May 7, 2008--It's Over
Let’s pause for a moment.
Yes, ultimately it’s all about the numbers. But though the media folks are poring over the details of the returns from last night in North Carolina and Indiana—what they call the “internals”—to see if Barack Obama managed to squeak out a victory when all the votes are tallied in Gary (he didn’t) or if he picked up enough delegates to get to within 100 of those needed to clinch the nomination (with a predicted rush of Super Delegates today he will), if we get too caught up in process issues (how much more did Hillary have to loan to her campaign, was it wise for her to spend so much in NC, did Obama finally put the Reverend Wright behind him) or how she did among 65+ year-old white women or how much Rush Limbaugh influenced the vote in Indiana; if we get lost in this stuff, as I did until 1:00 am this morning, we will miss what this is really ultimately about—not the numbers but that Barack Obama will be the Democratic Party nominee. And we will fail to sufficiently notice the historic fact that he narrowly defeated a woman and that he is black.
I’m getting on in years and never thought I’d see this day.
I’m old enough to remember that when my very smart and talented mother wanted to have a career beyond the home “all” that was available to her was elementary school teaching. Nothing wrong with becoming a teacher, but very little else presented itself so she had to do “women’s work.”
I’m old enough to remember seeing “colored” and “white” drinking fountains the first time I visited my Aunt Fay in Florida. I’m old enough to remember that when Jackie Robinson bought the nicest house in my modest Brooklyn neighborhood it only took the Jews and Italians who lived on his block a few months to so hound him and his new family that they had to move out in the middle of one night.
None of this was 100 years ago.
I’ve been supporting Barack Obama for more than a year and have here been very critical of the Clinton campaign. Especially it’s attempts to caricature and marginalize him. But her candidacy too has been remarkable. In any other election cycle she would have turned out to be the “inevitable” candidate she appeared to be just four months ago before Obama won the Iowa caucuses. I would have been sending her money and blogging away furiously about why we should vote for her. In my previous life, during the Clinton White House years I worked very closely with her on education-related issues. She is brilliant, up to speed, fun, and committed to progressive goals when it comes to really making sure that no child gets left behind. We didn’t see too much of this during the campaign, which is too bad. She was so eager to win the nomination that when things began to turn south for her that Hillary disappeared. She would have made a fine president and that too would have been historic.
Today we’ll hear a lot about what kind of deal Obama will have to strike for her to get out of the race before the next few primaries. In truth he doesn’t have to make a deal. He is the winner even if she prevails in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico. The favorite form of media speculation will be about whether he will or has to offer her the vice presidential nomination (I predict he doesn’t and won’t) or if he will promise to pay off her campaign debts (he will, including at least $5.0 million back to her and Bill) or if the price of her campaigning for him will require him to supply her and Bill Clinton with their own planes (he will). The usual post-primary stuff.
But again about history. Who would have thought . . . We may well be following our better angels. Wouldn’t that be something.
His nomination, though, is about much more than the obvious history it represents.
Back on January 18, 2007—sixteen months ago (which in politics is like 100 years), on the day after Obama announced he was forming a “presidential exploratory committee,” I posted the following blog which still seems relevant and suggests why this is not about history but about what might be his capacity to bring change to America and the world. Indulge me. Here’s an excerpt:
Is Barack Obama just another fantasy? Another intoxicant?
Maybe yes. Perhaps no. But he may, just may turn out to be the real-deal . . . and electable.
More than that, if he does turn out to fulfill his promise, he may be just what the U.S. and world so desperately right now need.
I know that his every utterance and every vote will be scrutinized, as they should be, and the pundits in the media and blogosphere will parse and analyze his every action to see if he is drifting left to appeal to the Democrat base who vote disproportionately in the primaries or is embracing the middle in the knowledge that to be elected he must appeal to the vast majority of voters who are more moderate. We will be speculating about what he thinks about not funding the troop escalation in Iraq and where he stands on immigration and abortion and gays and . . . you know the list.
And while I care about all of these issues and many more (education, health care, agricultural policy, trade, outsourcing), right now I care about other, very different kinds of things. First among them, our position in the world—how we are perceived by our former allies and those who wish us harm. It seems essential to figure out how to again connect ourselves to those with whom we share obvious common interests and how to talk to and, yes, make deals with others who are currently viewed to be our adversaries.
Who better to send out into the world on that latter mission of healing and reconciliation than someone like Barack Obama? And here I emphasize the someone-like part. He appears to be a living, breathing example of what America is supposed to be about, and when we calm down enough to stop beating on each other over all sorts of cultural wedge-issues perhaps we’ll stop to focus on what we are really about: diverse, polyglot, tolerant, smart, ambitious, practical, self-made, brash, not fully-formed, generous, and above all hopeful.
He is the literal face of that America, the America of this still-young century, and by the time he is 60 will even more so represent what we will inevitably become.
Of course these characteristics are also his political weakness—for those who fear the "other" or need to place blame on those who are different to explain and deny their own failures and frustrations, for them he too is the perfect face.
But the big question is who he really is. Is he as authentic as he appears? Or is he just another hollow political self-creation? Does he have the stamina, courage, and vision to be a fine, maybe even a great leader?
It’s good to have him in the race so early so he can be tested and we will have the time to find out.
