize the recent past, Obama speaks to the hopes of a future inspired by collective myths of American destiny. Their post-caucus speeches juxtaposed not just two campaign styles, but two philosophies of history and politics. Surrounded by former cabinet members, Clinton ticked off the challenges facing the country and claimed that her political acumen uniquely enables her to cut the deals that can change policies. The visual and the verbal combined to form a rhetoric of steady but incremental change. Obama, in contrast, constructed a narrative of national unity in the face of national challenges. By evoking Washington, Roosevelt, and King, he contextualized present challenges in the story of the nation. Clinton promises to implement Democratic solutions to policy problems while Obama offers democratic responses to national challenges. Clinton recalls the mediocrity of the 1990s while Obama has the audacity to tap into America's latent feelings of Manifest Destiny; unlike the 19th century land grab, though, Obama promises to live up to America's boundless potential.

The spirit of the age calls for a leader who can weave contemporary problems into a coherent and inspiring story of American possibilities. Clinton may better navigate the halls of power, but only Obama can harness the zeitgeist to power the ship of state in a new direction. Inevitability relies on the past, but destiny promises the future. Destiny overpowered conventional wisdom on the football field in 2007, and I think it is fated to give an encore in the voting booths in 2008.