Reading The Pictures: The Obama Connection

The difference between Obama and Clinton (either one) is that the Clintons are like LBJ, and Obama is like JFK, or RFK, or even Reagan.

Obama is a personal politician and the Clintons are parliamentarians. Although one imagines Obama will be perfectly adept at coalition building, bringing home the bacon, and managing a bureaucracy, his overriding strength is that he communicates directly to the individual.

Eighty thousand people, and every one feels like he's talking directly to them.

Update 10:13 am MST: In the previous version of this post, written at four in the morning as team effort, we were drawing a comparison between Obama (and JFK and RFK) and the Clintons (and LBJ) simply (we believed) as a way to highlight Obama's overriding skill at communicating to the individual. In the light of dawn after a long week, however, I see how the comments have the unintended effect of rekindling "Clinton versus Obama" and, more importantly, detracting from the overall story of the evening and the images.

In a week deliberately laden with historical echoes (JFK's 1960 Los Angeles Coliseum speech, MLK's 1963 March on Washington, and even LBJ's 100th birthday), what shone through on the final night as Barack Obama made his triumphant acceptance of the Democratic nomination was, once again, his personal connection and even magic.

The man in the first image under Obama is his political mentor, Emil Jones, president of the Illinois Senate.

For more of the visual, including our coverage of the DNC live from Denver, visit BAGnewsNotes.com.

(Images © Alan Chin.  Denver. 2008)

For more Huffington Post coverage of the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.

Follow Michael Shaw on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bagnewsnotes

Comments

[chinationreport]

I think his speeches after South Carolina, or after Iowa, or at Springfield when he announced the running were all better than this one. But he had to deliver a speech to a different audience. It is a shame that he has to use less rhetoric power just to prove that he is not an elitist. But nevertheless, he is still so much smarter and more powerful than McCain. http://www.chinationreport.com/

[littlepuffycloud]

Thank you for the outstanding photographs...just beautiful. You captured the emotions of the crowd so well.

[MamaBird62]

Ahh, how soon they forget. I was in DC in 1993, when Clinton was sworn in. It was a huge moment and deeply personal for many of us - the end of the Reagan/Bush era (or so we thought!). Bill reached people of all persuasions and could definitely communicate on a personal level, and many of us cried when he spoke. Later we cried again but that was another story...

[realtalk]

Obama is going to be a great president, and Joe Biden is going to be a great vice president!!! ALL democrats MUST get out and vote this NOVEMBER!!!

The republicans will be out in FULL force, so EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT "MUST, MUST, MUST" get out and VOTE!!!

Democrats MUST, MUST get out in FULL FORCE on NOVEMBER 4th!

[Boikin]

PT Barnum Meet Elmer Gantry

[ESerafina42]

I thought Obama gave a great speech last night, but while I can tell that intellectually and I agree with every word he said, the last time he made ANY connection with me at all on a gut level was in the 2004 convention speech. On the other hand, Bill had me with him all the way. They're both great speakers in their own way, but IMHO no one can do it like the Big Dog.

[jmpurser]

As far as Obama goes I think you have a point.

HOWEVER! Comparing LBJ with his record on civil rights and doing the right thing for America when it really hurt him politically to the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" "Politics of the possible" Clintons is just WRONG!!!

[Hereslookingatu]

Be more careful when choosing your photos next time. The older African-American man in your photo is not some random voter moved by Obama, but Obama's political mentor, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones.

[blaze]

To claim that Bill Clinton did not speak directly to the "everyman/woman" is revisionist history as disingenuous as any we see from Republicans.
I think the Democratic Party needs to revisit "parliamentary" politics. It does us no good to "reinvent" the party every four years.
When we see great minds and great leaders like Bill Clinton and Al Gore make the case for Democrats, it shows that the Party is healthy.
Remember.. Bill Clinton has already done what Barack Obama wants to do... and he did it with a Republican Congress.

[BillShea]

It wasn't a Republican Congress in 1992 when Clinton became president. It was a Democratic congress. Hillary's mismanaged health care reform created the Newt Gingrich Contract for America and the result was a Republican Congress. Billary created the Republican Congress; he didn't inherit it.

