Unstoppable Obama
When did you begin to think that Obama might be unstoppable? Was it when your grown feminist daughter started weeping inconsolably over his defeat in New Hampshire? Or was it when he triumphed in Virginia, a state still littered with Confederate monuments and memorabilia? For me, it was on Tuesday night when two Republican Virginians in a row called C-SPAN radio to report that they'd just voted for Ron Paul, but, in the general election, would vote for... Obama.
In the dominant campaign narrative, his appeal is mysterious and irrational: He's a "rock star," all flash and no substance, tending dangerously, according to the New York Times' Paul Krugman, to a "cult of personality." At best, he's seen as another vague Reagan-esque avatar of Hallmarkian sentiments like optimism and hope. While Clinton, the designated valedictorian, reaches out for the ego and super-ego, he supposedly goes for the id. She might as well be promoting choral singing in the face of Beatlemania.
The Clinton coterie is wringing its hands. Should she transform herself into an economic populist, as Paul Begala pleaded on Tuesday night? This would be a stretch, given her technocratic and elitist approach to health reform in 1993, her embarrassing vote for a credit card company-supported bankruptcy bill in 2001, among numerous other lapses. Besides, Obama already just leaped out in front of her with a resoundingly populist economic program on Wednesday.
Or should she reconfigure herself, untangle her triangulations, and attempt to appeal to the American people in some deep human way, with or without a tear or two? This, too, would take heavy lifting. Someone needs to tell her that there are better ways to signal conviction than by raising one's voice and drawing out the vowels, as in "I KNOW ..." and "I BELIEVE ..." The frozen smile has to go too, along with the metronymic nodding, which sometimes goes on long enough to suggest a placement within the autism spectrum.
But I don't think any tweakings of the candidate or her message will work, and not because Obama-mania is an occult force or a kind of mass hysteria. Let's take seriously what he offers, which is "change." The promise of "change" is what drives the Obama juggernaut, and "change" means wanting out of wherever you are now. It can even mean wanting out so badly that you don't much care, as in the case of the Ron Paul voters cited above, exactly what that change will be. In reality, there's no mystery about the direction in which Obama might take us: He's written a breathtakingly honest autobiography; he has a long legislative history, and now, a meaty economic program. But no one checks the weather before leaping out of a burning building.
Consider our present situation. Thanks to Iraq and water-boarding, Abu Ghraib and the "rendering" of terror suspects, we've achieved the moral status of a pariah nation. The seas are rising. The dollar is sinking. A growing proportion of Americans have no access to health care; an estimated 18,000 die every year for lack of health insurance. Now, as the economy staggers into recession, the financial analysts are wondering only whether the rest of the world is sufficiently "de-coupled" from the US economy to survive our demise.
Clinton can put forth all the policy proposals she likes - and many of them are admirable ones - but anyone can see that she's of the same generation and even one of the same families that got us into this checkmate situation in the first place. True, some people miss Bill, although the nostalgia was severely undercut by his anti-Obama rhetoric in South Carolina, or maybe they just miss the internet bubble he happened to preside over. But even more people find dynastic successions distasteful, especially when it's a dynasty that produced so little by way of concrete improvements in our lives. Whatever she does, the semiotics of her campaign boils down to two words - "same old."
Obama is different, really different, and that in itself represents "change." A Kenyan-Kansan with roots in Indonesia and multiracial Hawaii, he seems to be the perfect answer to the bumper sticker that says, "I love you America, but isn't it time to start seeing other people?" As conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan has written, Obama's election could mean the re-branding of America. An anti-war black president with an Arab-sounding name: See, we're not so bad after all, world!
So yes, there's a powerful emotional component to Obama-mania, and not just because he's a far more inspiring speaker than his rival. We, perhaps white people especially, look to him for atonement and redemption. All of us, of whatever race, want a fresh start. That's what "change" means right now: Get us out of here!
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
McCain vs. Clinton = McCain
McCain vs. Obama = Obama
So I really don't understand why Clinton supporters are willing to loose in November by insisting on Hillary as the nominee?
Once again, I'm just another Republican voting for Obama. I know Clinton supporters like to believe Republicans are voting for Obama to keep Hillary out of the running but sorry I really like Obama. I like his honesty, his style and yes even his stand on issues. If a Republican can educate himselves on Obama's stand on the issues, why can't Democrats do like-wise. His stand on issues is very easy to find on his website. Just because a guy is sincere and honest (as is his lovely wife) Clinton supporters want to call him an empty suite etc. I find him intelligent, sincere, and above all honest, something foreign to Clinton.
