Obama as the Democratic nominee

As the results come in for the final Democratic primaries of the season, CNN is projecting that Barack Obama is going to have enough delegates to push him over the top in the race for the Democratic nomination. That means that Senator Obama is, in fact, the presumptive nominee from the Democratic Party for president of the United States. That, in and of itself, is a hugely historic moment. Whether you consider yourself a Democrat, a Republican, or something else, the fact that Senator Obama is going to be the nominee for president in the general election is (as Wolf Blitzer just mentioned) an example of "history unfolding" in our nation's long political story.

This blog is called Gen-X Rising, and it purports to comment on issues concerning Gen-X'ers and their connections to faith, church, and community. One of the CNN commentators made a really interesting comment just a few minutes ago when he compared Sen. Obama to recent presidential candidates like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and George W. Bush. He identified all those guys as 'Baby Boomers' and he said something to the effect that "Obama is something different. He comes after all those guys." The commentator pointed to all the questions about the Vietnam war that have followed those other candidates throughout the years, and he suggested that, because such a question does not apply to Obama (who was too young for Vietnam), he is in another category. This commentator did not mention Generation X, but that is the group he was presumably talking about.

That leads to a question: Is Barack Obama a Baby Boomer or a Gen-X'er?

Most estimates of the years that encompass the Baby Boomers look at those people born from around 1946 to 1964/1965. Unlike the difference between Generation X and the Millennial Generation (which is purely based on a distinction of perceived cultural separation and the standard measure of 18 to 20 years for a generation), the Baby Boomer generation is actually based on demographics. When American G.I.'s returned from World War II, there was a sharp increase in the number of births in this country (a trend that probably had as much to do with the end of the Great Depression as it did with the end of World War II). And that trend continued until the mid-1960s (when divorce rates increased and widespread contraception had an impact on the birth rate).

Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961. That means that, by any measure I've ever seen of the generational boundaries, he is a Baby Boomer. He's a very late Baby Boomer, and he is certainly a Boomer who was too young to be affected by the military draft or by Vietnam. But he's still clearly a Boomer.

Then again, there's something that seems really Gen-X about him. I think this is what the commentator on CNN was picking up on. There is something about Obama that doesn't seem to fit with the Clintons, Bushes, and Gores of the political world. Whether it's his race, his personal history, the crowds he attracts, or his "Change we can believe in" message, there's just something that just seems to identify Sen. Obama with Gen-X'ers (and even Millennials).

In exactly this way, I think this quality of Obama marks him as a transitional figure in the history of the United States. It is, in some ways, similar to the role that Bill Clinton played in 1992. At that time, you had a Greatest Generation figure (and World War II veteran) - George Bush the elder - as the sitting president. He had followed a generationally similar figure in Ronald Reagan. But Bill Clinton was not from the Greatest Generation; he was clearly a Baby Boomer. And the country's choice of him over Bush was a sign of the passing of the torch, in a generational sense. When Clinton was elected over Bush, the leadership of the country had passed from the generation that won World War II to the Boomers.

Now here is Obama. Like I said, he is still a Baby Boomer. But look at the clear cultural differences between he and Hillary Clinton (and especially John McCain). Chronologically, he is a Baby Boomer. But influentially, he is Gen-X'er and Millennial through and through. And so I think this night marks something significant in the history of the country. In terms of presidential politics, the Baby Boomers didn't even last a generation (just 16 years, assuming Obama can beat McCain in November). Now it is time for the Generation X'ers to lead.

(God help us.)

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[Update: If you'd like to read CNN's next day report on Obama capturing enough delegates to secure the nomination, you can read it here.]