Last Sunday evening I attended the San Francisco fundraiser that has been the center of recent political jousting. The next day, when asked about the talk Obama delivered, I too commented about his answer to a question he was asked about Pennsylvania. Over the past week, though, I have had a Rashomon-like experience concerning those remarks.
Clinton, McCain, and media pundits have parsed a blogger's audio tape of Obama's remarks and criticized a sentence or two characterizing some parts of Pennsylvania and the attitudes of some Pennsylvanians. In context and in person, Senator Obama's remarks about Pennsylvania voters left an impression diametrically opposed to that being trumpeted by his competitor's campaigns.
At the end of Obama's remarks standing between two rooms of guests -- the fourth appearance in California after traveling earlier in the day from Montana -- a questioner asked, "some of us are going to Pennsylvania to campaign for you. What should we be telling the voters we encounter?"
Obama's response to the questioner was that there are many, many different sections in Pennsylvania comprised of a range of racial, geographic, class, and economic groupings from Appalachia to Philadelphia. So there was not one thing to say to such diverse constituencies in Pennsylvania. But having said that, Obama went on say that his campaign staff in Pennsylvania could provide the questioner (an imminent Pennsylvania volunteer) with all the talking points he needed. But Obama cautioned that such talking points were really not what should be stressed with Pennsylvania voters.
Instead he urged the volunteer to tell Pennsylvania voters he encountered that Obama's campaign is about something more than programs and talking points. It was at this point that Obama began to talk about addressing the bitter feelings that many in some rural communities in Pennsylvania have about being brushed aside in the wake of the global economy. Senator Obama appeared to theorize, perhaps improvidently given the coverage this week, that some of the people in those communities take refuge in political concerns about guns, religion and immigration. But what has not so far been reported is that those statements preceded and were joined with additional observations that black youth in urban areas are told they are no longer "relevant" in the global economy and, feeling marginalized, they engage in destructive behavior. Unlike the week's commentators who have seized upon the remarks about "bitter feelings" in some depressed communities in Pennsylvania, I gleaned a different meaning from the entire answer.
First, I noted immediately how dismissive his answer had been about "talking points" and ten point programs and how he used the question to urge the future volunteer to put forward a larger message central to his campaign. That pivot, I thought, was remarkable and unique. Rather than his seizing the opportunity to recite stump-worn talking points at that time to the audience -- as I believe Senator Clinton, Senator McCain and most other more conventional (or more disciplined) politicians at such an appearance might do -- Senator Obama took a different political course in that moment, one that symbolizes important differences about his candidacy.
The response that followed sounded unscripted, in the moment, as if he were really trying to answer a question with intelligent conversation that explained more about what was going on in the Pennsylvania communities than what was germane to his political agenda. I had never heard him or any politician ever give such insightful, analytical responses. The statements were neither didactic nor contrived to convince. They were simply hypotheses (not unlike the kind made by de Tocqueville three centuries ago ) offered by an observer familiar with American communities. And that kind of thoughtfulness was quite unexpected in the middle of a political event. In my view, the way he answered the question was more important than the sociological accuracy or the cause and effect hypotheses contained in the answer. It was a moment of authenticity demonstrating informed intelligence, and the speaker's desire to have the audience join him in a deeper understanding of American politics.
There has been little or no reaction to the part of the answer that was addressed to the hopelessness of inner city youth who have been rendered "irrelevant" to the global economy. No one has seized upon those words as "talking down" to the inner city youth whose plight he was addressing. If extracted from an audio tape HuffPost Blogger Fowler, those remarks could (and may yet) be taken out of context as "Obama excuses alienation and violence by urban youth." But in context, Senator Obama's response sounded like empathetic conclusions and opinions of a keen observer: more like Margaret Mead than Machiavelli.
As the week's firestorm evolved over these remarks at which I was an accidental observer, I have reflected upon the regrettable irony that has emerged from Senator Obama's response to a friendly question: no good effort at intelligent analysis, candor -- and what I heard as an attempt to convey a profound understanding of both what people feel and why they feel it - goes unpunished. Such insights by a political candidate might otherwise be valued. In a national campaign subject to opposition research, his analytical musing has instead created an immense amount of political flak.
Now and "in this time," to invoke one of the candidate's favorite riffs, such observations and remarks shared among supporters are just a push of a record button on a tape recorder away from being spread across the internet to be dissected by political nabobs. What struck me immediately after the fundraiser as so refreshing turned out to be a moment Senator Obama is forced to regret. Today we marvel at de Tocqueville insights about American communities. Apparently, such commentary is valued as long as it is three centuries old and doesn't come from the mouth of a contemporary observer who might be elected president.
So much for the political ironies. But there is one more personal observation that was missed.
I happened to be on the balcony when Senator Obama's vehicles arrived and he emerged from the Secret Service SUV. Obama shouted the friendly greeting "How are you guys up there doing?" to the group of us looking down from the balcony and then said, "You have to excuse me, I need to call my kids in Chicago now." 
All of us stood and watched the leading candidate for the Democratic party nomination for president have a short conversation with his kids before he entered a fundraiser to make his remarks.
