In Indiana, Obama Dreams Not of His Father

by on May 4, 2008 3

I just watched Obama’s speech at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Indianapolis. Obama’s call to sacrifice and idealism is exalted, especially compared to Hillary’s claylike intonations, her gas-tax pandering  and countless references to "oil companies." In telling his own story, Obama cited the lives of his grandparents, the Dunhams, in a small town in Kansas, his mother’s struggles as a single mom on food stamps, and his father-in-law Mr. Robinson’s going to work every day despite multiple sclerosis, putting his kids thru good colleges. Inspiring. But he made no reference to his Kenyan father, Barack Obama, who is at the center of Obama’s first book, Dreams From My Father. Maybe Obama has decided that his bespectacled intellectual father is too exotic to be mentioned now that he is reaching out to working people. Or maybe it has to do with Rev. Wright. Obama mentioned Jeremiah Wright as "a former pastor," in a litany of trivial incidents that have gotten in the way of real issues. It was curt and dismissive. But Wright was a father figure for Obama, whose own father abandoned him; I wonder if the recent separation from Wright has opened the old father-wound. Obama’s a sphinx psychologically; we’ll be studying this stuff for many years.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in US Politics

{ 3 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. liberal white boy says:
    May 5, 2008 at 7:16 am

    As a resident of Indiana I shall soon be casting my vote against AIPAC's Iran obliteration butt girl.

    Hillary's Deal With The Devil

    http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2006/11/hillarys-deal-with-devil.html

  2. Oarwell says:
    May 5, 2008 at 10:14 am

    Lots of people come from broken homes, Phil, it's not determinative.

    What I liked was his reasoned and reasonable plan to withdraw troops from Iraq. Also, his principled refusal to "pander" by recommending cutting the Federal gasoline tax (which he ably explained during the Russert love-fest).

    The guy seems like a relatively honest broker (for a politician, a breed always to be mistrusted, never worshipped), and I take his policy pronouncements at face value. Issues matter, not psychohistorical musings.

    In contradistinction to Hellary (as an aside, how on earth do you maintain that eye's wide expression throughout an interview? Botox?), who never answers the question, and simply regurgitates pat answers from her mental filing basket, Obama seems to actually think about what it is he's saying, as if his words matter. How refreshing, after 7 years of Bush's scrambled syntax and pugnaciousness.

    How anyone other than troglodytes can watch these interviews and not come away knowing that Obama is the most thoughtful and reasonable of the three majors is beyond me.

    I'm a little troubled by his enthusiasm for the Afghanistan occupation, but once we're out of Iraq it'll be a lot easier to end our involvement there. Anyway, can't we just convince the Taliban that sky-rocketing opium production is a GOOD thing? I mean, what are they, religious fanatics or something?

  3. Charles Keating says:
    May 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    What could be more symbolic of the contempt and scorn a typical politican has for the femine American masses than Hillary standing in a gas-guzzling truckbed, proclaiming she will buy our vote for $28 a month for three months?

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