[Fabienne]

What did Bill Clinton do that Obama wants to do? He deregulated the communications industry and the banking industry. He passed NAFTA and welfare "reform". He signed the Defense of Marriage Act and initiated "don't ask don't tell". He killed thousands of people in Iraq with bombs and sanctions. This is not to say he did not do some positive things, but they were few and far between and his dalliance with Lewinsky cost the country and the Democrats a year of bad press. There were no long-term benefits for health care, the environment, eradicating poverty that came out of his Presidency. He balanced the budget (with the help of the high-tech boom), put more first responders on the streets, and a few other things, but in general he was a lackluster President who governed by usurping Republican ideas, thus inciting their wrath.

[martina1965]

He was elected a Democratic president. Twice. No matter how much you denounce Clinton achievements, Obama ability to be elected remains to be seen...

[Realbluesky]

I like your post with the exception of you mentioning Reagan. Reagan was a professional actor and a horrible president. He put this nation on a downward spiral and we will feel the effects for the rest of our lives. Just mentioning his name in the same post as Obama is sickening. Obama has lived what he speaks of. It's not just a role he's playing.

[jbatch]

I like Obama, and I believe he did a masterful job with the speech last night. However, I knew LBJ (in the way a voter knows the candidate) and I know Bill Clinton (in the same way). and Bill Clinton, sir, is no LBJ.

Didn't you see his speech the other night? Could LBJ do that? Never in a million years.

Bill Clinton is a star with charisma, intellect and an intuitive sense of how to connect with people. As is Barack Obama.

You're so far off on this post you may never find your way back here without a flashlight and a map.

[Gma11]

I hadn't seen the similarity before, but now that it's mentioned I do.

LBJ, the great womanizer (in a different way than JFK), bawdy jokes, slapstick and backslapping, etc.

JFK - smooth, witty, charming, intelligent, classy, etc.

[jbatch]

Except no one ever accused LBJ of having charisma, or of being a true world class intellect ... read Krugman's column on Clinton's speech. Might I also add that JFK was a bigger womanizer than LBJ could ever hope to be.

And then there is the point of this article -- how folks connected with the candidate's and how their speeches resonated.

Bill and Barack are in a class by themselves.

[Fabienne]

I heard an excerpt from an LBJ speech a few weeks back and it was brilliant, using language that may be too complex for the average voter today, and certainly as compelling as anything Bill Clinton ever said.

[S1m0n]

"...the Clintons are parliamentarians"

The young Bill was like Obama. Hillary isn't, but 'parliamentarian' isn't the right term. She's a machine politician, not a parliamentarian. With Hillary, everything happens in back roo is theatre.

This contrasts with a real parliament, in which the paliament is the public face of power.

[considerthis]

I haven't felt as good as I do this morning in the past 8 years.

[Nofuzzydreams]

Bullcrap!! He will lose in November so all his big talk will remain on paper. A Clinton would have won and done some good.

[vitasackvillewesttexas]

don't be a hater fuzzy. wake up, brush your teeth and feel good about the world for a while. it's o.k.

[Realbluesky]

You should remember that Clinton voted to give bush power to go to war, thus enabling the republicans to rape the country and pillage the treasury. Since you're hoping Obama will lose in November, then I guess you want the repubs to remain in power and destroy what's left of the country.

[ESerafina42]

Funny - I seem to remember that Joe Biden voted the same way, as well as being instrumental in giving the American worker the gift that keeps on giving, the 2005 bankruptcy bill. I think he's a pretty good choice and would make a great VP (unlike the female version of Dan Quayle), but please, before you throw stones, look around and make sure your house isn't made of glass.

[Indy11]

At this stage, we can praise and admire Obama without dissing the Clintons.

[Kynn]

Comparing the Clintons to LBJ isn't a diss at all.

Other then Vietnam and a few other things, LBJ was a very good president who got a lot done that no one thought he could.

It's a comparison of style, not of substance.