I've never thought the question of whether this country was "ready" for a black president or a female president made any sense. Breakthroughs always depend on the right person and the right moment, and "firsts" never happen -- by definition -- until they happen. All we can know at this point is that as far as Iowa Democrats are concerned, the time is now and the man is Obama.
The blockquote is written by Washington Post Associate Editor Eugene Robinson, in his column No Longer Unimaginable. We can also note what David Broder writes in his column, that
Obama could be the most electable candidate the Democrats have fielded in many years.
Even George Will calls Obama
refreshingly cerebral amid this recrudescence of the paranoid in American politics.
ALL ABOARD!
The three columnists come at this from different viewpoints. Will is writing in objection to the style of Edwards and Huckabee - he does NOT like populism, which should surprise nobody, and the title of his piece, aimed at those two, is "Iowa's Histrionic Hucksters." He goes after both men heavily. And perhaps his affirmation of Obama is because Will views him as the only surefire bet to stop the progress of the two populists. His entire final paragraph, from which I have quoted, reads as follows:
Barack Obama, who might be mercifully closing the Clinton parenthesis in presidential history, is refreshingly cerebral amid this recrudescence of the paranoid style in American politics. He is the un-Edwards and un-Huckabee -- an adult aiming to reform the real world rather than an adolescent fantasizing mock-heroic "fights" against fictitious villains in a left-wing cartoon version of this country.
Broder is of course the most significant member of the permanent commentating class. In fairness, he still knocks on doors and does reporting, although perhaps decreasingly so as he is getting up there in age. And this "dean" of the Washington pres corps is often reluctant to note changes in the way politics is being done. He writes about Obama's electability in terms of major-party politicians coming to understand that electability, and follows immediately with
If that seems a hasty judgment, consider what Obama already has demonstrated. Running in two of the "whitest" states in the country, Obama has shown crossover appeal that defies conventional wisdom about the limits an African American candidate will face.
It is a pattern of his brief political life. When he ran for the Senate in Illinois in 2004, Obama scored well both in small towns and rural areas far from Chicago and in the Republican-oriented suburbs.
Broder concludes that
Any way you view it, the race is now Obama's to lose.
having already noted of Obama that he
showed Democrats a combination of campaigning and organizational skill they had not seen from any candidate in their party since Bill Clinton first ran for president.
If he can demonstrate that combination again Tuesday in New Hampshire, this race would be a lot closer to being finished than anyone might have guessed even a week ago.
Eugene Robinson has become increasingly visible as a columnist and commentator, including on television. He begins today's column
It was one of those moments that give you goose bumps -- the cheering crowd, the waving placards, the candidate and his family looking Kennedyesque on the occasion of a stunning victory. Barack Obama took the stage Thursday night in Des Moines and proclaimed his vindication of hope: "They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high."
Yet there he was, the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother, a man with brown skin, kinky hair and utter command of what he called a "defining moment in history."
Those of us who have struggled to get our minds around the notion that a man who looks like Barack Obama could be the next president of the United States can no longer take easy refuge in the disappointments of history. Obama may not be elected president; he may not even get the Democratic nomination. But at this point, it's impossible to deny that what we are witnessing is something new.
At the end of the column, Robinson, who is himself African-American, writes that he does not believe a society reaches some magical point of colorblindness, but that it keeps moving forward, and he believes a page has been turned. Unlike the other two Post writers at whom I looked today, he does not write in terms of the likelihood of Obama's getting the nomination (and thus possibly or probably being elected). He notes that African-Americans have often been willing to vote against African-American candidates on the issues, for example, Republicans, and also sees a major generational difference, with Obama's supporter more able to use the tools of the information age to advance his candidacy. He compares the three leading Democrats, writing
The Obama campaign offered a simple, consistent message. By contrast, Hillary Clinton's constantly shifting wardrobe of slogans and John Edwards's class-conscious rhetoric seemed dated.
Yesterday I wrote a diary entitled Two Black Men in which I examined the columns of two other African-American writers about Obama's victory, Bob Herbert and Derrick Jackson, although they were not the two black men of the title - those were Doug Wilder of Virginia and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, the only African-Americans who have been elected governor and who have now both endorsed Barack Obama. It was part of the phenomenon that I thought I saw developing.
I do not think yesterday's debate performance was a smash for Obama, but I believe it was good enough to keep him ahead of Clinton. I think the strongest performance was by Edwards. That performance - by Edwards - is likely to further persuade the denizens of the "village" that Obama should be the nominee, because they do dislike and/or fear Edwards, for reasons such as those you can read in Will and Broder. And that dislike/fear makes it more probably that Obama will get a wave of positive coverage, and assuming he wins the primary Tuesday, it is likely to be glowing about the historic nature of what is happening. Unless Clinton can somehow pull out a win in NH, the dynamics are now falling into place for Obama to wrap the nomination up very quickly.
And the press will undoubtedly play a role in what happens. Obama is becoming the story. Perhaps some of the oxygen will go to Edwards if he can manage to get 2nd in NH - if he does, the press will write of the demise of the Clinton machine and give him some coverage, for a few cycles. But the story will still be Obama.
I am not advocating that the nomination process be wrapped up that quickly. Assuming that as of now Obama is the likely nominee, he would be well served by further vetting in the primary process, by a chance to demonstrate to the advocates of other candidates that he is worthy of their support. And in such an extended contest methinks his ability to bridge gaps might be more clearly demonstrated than it has been so far during the primary process, and that might reassure some Democrats who are concerned about what that means. In last night's debate we saw Obama do some outreach to people who support Edwards precisely because he willing to confront the powerful interests, saying things that at least demonstrated he acknowledges their concerns.
If the op ed page of today's Washington Post is indicative, the "village" has decided that the train is leaving the station, and they are beginning to jump on the bandwagon.
ALL ABOARD!