Can Obama Pull Off a Historic Presidential Double Play?

''On or about December 1910," Virginia Woolf wrote, "human character changed.'' We can be much more specific: "On November 4, 2008, just after 11 pm Eastern, America changed" (human character remains rather intransigent).

The change was driven by two things: our country's remarkable capacity for regeneration, and Barack Obama's remarkable ability to tap into the better angels of our nature.

You know something extraordinary is happening when even Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Joe Lieberman trip over themselves -- and their hastily discarded invective -- to say nice things about Obama and the "tremendous signal" sent by his election.

Sure, it's easy to see their encomiums as purely tactical attempts not to be on the wrong side of history, but they are more than that. They also demonstrate how certain moments and certain individuals are able to bring the best out in people -- even people who have shown us some of the worst aspects of human character. Because, hard though it may be to accept, the best and the worst reside in each of us, side-by-side.

As Alexander Solzhenitsyn put it: "The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart." And the greatest leaders are those who inspire us to reside on the good side of Solzhenitsyn's line.

Obama does more. As David Brooks wrote recently, Obama's fractured childhood "is supposed to produce a politician with gaping personal needs and hidden wounds. But over the past two years, Obama has never shown evidence of that."

Here is someone whose childhood could have easily led to a life in shambles. But Obama has somehow -- and without, as far as we know, thousands of hours of therapy --succeeded in not letting circumstances dictate his life and reactions.

During the campaign, Obama was an object lesson in equanimity. Insinuate he's Muslim or sympathizes with terrorists, and he brushes off the mud. Hammer him with trumped up charges -- "sexist," "socialist," un-American" -- and he rolls with the punches. He simply doesn't let it in. He demonstrates that we have the ability to master whether we allow setbacks and attacks to throw us off course.

A lot has been written about Obama's calm in the face of adversity over the course of the last 21 months. Less noted has been how he displays that same centeredness in the face of triumph.

On Tuesday night, he could have waxed transcendent, he could have wrung every last tear and every last cheer out of the adoring crowd at Grant Park. But he chose not to. Instead, his speech gracefully touched the clouds a few times then soberly came back to earth, focused, as always with Obama, on moving forward.

To their great credit, the American people have responded to Obama's example by remaining remarkably focused as well. Despite the seemingly endless parade of meaningless sideshows trotted out during both the primaries and the general campaign, the public refused to be distracted. These kinds of tactics had worked well in 2004 -- but not in 2008. Obama's focus, his sense of purpose cleared a path through the carnival of clownish attacks and chamber of horror scares. And voters followed.

After eight years in which it has felt like the very foundation of our country was under assault, it is a testament to our democracy's inherent capacity for regeneration -- our ability to course-correct -- that Americans responded the way they did to a campaign so premised on an appeal to our greater selves.

A country can change only to the extent that the individuals within it change (and some changes come slower than others, as evidenced by Prop 8 and the other gay marriage bans that passed on Tuesday).

So it's back to Solzhenitsyn: "If you wanted to change the world, who should you begin with: yourself or others?"

Our president-elect is obsessed with Lincoln, who changed the country both by changing government policy and by using the bully pulpit to help us change ourselves. And our president-elect is endlessly being compared to FDR, who gave us both the New Deal and one of the most famous life lessons in history: "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

Now it's Obama's turn to pull off this rare presidential double play.

Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff

Comments

[katielady]

Justice Scalia was quoted as saying he didn't think Domestic Violence was a big issue! I think a discussion on his mental competency would be good.

Are companies (e.g. Citigroup) slashing jobs because there is no work for employees, to pare operations or pay CEOs the big bonuses promised???

Can we, the people, have bush/cheney impeached????

How can an administration allow insurance companies to refuse to fill morning after pills and birth control pills and sanction Viagra??? We want to reduce pregnancies in teenagers and those who don't want to have another pregnancy.­. yet the message is different. How can a president refuse to allow family planning clinics to dispense birth control in the form of foam, condomes, morning after or any other method. WE are a secular nation!

politicalt­ickerblogs @ CNN reported SC senator Jim Demint saying McCain betrayed the party because he strayed from the party beliefs. The party beliefs include a religious platform.. my understanding of the founding fathers' intent was the US is to be a secular nation, with the freedom to worship our religious beliefs. How can a group decide the party is to have a Christian religious platform and that is to be the religion of the US???

