Clear thinking about Obama from . . . . Peggy Noonan?
Tue Apr 29, 2008 at 05:38:55 AM PDT
It is counterproductive to declaim - repeatedly and shrilly - that Barack Obama's imperfections as a candidate for President of the United States are inconsequential, or the fabrications of his opponents or of the media, traditional, faux, main stream or otherwise.
It is dismissive of the electorate who votes for Clinton in the primaries. It is unresponsive and dangerous to imagine that voters' reluctance to fully endorse Obama is not real and heartfelt. It needs to be addressed.
Peggy Noonan says it bluntly in the WSJ:
Hillary Clinton is not Barack Obama's problem. America is Mr. Obama's problem.
As I've said in an early diary, a campaign for the presidency is the longest, most grueling job interview in the world. The American public is the human resources hiring committee and they are a diverse, fickle and emotional group. Their concerns and preferences are not always clearly understood or stated aloud. We try to infer them by the choices they make. The qualifications for the job may change while the interview is taking place. The process is not linear, wholly rational or even fair. But it works . . . mostly.
I am an fervent Obama supporter. I am sure some burning souls will doubt me, because I have the temerity to cite Peggy Noonan, a Reagan speechwriter (oh the horror!)as an authoritative voice on the subject of Obama's shortcomings as a candidate. To those whose reactions are formed before they actually READ the entire diary I say . . . feh! Your loss. Of all those who I've watched and read during this historic presidential campaign, I have been stunned to find myself often agreeing with Peggy Noonan. I am as surprised as anyone.
I admire Obama's ability to stay above the fray but it comes with risks.
He has been tagged as a snooty lefty, as the glamorous, ambivalent candidate from Men's Vogue, the candidate who loves America because of the great progress it has made in terms of racial fairness. Fine, good. But has he ever gotten misty-eyed over . . . the Wright Brothers and what kind of country allowed them to go off on their own and change everything? How about D-Day, or George Washington, or Henry Ford, or the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter's Mill, who pushed their way west because there was gold in them thar hills? There's gold in that history.
An African-American candidate must balance on the razor's edge of emotional rhetoric. We have seen how quickly Obama's opponents have tried to link him to the oratorical excesses of Rev. Wright or dismiss him as a Rev. Jesse Jackson redux, whose oratorical style was never going to appeal to the general electorate.
We like Obama because he is eloquent and cool; not cool as in hip but cool as in rational, measured, calculating. After 8 years of listening to a president who is constitutionally incapable of eloquence, who has lowered the standard for presidential speech to shouting in a bullhorn about revenge, I am ready for someone who can compose an articulate paragraph which has the potential to appeal to our higher, rather than our most base, national instincts.
Obama needs to appeal on an emotional plane to those parts of the electorate who don't see the full appeal of detached analysis and competence. He needs to convince them he has the fire to fight, as Hillary does. Bush's incompetence and unwillingness to listen and respond to the electorate has created an enormous opportunity that must be exploited. But it needs to be an emotional appeal.
Here's some comfort for him, for all Democrats. In Lubbock, Texas – Lubbock Comma Texas, the heart of Texas conservatism – they dislike President Bush. He has lost them. I was there and saw it. Confusion has been followed by frustration has turned into resentment, and this is huge. Everyone knows the president's poll numbers are at historic lows, but if he is over in Lubbock, there is no place in this country that likes him. I made a speech and moved around and I was tough on him and no one – not one – defended or disagreed. I did the same in North Carolina recently, and again no defenders. I did the same in Fresno, Calif., and no defenders, not one.
I hope, for the sake of the nation and the Democratic Party, that Barack Obama succeeds in securing the nomination and is then elected President. I believe he is, far and away, the best hope we have for changing the direction of this country in a meaningful, durable way. But he has alot of work left to do in persuading the American electorate.
As a supporter, I feel obligated to criticize his campaign. That's what a supporter should do. We have had two terms of lock-step Republicanism, where dissent was equated with heresy. Where debate was considered disloyal. Where consistency of message was worshiped and the acknowledgement of mistakes was considered weakness. Enough.
If Obama is to succeed he needs to adapt. He needs to build upon the resume and charisma which got him this far. He needs to add emotional flesh the framework of his electoral persona that has succeeded thus far.
This is an opportunity, for Mr. Obama needs an Act II. Act II is hard. Act II is where the promise of Act I is deepened, the plot thickens, and all is teed up for resolution and meaning. Mr. Obama's Act I was: I'm Obama. He enters the scene. Act III will be the convention and acceptance speech. After that a whole new drama begins. But for now he needs Act II. He should make his subject America.
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