OK, let the Clinton supporters attack now...
I'm not a Clinton supporter, and I'm not going to attack. I just happen to disagree with your assessment Clinton can't beat McCain, that's all. The polls show she can. I also disagree with your assessment of Obama. I don't find him to be honest or sincere at all (I'll agree with intelligent). He's just an empty suit who's good at telling people what they want to hear.
You may be being honest. And correct.
However, I fear this country is still run by "crackers", angry white folks that fear all they do not learn or see from their fear-based community.
AND HERE IN AMERICA, that's a lot!
Your one problem. You know nothing about Obama's background from the cesspool machine politics in South Side Chicago. The Daley machine was alive and well.
If you read Chicago Sun Times there's plenty on his rotten sweetheart real estate land deal with patron/fundraiser Tony Rezko as Rita Rezko paid $625,000.0
Chicago paper suntimes.c
Your claim of honesty is based on what EXACTLY?
Any competent look at Obama's votes, and statements often totally contradict. His deal with Rezko he calls a "mistake". Rezko's massive fundraising got him into Illinois and US Senate. Obama took $227,000.0
and then because of major nuclear leak by Exelon in Ill. Obama promised to write bill to include oversight.
Guess what? The bill was changed and watered down by his cooperation with GOP and bill is meaningless at this point. Andd, in SCarolina when Obama hit on Hillary that she sat on Board of WalMart. Guess what? Michelle Obama sat on WalMart Board for years as paid boardmember, and resigned when he ran for US Senate.
The New York Times carried an extensive article about O's ties to Exelon 2 weeks ago. Read it.
Currently he is using the exact version of Hillary's economic program [word for word] made months ago. Since he's thrown her under the bus with everyone else he knows he's not going to be accountable. Politics. He says it was really his idea first. So Hillary Clinton stole Mr. Vague's economic policies she's outlined for the past year? Sure.
You say honesty? Honestly.
morris1030
Well Hillary Clinton co-sponsored the bill and cheerleaded it on!
Well said, pyrum
The #1 thing I like about Hillary Clinton: NOTHING!
emj2740,
The #1 thing I like about Obama. NOTHING!
yes, comes the change: polar bears and dollars
sinking like rocks. different people being bombed by the U.S.
the question is not what changes Obama will
initiate, but how a different administration
will react to the various developing catastrophes.
it will react by creating more disasters--it is the tradition.
I started to think Obama was unstoppable when my father, a lifelong conservative and not exactly the most racially enlightened man in the world, said he was an Obama supporter. This from a man who voted for Goldwater, Nixon (three times), Ford, Reagan (twice), Bush Sr. (twice), Dole, and GWB (once). He'd never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate before John Kerry, and he probably would be an enthusiastic McCain supporter if McCain hadn't cozied up to the neocons.
Looking at the choices your father has made over the course of a lifetime his judgement has always been lousy. Obama supporters should question why someone with this voting record wants Obama. What does he think his adgenda will be? This voter is not making the anti-war argument. He's voted against everything the Democrats have wanted for this country for 50 years. I'm not suprised that a Bush/Dole voter would join in bashing the Clinton's.
Why does supporting Obama = bashing the Clintons? Answer: it doesn't. You got nothing so all you can do is accuse others of attacking when that isn't what's happening.
FROM WHAT I'M READING, I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE WITH All OF YOUR DAD'S CHOICES, AND MOST OF THEM HAVE PROVEN DISASTROUS. THEY REMAIN DISASTROUS WITH OBAMA.
Barbara, you are SO right. My previous comment (Thurs., Feb 14th) stated as much, and even more with regard to changing our consciousness as a nation and as a species.
Everyone reading Barbara's post today, should also read her book, "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream". She carefully lays out what is happening to white-collar professionals in the job market like myself, in addition to her fine work in her previous book, "Nickled and Dimed", which highlighted the struggles of blue-collar workers.
Unfortunately, the Clintons and many of their friends, including my own congressman, think losing one's job is your fault and that all you need is "retraining". What if you don't have money to go back to school and there is no money available from government sources? What if there isn't anything you can train for where you live that you have skills for?