How many more questions can we send???

very scary!

thank you for letting us send suggestion­s..

[victoriajubilee]

i believe you may have a point regarding Scalia,he seems to be very angry most of the time.

[jimkma]

My sister-in-law had a son who was a Marine, killed in Iraq. Is President Obama going to do anything special on Inauguration Day to host families who have lost members in either of the 2 wars? In my opinion, Stephanie and others like her should be sitting beside him and his family as he takes the oath of office.

[BlueZoo]

Why? These soldiers were not drafted. They signed on for a trumped up war. I have family who were killed in Vietnam and nothing special was done for their mothers. I'm sorry for those who have died and I don't believe one more mother should suffer this horror but I believe Obama needs to put as much distance as possible between himself and this war. He's already on record as saying we will get out of Iraq and I expect him to keep that promise.

[SoulFreedom]

Arianna,

What is missing is relief that permeates the nation. Empire Justice Center in upstate New York is discovering that a lot of mortgages nearing default were fraudulent to begin with, some issued for more than the price of the house even at the time of sale. They are negotiating fixed rate and much lower interest rates and forcing a reduction in principle. They are keeping people in their homes, holding banks accountable and touching the grass roots. The bailout talk is so nebulous. Let's humanize it.

[wilinot]

What I want to know is why Morgan Stanley and (I forget the other name) are giving out over 13 billion in year end bonuses when they have each received 10 billion in this bailout. There should be no bonuses or raises, and they might need to scale back some of their salaries.

[mostlybluedot]

That is a good topic for discussion. I'm not against all bonuses but these million dollar kind have got to go once you run the company into the ground. If they want to quit. there's the door. I can do this job for you and so can many others.

[BlueZoo]

Morgan and Goldman are giving out bonuses because our government was too spineless to put caveats on the bailout monies. This didn't happen in England. The people who took the money there were told not one cent in bonuses or dividends until the Bank of England was repaid! In the U.S., the rich just get richer and the rest of us are being driven over a cliff.

[marisyl]

I'd like you to ask him whether he plans to revamp our absurdly manipulable voting system, making sure there can be no partisan low jinks. Early voting is a good start, but we also need to have easily done mail voting, with prepaid envelopes, and have Election Day a Federal holiday. And paper ballots!
As for the no strings bailouts to the financial community, will he act immediately to redirect the money to repairing the country's infrastructure and other worthwhile projects? As for the auto industry and other failing industries, will he impose conditions, like replacing the leadership which had misdirected them into failure?

[garyeskow]

Reading "Dreams From My Father" makes it clear that Barack was, in his early adult life at least, what we used to refer to on the street as a "down brother." That's great!

Question: Both "Bubba" Clinton and W loved to expose their earthy, down home roots, and used the colloquiliasms of their youth to reveal their connection to common folks. Will Barack ever stroll to the mike and say, "What's happnin'?" or use one of the other phrases that were a part of his parlance back in the day?

[marisyl]

I hope not, as it would be completely phony. President-Elect Obama's African heritage comes directly from Africa, where his father was born in Kenya. He was raised by his caucasian mother and her parents. He was a student at Punahou, one of the best private schools in the country, before completing his education at Ivy League schools. So "What's happ'nin'?" would never have been a conversational gambit for him.

[wiseapple]

If he ever studied botany he might be able to get away with saying: "What's sapponin? Well, you never know!

[TRUTHnREALITY]

I WAS A YOUNG CHILD, IN SECOND OR THIRD GRADE SO FAR AS I CAN RECALL, WHEN J.F.K WAS PRESIDENT. I CAN'T SPEAK TO HOW GOOD OR GREAT HE WAS OR WASN'T. ALL I HAVE IS WHAT I READ, AND WHAT I HEARD . I DIDN'T HAVE THE HORROR OF BUSH TO COMPARE HOW BAD THINGS COULD BE OR HOW TERRIBLY THINGS COULD GO.
I MADE MY LIVING THE BEST PART OF MY LIFE BY BEING GOOD AT READING PEOPLE, AND BEING A GOOD JUDGE OF CHARACTER. I THINK WE ARE ON THE VERGE OF SEEING WHAT A GREAT PRESIDENT CAN BE IN OUR LIFE TIME. I TRULY FEEL IN MY HEART OF HEARTS THAT PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA IS A GOOD MAN WITH THE UTMOST INTEGRITY, AND THE INTELLIGENCE AND DRIVE TO GET A LOT OF GOOD THINGS ACCOMPLISHED DONE FOR OUR COUNTRY. NOW THATS THE CHANGE WE NEED, AND SO FAR AS I CAN TELL, THE CHANGE WE CAN BELEIVE IN.......

