Barack, Hillary, Jack and Bobby
It turns out Hillary wasn't ready to lead on day one, but the sheer grit of her end game will long be remembered. In her concession we glimpsed the candidate she might have been.
She's at her best when she's closest to inhabiting herself. No one's public persona is an exact replica of her private self but in this campaign Clinton went through more costume changes than a rock diva: heir to the throne; Xena, warrior princess; hardened pol, feminist icon.
In January she thanked New Hampshire voters for "helping me find my voice" but that happy moment was still a long ways off. In Ohio and then Pennsylvania she channeled a surprisingly convincing blend of Rocky Balboa and Norma Rae in courting America's least visible, least fashionable, constituency: hard scrabble, small town whites.
At first it was a marriage of convenience: she desperately needed votes; they desperately needed to be noticed by someone in power. That the former Wellesley commencement speaker went over so well at the Altoona K-Mart was a surprise some imputed to race.
To some of those voters Obama's race did matter. His pastor mattered to more of them; his words at that San Francisco fundraiser set them all on edge. But his real problem is how he sometimes seemed not to notice them. Calls for unity and reform float past people who've lost jobs, pensions, health care, even their homes and who suspect reason and civility alone won't get them back.
This is actually good news, if only because it's never too late to notice people. Just ask Hillary, who morphed overnight into the people's tribune after twenty years as a corporate-friendly centrist.
As was said of Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich, her performance was a revelation. Maybe that's all it was, a performance, but my sense of her is that populism of a sort was always part of her identity, even if it wasn't part of her plan. Back in the health care fight she certainly wielded that sword.
Until March, Clinton was utterly tone deaf. Egged on by Bill and 'chief strategist' Mark Penn she defended lobbyists and attack ads as a nation retched. Penn told her voters cared about her capacity to be commander in chief. They cared more about her capacity to tell the truth. Each time she overreached, pandered or attacked, she lost ground.
You'd think one of the sharpies on her payroll would have whispered to her that her stratospheric negatives left no margin for that sort of thing. Apparently not. By the time she woke up she'd been outspent, outvoted, ridiculed and written off. That's when she started winning, proving once again that in this life we grow more from pain than virtue.
She's no William Jennings Bryan but her late victories proved even a little bit of populism may go a long way this year. As "change" trumped "experience" in January and February, "fighting for an embattled middle class" blew away "bringing us together" in March, April, May and June.
No matter their race, people struggling to get by know better than affluent liberals how little respect power has for reason. They're ready to fight to win back what's rightly theirs. Obama must now convince them he's ready too.
People remembering Robert Kennedy this week compared him to Obama. Barack's more like Jack than Bobby: Both built campaigns on an undifferentiated idealism and sheer personal magnetism. Both are post ideological figures who belie cultural stereotypes. Like Jack, Barack has a cool, wry detachment and preternatural poise.
But this isn't 1960. We're in deeper trouble now; in hard times people aren't so easily transported by silken rhetoric. And it's useful to recall that facing a lesser prejudice, Kennedy barely eked out a win over an evil gnome.
For likability, John McCain's closer to Ike than Nixon. It may be his only edge. McCain wants town hall meetings. He'll find them harder with two candidates in the room. Still, debates alone don't win elections. In picking a vice president, Obama should recall how Jack Kennedy swallowed hard to take LBJ and how it all worked out. And he should remember Bobby, who went to Appalachia and Salinas and the Mississippi Delta, saw poverty and found a voice and a calling.
Like Obama, Robert Kennedy knew the old categories and solutions were useless. Though liberal, he was deeply skeptical of bureaucracy, wary of busing and welfare. Talking to government, he said, was like "shouting up a waterfall." With Ralph Nader he shared a vision of empowering citizens, consumers and workers of all races, ages and incomes.
Obama's campaign circulates two ideas that are dangerous if believed. The first is that just to know him is to love him. By the time he won the nomination his negatives were nearly as high as Clinton's; in the closing months she did in fact win more votes. A popularity contest with McCain would be even tougher.