Obama opens up a window to let fresh air in to a stale and fetid room that this country has become thanks to Corporate America and their Republicrat friends, the Bushies, Clintonistas and Reaganites.
I whole heartedly agree, it is about re-branding America and regaining our pride in this country. The same old is not good enough anymore.
There ya go!!! I prefer to think of it as changing the paradigm..
Oh man, you need to lay off the "Obama Kool-aid".
Tennessean has given many good examples as have others, why a vote for Obama is wrong and what a hypocrite he is. This is not based on race.
You want facts yet when they are presented you attack?
http://www
This was a vote against all of us, but a vote for Joe who was his mentor. Obama can work people and he has worked us. The Republicans will tear him up if he gets the nomination.
He has continually voted to support this war.
When facts are presented you still choose to be blind.
In fact a vote for Obama is not change we will still have a man running the white house.
The only feminine attribute Hillary would bring to the White House is one we should have buried long ago. That is one where, women hang on to a man for the purpose of self preservation and in Hillary's case, as a tool, useful to her political ambition. Hillary has spent her time in the senate, trying to convince everyone she can be just like a man.
Obama doesn't vote to support the war, he votes to support the military.
If Obama really wanted to support the military, he'd help stop the war by refusing to vote to fund it.
Actually, you're assuming what is in Hillary's mind. Obama is a "dreamed up phony" by the left wing part of the party....T
Obama has been amazingly straight-forward and honest. He's been in the public eye a very short time, and as early as a year ago, I felt like I knew more about him than Hillary. Going to his site and doing some reading isn't drinking the cool-aid, it's being an informed voter.
He's very consistant in his policies. He's just not a party-line Democrat. And we haven't been looking at and listening to him for eighteen years. He's not comfort food.
And now, he's come to represent a youth movement. That's what scares people. Many of these younger people wouldn't vote for Hillary in the general, and in a lot of ways that's disconcerting. But that doesn't mean that Obama has no substance.
The scary thing is that the demographics have changed. You can't pitch a certain idea to a certain state because of its income or ethnic break-down, and get predictable results. Now, there's all these new voters going for Obama, and throwing off all the demographics.
Obama's ideas have excited people, who have registered, gone out to rallies, and voted. Like it or not, that's democracy. You can't just get it in a strangle-hold and control it like a trained animal.
And it strikes me as hypocritical that people who talk about the future of our country become distrustful when younger people-- who ARE the future-- take an interest in politics and start voting. I don't believe the future needs to be protected from itself.
If you're so damn informed, then you'd know his proposals defy credulity. He's so fiscally irresponsible at the peril of this Nation.
Precisely WHY he won't be elected fdwcrm. Same-same Billary. Money talks people. Bullshit walks. Which is exactly what BOTH "The Messiah" and Billary are. Bullshit!!!!!! What disgusts me is how willing you people are to gobble it right up.
They lost me when Michelle Obama said "WAKE UP THE BLACK COMMUNITY!". Yet they want to attack Bill Clinton for his remarks which were not in the same content.
If Bill were to say Wake up White people, vote for experience. It is no different and we should realize this. But the media finds M.O's comments acceptable. She states she is not certain she can suppport Hillary should she win the nomination. Wow, that's reaching across the isle material. Barrack did not even have a vote when we went to war. His speech afterwords was hindsight and a prelude to his running for president.
Since having a vote he has had ample opportunity to vote no on every issue regarding Iraq but does not.
The media msnbc,cnn overlook all this.Is that because we are letting them slide due to their inexperience? The rest of the world won't be so nice. So he's a good actor and Oprah has taught him how to work the crowd. It's old now.
We are not playing a game and we can't say it's his turn now, the next president has to be ready immediately.
Obama didn’t have to face the tough decision in 2002 the rest of the Senators had to make. There are those who will never vote to go to War, regardless of what the outcome might be. I’m a dove, but I listened to the Congressional Hearings in 2002 and was convinced we needed to face the possibility that Hussein had WMD. We had a respected and exemplary General (Colin Powell) who was convinced and I trusted him. (frankly he was spoon fed the bullshit right a long with the rest of us) As much as I distrusted Bush/Cheney, I believed we would have been given the opportunity to hear from the Inspectors before we went to War. It’s real easy to write papers about not going to War, but it’s tough when you have to take a vote against the potential of our Society being destroyed. Saddam admitted, before he was hanged, he had had WMD and had used them against Iraqis. But he had them destroyed before the Inspectors could discover them. Had the WMD been discovered, then Obama would have looked like an Idiot. It’s funny how his Papers on his stance in 2002 were taken off his website later. He still joined in the support of the War once he was in the Senate. Even in the Clinton years the Inspectors had evidence of WMD, maybe Hillary knew that and maybe, just maybe, Hillary didn’t believe Bush/Cheney weren’t the criminals and liars they were.