[biabouman41]

Only thing, we, the nation cannot be passive. We must be involved at all possible levels to get things going right. Obama is no super-human. We must all help in some way. The expectations of this one person are too , too high.

[oncethere]

I'd like to see O drive home the point that we, as Americans, are inter-connected and that what affects one of us affects the rest of us. I'd like to see Obama challenge Republicans to act like they are members of a community and not individual islands out to get as much as they can. I'd like to see Obama make the point that greed and selfishness are not the only motivators of human behavior, as Repubs would have us believe, and that there are millions of people motivated by concern for the welfare of the other.

JFK asked us to think about what we can do for the country. George Bush told us to go shopping.

[pinkerman2]

Would you really discuss what effect our having troops anywhere in the Middle East is contributing to our deficit, our safety from terriosts, and the generations of Muslims that are now, and will forever be our enemies? Any guests who understand that our financial problems have almost always been from the war machine being fed before the hungry in this world..wou­ld be welcome..

[Richardnto]

Let's see- How about fixing our voting system, and specifically the threat posed by electronic voting machines with proprietary software systems that can make an election go any way the designer of the software wants it to go, without a paper trail to verify that the outcome is what the voters intended? How about an honest discussion of the reactionary radicalism of right-wing judges with their "originalist" constitutional philosophy. And why are a black man and a Catholic (Thomas and Scalia) leading the charge for this dangerous nonsense? Thomas wasn't even considered a human being by the founders, let alone a citizen, and the Catholic Mass was outlawed in many places in this country at the time the Constitution was written. Should we take the vote away from women while we're at it? Thank God that President Obama will be appointing our next Supreme Court judges, and not John McCain. And one other thing- Can we find people of faith other than the Tony Perkins and James Dobsons of the world to represent a Christian perspective on issues like gay marriage? They do NOT represent all Christians. How about inviting the Rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California to give a Christian perspective that begins with Jesus' vision of unconditional love instead of the narrow-minded, exclusionary bile of Dobson and his ilk. I'm tired of seeing bigots on TV who claim to speak for Jesus. Fear, greed and discrimination are not Christian values.

[Bucqui]

It may sound deadly dull, but ag policy should be a major issue for the Obama administration. Naming a Sustainable Agriculture Secretary of Agriculture would go a long way toward greening our food system and dealing with health and obesity issue. Of particular concern is that USDA is rushing to develop standards to determine which farms would qualify as Sustainable Farms -- and the corporations are lobbying to include the use of GM (genetically modified) crops. We also need change in the farm bill so that farmers who receive support payments for commodities such as corn and soybeans aren't therefore prevented from growing local fruits and veggies. The good news is that California passed Prop 2 which now guarantees some level of care for farm animals. Lots to chew on.

[Cyano]

I second that motion. There was a great article, Farmer in Chief, in the October 9, NY Times mag. by Michael Pollan that addresses many vital issues. Our current factory farming system is heavily dependent on fossil fuel, degrades the land, is lacking in diversity to an absurd degree (with some states like Iowa growing basically two crops), undermines small farmers, and causes many other problems such as poor nutrition. I hope the Obama admin. looks at a radical restructuring of the USDA, because they are stupidly reactionary and have no clue about what the future of food production should be, (i.e. local, diverse, and as close to organic as possible.)

[lilpeg]

Another topic for the show:
What happened in La,Ark,Tn,Alabama, Mississippi (the cradle of the civil rights movement) on "the best day". Is there any hope for the democrats in "the South"????

[victoriajubilee]

Those states are not redeemable,at least in the short term. Senator Obama got only 9% of the white vote in those states, if you notice those states are also the poorest and most uneducated of all the others.

[OmnesOmnibus]

Yes he can.

[newddle]

I'd like to year you explore the two-party system more and to present arguments against the point of view you voiced on Rachel's show Friday eve. Suppose we had a multi-party system? How do you think that would work? I don't mention a single-party system, bc that's unthinkable in the US.
Thanks, I look forward to the show, as I always do, when I notice that you're going to be a guest on a show.

[dmspeech]

The horrible racist acts in this country since the election--courtesy of McCain/Palin/Fox News