The second is that he can win without the traditional swing stated in which she defeated him. It is a theory that underestimates McCain's strength in the Southwest and overstates the general similarity between primary and general election voters in the Southeast.
Obama must go back to West Virginia, where Jack Kennedy proved he could talk to Protestants; to Ohio, where John Kerry fell just a health care plan short of the presidency; to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida, where any Democrat who would be President must talk to people who don't look or talk like him.
Bobby taught Democrats, the few who were listening, how to go to those places; how to listen; what to say; lessons Hillary Clinton was just learning; lesson Obama would do well to ponder, perhaps in the company of his vanquished foe.
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
Myself, i thought for some one who was admitting a loss, she spent way too much time beating her own drum. But, then this was her big show, I thought her half/hearted attempt at convincing her supporters to go to Obama, was a little off target. Is she planning to join Mcsame on the republican ticket? She and Baggage Bill are not to well aligned to change. And Mcsame, and Hillary are already on the same page. Did anyone forget the Clinton gas tax? 5 cents wasn't it? From the way gas went up a holiday would not have mattered much. The way is forward, but ever increasingly up until November. When the people get a man bent on change in a country full of people afraid of change, and a congress that can't get anything done and don't know what change means. Good luck Obama your going to need it!!!
Obama/Biden '08
Jack was so afraid that he would not be able to govern with Johnson and 3 years later he was dead.
Sometimes it isn't good to keep your enemies closer. Johnson's company blackbird sold most of the arms for Vietnam, Hmmm. I must be a conspiracy guy to think folks care about money.
UR right, sometimes ur enemy may be too powerful to keep around. Like Prs Carter said, Obama/Clinton would be a disaster. Remember Clinton aide Foster sucide? Too much baggage for the White House. And I do like the Clinton, but....
A mature, white male with foreign policy experience would be more ideal vp for Obama.
1.......“i
2....... “Obama should recall how Jack Kennedy swallowed hard to take LBJ and how it all worked out.” Worked out? JFK was planning on removing LBJ from the 1964 ticket because of LBJ’s associations with the Este & Baxter, scandals which were being arranged for congressional hearings. Clinton also has too much baggage, drama and who dunit to move into the White House as a Veep.
1) “in the closing months she [Hillary Clinton] did in fact win more votes.” Please stop perpetuating this lie. Back in Jan 08, I was a stronge supporter of the Clintons, then I went to an Obama campaign rally, and change my support and voted for Obama in the CA priamaries. For you to say she won the popular vote without the opportunity for Obama to compaign in FL and MI, is just not accurate nor factual and my shift in vote along with the potential of millons of others is the reason why.
2) “Obama should recall how Jack Kennedy swallowed hard to take LBJ and how it all worked out.” Worked out? JFK was planning on removing LBJ from the 1964 ticket because of LBJ’s associations with the Este & Baxter, scandals which were being arranged for congressional hearings. Clinton also has too much baggage, drama and who dunit to move into the White House as a Veep.
Stop Lying. Unless you counted the 7 states that had caucases you aren't being honst.
How can you expect ot be treated fairly when you openly cheat and lie. We don't feel sorry for you.
You must stand on the strength of your ideas, not the strength of our sympathy
I mean those that say Hilary won the popular vote stop lying, not polisic2008
Your characterization of Mr. Obama and Mr. Kennedy: “Both are post ideological figures who belie cultural stereotype
Our historical obligation is to tell our selves stories about our national life, that are based on empirically verifiable facts. Not refractions of our own hopes, as viable as hope is, it cannot support that. John and Bobby Kennedy deserve more that our wish of what they were. Our historical memory is faulty, and needs the cold bath of facts, argument, and empiricism.
While many still recall the 'promise' of the Kennedys, in truth, it was not Kennedy, but Johnson who was effective in getting bills passed with his fight against poverty. Those of us over 65 know that it was Johnson who gave us Medicare and enriched social security and got the Congress to go along with his ideas. While idealism makes us feel good, what matters in the end is effectiveness in working with the Congress.