Could you provide a link or at least some pointers about where to find the comments by Michelle Obama to which you refer here? Otherwise, it's hard to know what you're talking about (let alone whether you are taking it out of context).
A couple if links. Check MSNBC
http://www
http://www
Who knows who Obama is? He is the perfect screen to project our wishes & hopes onto. Which is why he is doing so well.
For many he is pure & untainted. I think that must be a bit of a fantasy that the people need.
Go Obamacans. If he can bring the dems back to the white house great. But he will inherit the worst mess we've ever seen & then it really will be time for more than inspirational speeches. From time to time things slip out like disdain for baby boomers (is he that far off himself) or admiration for Reagan. But these statements just glide away somewhere, never to be examined. of course this & many other phenomena are the mark of an incredibly shrewd politician.
Anyone who wants to be president today should be considered insane! Who could ever hope to undo or unweave the mess the present administration has made over the last 7 years? It would take more than 2 terms to undo just the major problems: the occupation of 2 countries, the miserable economy, the price of oil, the environment. Does ANYONE think they have the answers and solutions to these and many, many more?
So what? We should stop trying and continue to be the cynical asses we've been. Electing a moron to not one, but two terms? Finally a candidate that Americans can vote for without holding their noses in disgust at politics as usual. How refreshing. End cynicism. Vote obama
this election has nothing to do with race or gender- it has to do with putting things right.
Our country was seized by corp'ist nearly a century ago, they have infiltrated every facet of our lives and have hidden behind our flag to disguise their true agenda...a
Our soldiers ahve been dying in vain ever since.
This election is about kicking the shit off our boots and reclaiming our country and the world for humans not 'entities'
We are the last great frontier of their conquests, we will not allow this to control the new millenia- CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY-dead or alive we want revenge...
Hillary & Mac should be running ...out of the country (but we'll find YOU anyway...W
Binny is in Cheney's Office having a cigar and a drink.
You go Purple Girl!! i think i love you.
"Obama is different, really different, and that in itself represents "change." A Kenyan-Kansan with roots in Indonesia and multiracial Hawaii, he seems to be the perfect answer to the bumper sticker that says, "I love you America, but isn't it time to start seeing other people?"
WOW! That's why you're for Obama? Hillary's more progressive than Obama, Barbara. WAKE THE HELL UP!
I'm sooo tired of the "if you vote for Obama you're a misogynist" thing. If you vote for Hillary, are you a racist? Give me a break, people. Let's keep the discourse on issues.
B-Fresh
Is is just me or does anyone else wish some of the media Obama supporters would quiet down? It seems to me most of them are missing the point. While it's beyond doubt that Obama is a wonderful speaker and is the most inspirational political figure I've ever experienced, those qualities are not what swayed me to support him and it's strange that most of the media focuses only on them and not on what really impressed me.
It's the quieter moments in interviews and the debates, those moments of engagement with a single question, that made me realize what a political find he was. It think it was one of his early Meet the Press appearances, the pause, the obvious, and genuine, search for his own right answer to the question speaks to an authenticity and honesty that is so rare as to be almost singular in politics. He could be shining it all on, but I really doubt it. Add to that the quality of the answers from a clearly bright mind and you've got my vote. I look at the stump speeches as so much advertisement. If everyone could give speeches like that they would and there would be no more talk about a lack of details. Rhetoric isn't for details that's better found in paper, bills etc. And Obama has sufficiently provided those, in my opinion.
Amen. I'm always on the obama blog reminding people that when they speak out -- whether online, on tv, or to their friends and neighbors, they're representing not just themselves, but the campaign, the candidate, and all those of us who support him. If you're not going to be considerate, informed, and thoughtful, you're just going to reflect badly, and give ammunition to people like Krugman who love to go on about the "cult" or push the "no substance" meme.
I know exactly what you mean. I'm afraid that the eloquent speeches have somewhat overshadowed the man and his substance.
Thanks Barbara, beautiful article, I love you.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
