Obama was spectacular on "60 Minutes" last night, spectacular. I watched with my jaw open. Anyone who doubted this man's abilities I want to laugh at today. The command of facts and ideas, the sense of priority, the cool executive manner, and the bracing straightforwardness when he felt it necessary–bluntly stating that he would close Guantanamo and end the use of torture–this is one of the great men of our time, and maybe any time. We shall see, of course; but he continues to grow, and he understands the moment. Imagine George Bush at this moment 8 years ago.
I'm always interested in the personal, and I found the interview fascinating on those grounds. When Steve Kroft tried to probe the inner Obama, Obama deftly parried him. Kroft was asking about his mother-in-law moving in to the White House, and Obama with slight irritation and a big smile, said, These questions are more about you than me, Steve; you need tips on how to get along with your mother-in-law? Back off, man. End of discussion.
Obama was just as smooth and evasive when it came to the black question. When Kroft asked about the significance of the victory for him as a black American, Obama refused to go there, as he refused in his speech on Election Night. He put it off on someone else: his mother-in-law. He said that for a black person growing up in the 50s, it was stunning to witness election night. He deflected all that feeling on to his mother-in-law, and they showed the photograph of Obama with his mother-in-law at the Hyatt on Election Night, him holding her hand as she wept.
My wife had mentioned this photo earlier in the day. We were walking and I said, What is Obama's racial identification? She said, Black. He grew up in a white milieu and gravitated toward the black world ultimately, and felt at home there. I said, I imagine that he had as much to get over as you and I did, coming from Jewish and WASP backgrounds. She said she didn't think so; that this was the world he was comfortable in: the aristocratic/street atmosphere of the Robinson family. And it is true that in Dreams From My Father, Obama says that he loved a white girl from a wealthy background in the east, and split up with her over racial identity issues. No name provided, not even a pseudonym. Obama brings his privacy down like a cloak. We will find out who she is in 30 years.
That narrative happened a long time ago, and I think Obama is trying to become post-racial. The feeling of the interview was that he did not want to identify himself openly as black. This is a powerful form of identification; it sends a signal to all white people that this man does not look at things that way, is not imprisoned by identity politics. In the opposite way to how Clinton used identity politics: he was the first black president, the first Jewish president. In a sense, Obama is the first non-black president.
Last week's "60 Minutes" had Obama's inner circle claiming that they never thought about race, never talked about it. This is absurd; and I sense a fraud, they thought about it all the time. David Remnick showed as much in his piece on Obama and race last week where a friend of David Axelrod's gives the maxim of the campaign: "No radioactive blacks." Jeremiah Wright was tossed out two years ago and Sharpton was distanced. So I believe Obama's identity is based on many many other factors now beside his blackness; and he is using that sense of identity to tell Americans that we are better than that. And a lot of us will go there with him. We've been waiting a long time for a leader.
I think Wright and Sharpton were distanced for their statements and presentation, NOT for their color or culture.
You are right about Obama, who cannot forget his racial and cultural identity, even as he extends beyond that "dual loyalty" to genuine service to the community at large.
Last week's "60 Minutes" had Obama's inner circle claiming that they never thought about race, never talked about it.
Looks like another White House run by a bunch of lawyers invoking plausible deniability for everything.
So much has changed ey Phil?
I also liked Obama's measured and reflective/deflective responses and how he chose same each time appropriate. I told my son I couldn't help compare Obama and Bush Jr–maturity versus the juvenile. My one caveat is that it's obvious by both what Obama said and didn't say in questions relating to the economy that he has not
thought that issue through yet and tends to be willing to just throw borrowed taxpayer money at it.
I sure wish he would bring on board Ron Paul (and Chuck Hagel).
"this is one of the great men of our time, and maybe any time. We shall see, of course"
I still don't understand the excessive adulation — what has Obama actually DONE to warrant such glowing praise?
You people are so smitten that you seem to conveniently forget that Obama hasn't actually done ANYTHING as of yet.
I didn't see the 60 Minutes piece, so I don't know how Obama came off. But I have to think that Phil is jumping the gun as usual. We'll just have to see what Obama does. He didn't offer much in the debates, other than being better than the absurdly unqualified McCain, and he doesn't have much of a track record to go on. My guess is that he hasn't mastered the problems of the nation, let alone the world, since the last debate.
And Obama's association with Jeremiah Wright shouldn't be ignored. It's just dishonest to say that Obama should get a pass on his associations, when Ron Paul was grilled because follwers of a white identity church (people he didn't even know) donated to his campaign. Obama should be watched closely to make sure that his promised backing of a new round of Great Society programs and affirmative action isn't just racial spoils. Given his own words about average whites, this is a real concern.
So far, Obama has proven that he is a smooth politician when he isn't pressured, or not pressured too much. Are defensiveness and secrecy the best traits in times of crisis? If not, Obama has some work to do.
We've been waiting a long time for a leader.
– Fuhrerprinzip, much?
actually done ANYTHING as of yet.
He has managed a highly successful campaign. If I think back how painful it was to watch the Kerry campaign in 2004, that is a lot.