And, it's difficult to say who will manage that, and what the make-up of the Congress is likely to be.
And let us not forget that Kennedy was shot to death 3 years after he picked Johnson, so it didn't work out so well for him. If you hire your replacement to be VP. Someone just might replace you. Not Hilary, but have you read some of the delusional unhinged people argueing for fair play with a lie of the popular vote for Hilary. Don't do it.
Obama/Biden '08
Why can't Ba--rack just be Ba-rack?
Jack Kennedy did not face lesser prejudice, it was a different dynamic but a wall nonetheless, that might have even got him killed. Remember, a WASP had always been President. Sorry. Did you go to Ireland during the 1970s. The Protestant Catholic hate was unbelievable. People in America were afraid in 1960 that Jack was going to take directions from the Pope. This being said, Jack had managed to grasp the imagination of the public, despite his ties to the artist community, elites, White Ethnics, etc. But in the end, he was himself.
So this is the problem I have with many baby boomers, nostalgiaing - No, Julia Roberts is not Audrey Hepburn, Bill Clinton was not JFK, George Clooney is not Carey Grant, etc. No we should not remake TV series into movies. But I digress.
And stop comparing Obama to Kennedy. They have the same inspirational soul, that God gave them but no, they are different. And if Barrack Obama does go to West Virginia, Kentucky, there are people there willing, same in California, same in Montana, and the same in Utah. And by the way, if McCain was close to Ike in likability why is it that Eisenhowers granddaughter, a Republican stalwart endorsed Obama. No comparisons please. Eisenhowers granddaughter knows this.
Let's also be realistic. Since, JFK, who didn't finish his term, we still have not had a non-WASP President.
The question may be whether a BASP (Black Anglo Speaking Protestant) just a post-civil rights fight version of a WASP. Or if American has truly gotten over some other kinds of prejudices beyond racism?
We have never had President with a vowel on the end of his name. Have we even ever had one that was a son or even grandson of an immigrant?
mm
He is an amalgam of John Kennedy and Martin Luther King-- you're right on the Bobby thing-- he is cool under fire- graceful under pressure-- that is JFK's signature - not Bobby's- Bobby was emotional and wore his heart on his sleeve--
I agree that Obama has constantly talked to voters about the real problems that face them and I also agree that he could start delivering high paying jobs right now and many of those voters won't vote for him based on race and race alone. They'd rather eek out their measly existance and vote White, no matter what the cost to their futures. That's not to say that many couldn't be reached but how many, enough? Obama and his campaign are strategists. The primaries proved this. I have no doubt they know the demographics and where race is going to hinder him and they've got a strategy for them.
He now must use his family background. These on the fence voters, prejudiced voters and those that just aren't sure need to identify. They have to put his White family forward. His aunts, uncles, all of them especially the small town family. He has to tell them of his days working at Baskin Robbins, not having enough money to get a place to stay. He has to show them that he doesn't just FEEL their pain but has LIVED their pain! These people more than likely won't read his books so they won't know.
He DOES have to go among them. His is a persona that is practically irristable and if someone can turn their minds, I believe it would be him.
Barack is more like Jimmy Carter than Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a hawk when it came to national defense. Jimmy perceived all the ills of the world through a lens of self analysis and self critique. Ok for a minister, not ok for a president. Jack, Jimmy and Barack are all considered idealistic and willing to go the extra mile...to meet the other party halfway. Jack was perceived by the Russians as naive and weak...so was Jimmy...so will be Barack.
.
Obama will sweeep all 50 states ...
.
I don't think that Obama should even try to do anything in West Virginia because they are just far too racist. I've been to Southwestern Pennsylvania and I asked around about the whole "bitter" nonsense and no one really seemed to care. They said that they knew that he was talking about the economy and the media treats them like they can't think for themselves.
Thank you for stating what must be obvious to people but they are too insincere to say.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