Yes, ultimately it’s all about the numbers. But though the media folks are poring over the details of the returns from last night in North Carolina and Indiana—what they call the “internals”—to see if Barack Obama managed to squeak out a victory when all the votes are tallied in Gary (he didn’t) or if he picked up enough delegates to get to within 100 of those needed to clinch the nomination (with a predicted rush of Super Delegates today he will), if we get too caught up in process issues (how much more did Hillary have to loan to her campaign, was it wise for her to spend so much in NC, did Obama finally put the Reverend Wright behind him) or how she did among 65+ year-old white women or how much Rush Limbaugh influenced the vote in Indiana; if we get lost in this stuff, as I did until 1:00 am this morning, we will miss what this is really ultimately about—not the numbers but that Barack Obama will be the Democratic Party nominee. And we will fail to sufficiently notice the historic fact that he narrowly defeated a woman and that he is black.
I’m getting on in years and never thought I’d see this day.
I’m old enough to remember that when my very smart and talented mother wanted to have a career beyond the home “all” that was available to her was elementary school teaching. Nothing wrong with becoming a teacher, but very little else presented itself so she had to do “women’s work.”
I’m old enough to remember seeing “colored” and “white” drinking fountains the first time I visited my Aunt Fay in Florida. I’m old enough to remember that when Jackie Robinson bought the nicest house in my modest Brooklyn neighborhood it only took the Jews and Italians who lived on his block a few months to so hound him and his new family that they had to move out in the middle of one night.
None of this was 100 years ago.
I’ve been supporting Barack Obama for more than a year and have here been very critical of the Clinton campaign. Especially it’s attempts to caricature and marginalize him. But her candidacy too has been remarkable. In any other election cycle she would have turned out to be the “inevitable” candidate she appeared to be just four months ago before Obama won the Iowa caucuses. I would have been sending her money and blogging away furiously about why we should vote for her. In my previous life, during the Clinton White House years I worked very closely with her on education-related issues. She is brilliant, up to speed, fun, and committed to progressive goals when it comes to really making sure that no child gets left behind. We didn’t see too much of this during the campaign, which is too bad. She was so eager to win the nomination that when things began to turn south for her that Hillary disappeared. She would have made a fine president and that too would have been historic.
Today we’ll hear a lot about what kind of deal Obama will have to strike for her to get out of the race before the next few primaries. In truth he doesn’t have to make a deal. He is the winner even if she prevails in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico. The favorite form of media speculation will be about whether he will or has to offer her the vice presidential nomination (I predict he doesn’t and won’t) or if he will promise to pay off her campaign debts (he will, including at least $5.0 million back to her and Bill) or if the price of her campaigning for him will require him to supply her and Bill Clinton with their own planes (he will). The usual post-primary stuff.
But again about history. Who would have thought . . . We may well be following our better angels. Wouldn’t that be something.
His nomination, though, is about much more than the obvious history it represents.
Back on January 18, 2007—sixteen months ago (which in politics is like 100 years), on the day after Obama announced he was forming a “presidential exploratory committee,” I posted the following blog which still seems relevant and suggests why this is not about history but about what might be his capacity to bring change to America and the world. Indulge me. Here’s an excerpt:
Is Barack Obama just another fantasy? Another intoxicant?
Maybe yes. Perhaps no. But he may, just may turn out to be the real-deal . . . and electable.
More than that, if he does turn out to fulfill his promise, he may be just what the U.S. and world so desperately right now need.
I know that his every utterance and every vote will be scrutinized, as they should be, and the pundits in the media and blogosphere will parse and analyze his every action to see if he is drifting left to appeal to the Democrat base who vote disproportionately in the primaries or is embracing the middle in the knowledge that to be elected he must appeal to the vast majority of voters who are more moderate. We will be speculating about what he thinks about not funding the troop escalation in Iraq and where he stands on immigration and abortion and gays and . . . you know the list.
And while I care about all of these issues and many more (education, health care, agricultural policy, trade, outsourcing), right now I care about other, very different kinds of things. First among them, our position in the world—how we are perceived by our former allies and those who wish us harm. It seems essential to figure out how to again connect ourselves to those with whom we share obvious common interests and how to talk to and, yes, make deals with others who are currently viewed to be our adversaries.
Who better to send out into the world on that latter mission of healing and reconciliation than someone like Barack Obama? And here I emphasize the someone-like part. He appears to be a living, breathing example of what America is supposed to be about, and when we calm down enough to stop beating on each other over all sorts of cultural wedge-issues perhaps we’ll stop to focus on what we are really about: diverse, polyglot, tolerant, smart, ambitious, practical, self-made, brash, not fully-formed, generous, and above all hopeful.
He is the literal face of that America, the America of this still-young century, and by the time he is 60 will even more so represent what we will inevitably become.
Of course these characteristics are also his political weakness—for those who fear the "other" or need to place blame on those who are different to explain and deny their own failures and frustrations, for them he too is the perfect face.
But the big question is who he really is. Is he as authentic as he appears? Or is he just another hollow political self-creation? Does he have the stamina, courage, and vision to be a fine, maybe even a great leader?
It’s good to have him in the race so early so he can be tested and we will have the time to find out.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:49 AM
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