There is no doubt; he may have been in the right place at the right time. There surely is some luck in the mix but then …?
From the very start I wanted to see what happens when he wins. i am pleased, I can now.
"He has managed a highly successful campaign."
Admittedly, he managed a relatively positive campaign (meaning without the usual smearing the opponent). But everyone has to realize that this contest between Obama and McCain was highly unfair. Both McCain and the nature of his campaign were unprofessional and weak.
Imagine the Republicans had nominated Ron Paul, now that would have been a much much more interesting fight. Because Paul would have given Obama a run for his money, since he would have brought up the Fed etc. as hard issues. So Obama would have been forced to go against the Washington elite some more, and not just offer wishy washy hope change blablabla.
Plus, Paul was much more capable of reaching young and undecided voters than McCain. So the odds between him and Obama would have been much more even then between Obama and that old fart from Arizona.
Too bad the Republicans smeared Ron Paul to 2nd place.
"There is no doubt; he may have been in the right place at the right time."
I'd say he was. I don't think that his Democrat opponents took him seriously until it was too late. It took the Democrats three tries to beat Bush. Any reasonable candidate would have beaten McCain.
Fair enough. I hope things work out for Obama and the country.
But I have to wonder if we'll start talking about hubris again.
Too much extravagant praise too soon goes to a politician's head.
I'll add my two cents to the adulation. Call it charisma, mensch-ness, or whatever, Obama is spectacularly impressive without posturing, demagoguery, or sloganeering — he intones the mot juste like Mozaart with the notes of music.
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Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
During the race for the Democratic Nomination, Geraldine Ferraro observed that Obama wouldn't be where he was at the time if he wasn't black. Of course the media vilified her as a racist for speaking an obvious truth.
Before the election the media was calling Obama the post-racial candidate, the one candidate for president who just happened to be black. But as soon as he won we didn't read anything about a president elect who just happened to be black. The thing that left the media at their keyboards with ecstatic tears running down their faces was the fact that he was "the first black president."
The truth is, I'm getting a bit tired of the first this and the first that syndrome that the media seems to exult in. The election was two weeks ago but yesterday in its Sunday edition the LA Times published a separate section telling us for the 114th time that Obama won the election and furthermore that he was black.
Obama's blackness and the campaign to overturn Prop. 8 are the only things that the LA Times cares about.
Yes, Obama was clearly in the right place at the right time.
Obama's victory is no big deal — ANY Democrat (Black, White, Purple, Yellow, WHATEVER) would have beaten the Republican nominee this year because of the last 8 years of disastrous rule under Bush.
Overseas:
I think Ron Paul was the smartest man in the race and I certainly agreed with nearly everything he had to say but I still think he would have had a hard time beating someone like Obama, who has much more of a presidential demeanor. Much as I liked Ron Paul he sometimes came across as the guy in the white cap who ran the neighborhood soda shop.
Phil, when Obama won you wrote that you wished he had revealed more of himself emotionally in his acceptance speech. I thought at the time – I don't.
The more I read about him and the pressure he's under, the more I think it's entirely appropriate for him to draw big circles around parts of his essential self. His family. His racial identity. He wrote about himself in his first book (I haven't read the second). He revealed a lot for a politician. Of course not everything.
No-drama Obama. We are going to need a calm head running things. We don't need drama and we don't need ole Bill's quiver-lipped fake emotion. Is Barack covering up tortured depths? Probably. Who cares? Let him be buttoned up. I hope for his soul that he has places to unbutton (and one assumes his marriage is such a place). I don't need for him to expose himself to the country and the planet. The collective projection may very well eat him alive anyway, even if he defends his core to the utmost.
I just hope he's as fair on Israel/Palestine as you think he might be. But I can't let myself get too worked up about it. My stomach is bothering me. I'm angry that Hilary and my mother-in-law have forgotten or never seemed to have cared about all the dead people in South Lebanon, July-August 2006. Barack either. And dead Iraqis, and starving Palestinians. It's an existential problem that eats me up. I can't afford to let anything eat me up. So I am reminded by your blog and by others that not everybody accepts killing Arabs as no big deal.
Whoever becomes Secretary of State, whatever Barack does or doesn't do for justice in the rest of the world (not just for Arabs) I have to let go of fuming about it. For the sake of my health.
"So I am reminded by your blog and by others that not everybody accepts killing Arabs as no big deal."
More than you know.
On the flip side, are there parallel Arab blogs that humanize Israelis?
A circulatory system needs unclogged arteries AND unclogged veins.
Phil,
You should read my book on Obama — it's a reader's guide to his autobiography: "America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's 'Story of Race and Inheritance.'"
His 460 page memoir is devoted almost soely to his struggle to prove his "racial credentials" as being black enough. The idea of Obama presenting himself as post-racial is something concocted by David Axelrod and Obama after his crushing defeat at the hands of black voters in the 2000 House primary for not being black enough.
We just went through a 2 year campaign with nobody asking Obama about the stark differences between his campaign image and his own autobiography. That doesn't reflect well on the press or on Obama's honesty.