History is a dialogue between humanity and time. And humanity's nothing more than the sum of individual behaviors - millions of them - behaviors that eventually become currents and patterns only visible at a distance. Barack Obama saw something in those patterns that everyone else missed. And he was sure enough of his vision to risk everything ... everything ... on what he saw.
Remember that period in August, right before the convention, when it looked like Obama was going the route of so many past Democratic candidates? When it looked like he was needlessly reaching out a conciliatory hand toward a party and a movement determined to destroy him? When the coming election was starting to look like a bout between Dukakis and Tyson?
Democrats have spent a generation scolding their losing candidates for being too high-minded and courteous. Now they're standing at the cusp of a new generation, congratulating their new President for the very same qualities they resented in candidates past. What changed? And why did Obama risk following a strategy that had failed so often in recent campaigns?
One possible answer: He was gambling. He was gambling that the political universe of 2008 was not what it had been in 2004, or 2000, or 1988. He could have run the old playbook this summer, the one so many of us were recommending. It looked like a safer strategy at the time.
But Obama didn't play it safe. And he stayed calm and focused - "one cool customer," as folks used to say - even when those around him were starting to panic. Coolness and intuition: the twin gifts of the successful gambler.
But if he was gambling, it was because he had a longer-term goal in mind: He didn't just want to win. He wanted to win in a way that would enable him to govern according to his particularly unific vision of governance. And he was so sure he would win - that the currents of history were with him - that he took a chance. He gambled that this time the politics of division would fail.
Some of Obama's supporters argued at the time that he was playing "rope-a-dope," letting his opponents exhaust themselves by throwing wild punches. Maybe. Yet those Republican moves had always worked before. Then came the economy, and the nomination of Sarah Palin, and the momentum shifted irrevocably away from John McCain.
Barack Obama could not have known that these things would happen. So, what did he know - to paraphrase the old Watergate expression - and why did he know it?
The "why" is hard to answer. Call it intuition, or instinct, or just a gambler's sixth sense. But Obama saw something in the zeitgeist. He drew it out from the confluence of economics, demographics, science, popular culture, and whatever else was shaping his thoughts. From the white noise, the static of endlessly flowing information, he saw a pattern - a hopeful pattern. There's no word yet for that kind of talent, the talent of perceiving the imperceptible patterns behind historical and social trends, then guiding them and shaping them for a given purpose.
Oh, wait. Yes there is. It's called leadership. It's nearly a lost art, but Obama's brought it back.
That doesn't make me a starry-eyed cult follower. The history of his Presidency has yet to be written. There are many stones in his path, and many people and ideas competing for his attention. But Barack Obama is an observer. Want to influence his Presidency? Add yourself to the flow of information, the ebb and flow of humanity. If enough like-minded people do the same, the current will shift in your direction. Barack Obama will be watching. (But let's not get overly dependent on Presidential-level leadership, either. Change happens on many levels.)
I didn't see what Obama saw two years ago. And yet I, and millions of others, eventually had the sense that what he saw was fundamentally right. Eventually people like me - people whose policy positions more closely matched those of other candidates - trusted their intuition about Barack Obama.
One person saw the shifting patterns of history. Then he had faith ... faith that the pattern was real and that his perception was accurate. With that faith, and nothing but that faith, he gambled on the outcome of this election. He gambled that he could win without practicing divisive politics ... even when that would have been safer course. With that faith he took the course of history and molded it to achieve what seemed impossible.
With that faith, whatever happens next, Barack Obama has already changed the world.
RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:
A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog
Future-While-U-Wait
Follow RJ Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow
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And you have to give it to him, the man does have substance too, not just style. In fact, this is the first time I see style and substance competing for attention and attraction against each other in a man.
He is a leader. We need a leader. That's enough. Please, everyone, stop mythologiz
Granted, America is a conservati
I was listening to some obnoxious guy on the radio the other day, I think on the golden shower radio network, claimed there was nothing wrong with the conservati
The fact is an American did run for the presidency on a conservati
That mans name was Barack Obama.
That mans title is now President-
He is a man driven by an inner spirit that thrives on potential and solutions to problems that others only falter at, giving up too quickly.
When he says "we are better than that" and then shows he is "better than that", we have a vision to follow.
It really got everyone's attention when he didn't follow the urges to get in there and "get ugly" and "go for the kill" and act likesome rowdy teen-aged hothead. He was the better man...he didn't tell us all to get our heads outof our asses and shame us, he showed us.
You just knew that not having a father to guide him had inspired him to act like a father should act, and to be a good model and leader.
Many Americans opened a place in their hearts for this fatherless welfare kid who got an education in spite of his many roadblocks
How much more American can it be to elect a man President that had only recently paid off his student loans?! What a story.
Carol
You mentioned something that I've been thinking about from a different angle. You said that he saw "patterns"
I think he kind of sees the world like an artist. He doesn't see "the problem" he sees every little detail that connects to make the problem. He sees America as a sum of all it's parts. He sees the patterns. ( If that makes sense.)
And I hope he has better luck with the art of presidency than I do with my pencil. I believe he will. I'm stick - figure. He'll be a da Vinci.
Obama's demeanor matched the policy rhetoric and I think therefore made it believable to more people. In short kerry looked angry attacking bush policy and Obama looked calm and certain.
As someone who loved westerns and John Wayne as a kid Obama came across as John Wayne. Willing to fight but in a calm confident manner and never really relishing the fight.
Not to mention did you see any pictures of Obama windsurfin
Everyone running for office is essentiall