I saw a carefully crated and successful photo in the New York Times by photographer Doug Mills. The photograph shows Obama bellied up at a bar in Raleigh, NC flanked by two bearded dudes in worn t-shirts. In the background is an attractive woman who appears to be taking notes, a fella in an oxford grabbing a digital photo and more onlookers. Our hopeful Democratic nominee wearing a tie and white shirt with his sleeves rolled up nurses a beer. In the foreground is a bottle of Makers Mark whiskey. The guys on either side of Obama look like they could take James Carville and rough him up in an ally. Maybe Chelsea Clinton will outside the Democratic National Convention. She should want to anyway. But back to the photo...
Obama is taking aim at the Clinton's ridiculous assertion that he is an elitist. Not sure how anyone could say that with a straight face but most of all Hillary Clinton. Did she just loan her campaign more cash or what? The writing for the superdelegates should be written on the wall. Obama's grassroots drive is doing the job. Obama also seems to be doing something else in this photo and reaching out to a deep rooted segment of American society. I didn't notice until looking very closely at the photograph. (I wonder if I can post the photo on flicker and link to it here?) The guy on Obama's right is wearing a ball cap with what looks like some sort of Hopi symbol with feathers. But it's what is on this guy's shirt that I find most interesting. It looks like an oval and inside that oval is a Confederate X.
Now my own personal interpretation of people flying that flag on their clothing, bumper sticker or in their yard is that they are expressing their own mistrust, intolerance, and for some hatred of African-Americans. For others their hate is more inclusive and the flag is a symbol of their solidarity with white power. You don't alway here it in these terms. Instead it's often described as preserving heritage. The implication I see is a heritage with a tradition of intolerance and Jim Crow laws. In North Carolina the Confederate X is ubiquitous. But maybe this is just one of this guys favorite t-shirts. I've lived in West Virgina and Virgina and have come to have a strong disdain for that flag and the KKK who adopted it as their own. I can't be persuaded that the flag means anything but intolerance.
This photo of Obama bellying up to the bar with these dudes is the perfect pitch to counter the Clinton camps distortion that she has some sort of lock on what her team defines as working class voters. As if there is just one group making up the working class anyway. And maybe Obama isn't quite reaching out to bearded, beer drinking white dudes who may or may not give a damn about the confederate flag. But the photo does show he's willing to grab a beer and a photo op with 'em on May 6, 2008 before he crushes Clinton in NC and hopefully gives her only an insignificant margin of victory in Indiana.
Update: I was up until 2 a.m. last night and slept until almost noon today since I'm working the night shift tonight. I was expecting Hillary to spend some time reflecting. But it should not have come as a surprise that she's burning with an insatiable hunger and her palate is dull to the idea of strengthening the Democratic Party the way Obama has.
Hopefully the Obama campaign's approach of making a direct appeal to the superdelegates will get results. It can not be disputed that Obama is running a different type of campaign. The power generated by this movement is impressive and the superdelegates (all delegates) should see this. The Clintons becoming surrogates for the Republicans has granted Obama the status of having been vetted by some of the most experienced politicians in Washington. It's just the wrong type of experience after five years in Iraq, an insecure financial environment at home, and with a huge mess dumped on America by George Bush & Friends, LLC. All of America has seen how Senator Obama stood up to the attacks against him. This primary has been exhausting but Obama will be much stronger in his ability to confront McCain head on.