Calling this a massive victory on the race front is accurate and immensely satisfying. It's wholly appropriate to celebrate it as one of the top milestones of our nation's history. But ironically, focusing solely on that as the story of this election, as the media coverage began to do within minutes of the call, discounts and overshadows Obama's enormous appeal as a natural leader and his unflagging determination to put this nation back on an honorable and decent path. I think we get it here, but I hope the media and the broader public discourse will give him full credit for deserving this victory because of who he is on the inside and his ability to inspire people regardless of anything else about him.
I was listening to radio commentary this morning about how Ohio was old and white but voted for Obama anyway, and how this signified how far the country has come. That statement is correct, but it's a secondary statement...
Because if he wasn't an amazing candidate and an amazing potential leader, people either would not have gotten as far as considering his race, or perhaps never would have gotten past it. Race has been such a huge issue for so long that the temptation is to focus solely on that aspect of the victory. It certainly should be part of the analysis and should be celebrated as a historic day with few peers, but focusing on that as the main thing misses the point of WHY people looked beyond race.
First and foremost, people saw him as exactly the kind of leader we need, especially after this horrific 8 years under a dimwitted sockpuppet controlled by ruthless machiavels. He has a charisma, a gravitas, an intelligence, an unshakable stability, and that intangible quality that unmistakably screams out "LEADER". We truly do elect our presidents on feeling, not policy, and he engenders a feeling of trust in people. We naturally trust him to make good decisions on our behalf and lead us honorably. We can sleep peacefully knowing he is at the wheel. That's why he won. That really ought to be the main story. That seemed to be more of the story prior to election night, and then on election night suddenly the analysis I saw seemed to all filter through the lens of the racial aspect of the victory.
I consider the race part to be a wonderful bonus, a crucial step in our long healing process from slavery, and one that absolutely needed to happen sooner or later, preferably sooner, if for no other reason than the symbolism but also to open people's eyes and make them realize that it's okay to have black leaders. But the story is the man, and the restoration of the direction of the nation against the backdrop of a folly of historic proportions. His story is one of redemption of a nation. In that sense, the race part most definitely fits. But since that skin could have been on any person, it is of less importance than the qualities that make him the person we want leading us, and we cheat him somewhat of the credit he deserves for being who he is on the inside. And we open the door to criticism that he only won because of decisions people made based on race. See Geraldine Ferraro. See sour-grapes Republican bloggers today.
Many people did transcend historical feelings about race to vote for him, and that's fantastic, but they transcended them because of who he is and the great leader he will become. There are plenty of other prominent national black figures they would not have voted for, both because they were black and because they were not of Obama-level awesomeness. So please, as we celebrate the racial healing step he represents, let us give him full credit for being a uniquely inspirational and transformative leader of a caliber rarely seen in any color.