No tape of that conversation has emerged as yet. Who knows how casual remarks of a father to his children or his wife on a cell phone could be spun to support the argument that as a father speaking to his kids two time zones away before they go to bed, his comments sounded as if he "looked down" upon them. Given his relative height and the age of his kids, he probably does. But that would be precisely as relevant to his capacity to unite and lead this country as were the remarks at the fundraiser that have been so deconstructed over this past week.
"OBAMA: So, it depends on where you are, but I think it's fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people are most cynical about government... the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania..."
Too bad you weren't able to share this as a talking head this week. The truth--combined with your reflections on Obama's underlying sincerity at this forum--would have been so refreshing.
Your insight--that Obama is sincere, thoughtful, and intelligent and treats voters as if he expects them to be the same--will continued to be lost in the media. My son, watching the pseudo-debate on Wednesday, said, "They're going to destroy his optimism about people, aren't they?"
I said, "I hope not. I hope Obama's really the one who can change the "gotchas" over things that don't matter in our lives, and get rid of endless talking points that pass for political dialogue in this country."
Yes we can. (?)
As I told my wife, "Obama may actually care about us, if he's taking our story to contributors all the way across the country." I actually felt as though we were suddenly noticed by someone in power. One can only hope....
I cross the twisting and turning Monongahela River THREE times each morning on my way to work in the Strip District of Pittsburgh. I drive the back way in through Squirrel Hill and Penn Avenue. When I heard Obama's remarks i reacted EXACTLY like you "What's all the fuss about? He's exactly right!!"
There are people in Pennsylvania who are Jim Crow under their skin. Everyone knows it. My Dad with his boyhood friends found one of his buddie's father's Klan outfits in the 1920's. They were utterly shocked but tried it on anyway as nine year old boys before hiding it back under the bed. That element was clearly here under the surface back then. Everyone knows it.
There are people in little towns that are dumber than a bag of depleted uranium hammers. You have people holding onto their guns very tightly like their guns are their dicks. That is about all you can do when entire industries are gone. Your job is gone and is never coming back. So all you have is your gun to be your symbolic dick and Jesus to pray to for help. So what else is new?
Everyone here knows the fix people are in. We dug the coal and made the steel to build New York City over the 19th and 20th Centuries and the investment bankers could now give a rat's ass about us now. So what's the big wup? I
Damn, I do miss Myron Cope!
I was not at the fundraiser, but I had a similar response when I first read Obama's words. (I first read them on Huffington Post, embedded in a slightly larger context than the one-sentence sound byte they became.) I was struck by the depth of intelligence, turn of mind, and capacity for reflection on subtle complexity that they revealed. This from a politician, someone who could be our next president. It evoked a certain awe in me, as does this essay by Mr. Coleman. Please keep writing, keep offering your perceptions. It is only with enough voices like these that the public, political discourse will be elevated, and enough people will be able to perceive the special opportunity we have now to change the direction of this country and, perhaps, the world.
For as long as I remember I've heard it said that a man is as good as his word. When a man's word is twisted and snipped beyond recognition it pretty much defiles that correlation.
Talk about trial by fire. If Barack Obama can take the heat of this contest, I think it's fair to say his spine is at least as steely as Hillary's.
However, I am convinced that the vast majority of fair minded people will not
take Senator Obama's words out of context. This time, "the good guy" is going
to win!
More than that, Barack Obama is a man who is able to shrug off insults and continue to tell the truth. May he continue in this path.
He is most certainly a man of righteousness and he deserves to be our President. Let us make that happen. Not for his sake, but the sake of all righteous Americans. We do deserve a President as good as he could be.
And what a blessing it would be to go from "The Worst President Ever" to a President we could trust and respect and, even, love -- like Barack Obama. I'm a devout atheist and I still hope that your God will bless Barack. We all (of different beliefs or disbeliefs) can come together to support a new America, one that a man like Barack Obama can lead.
I, personally, don't care about his religious beliefs. I care about his political beliefs. And I support him.
I reserve the right to criticize him, but I will gladly vote for Barack Obama for President. He deserves it.
Where is John Edwards when you need him?
Whether he endorsed my preferred candidate or not, he is such an important voice on labor and health issues that I feel he needs to be a part of this very important national conversation. I don't understand his silence and almost total withdrawal from the field of battle. Where is he? America needs him.
Once we have our nominee I'm sure you will see more from John.
The media, with its pressing need to capture headlines for viewership (Huffington Post included), readership, ratings, etc., often appears as if they are STUCK ON STUPID. It is quite unfortunate, the accountability is missing and not required, particularly by the respective audiences.
If the presidency of George W. Bush has taught America anything it is the importance of appropriately placing value on societal issues which are critical to the well-being of all its citizens. Quite honestly, the greatest change a President Obama will bring is someone who is smart and intelligent, insightful, a man of character who thinks before he speaks and possessive of a passion to restore America to its greatness.
I would not count on the media to responsibly report your more comprehensive account of this meeting (some redemption for Huffington Post for this printing). Perhaps Mr. Obama's staff can work this into a "What Was Really Said in SanFrancisco" leaflet and get it to the folks of PA before next Tuesday.
Again, thank you.
until everyone hears it? This is the man.
I wish the Obama campaign would let this info.
out. It is why he is so gracious. He was raised mostly by
women and lives around mostly women. He has
a softness, a kindness, and a GRACE.
Please spread the word.