Obama: Grandparents & children united against parents

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Tuesday January 29, 2008 · 8:06 AM PST

2008/01/29 · 08:06

Holy crap! David freaking Brooks gets it:

Then, in the speech’s most striking passage, [Sen. Kennedy] set Bill Clinton afloat on the receding tide of memory.

"There was another time," Kennedy said, "when another young candidate was running for president and challenging America to cross a New Frontier." But, he continued, another former Democratic president, Harry Truman, said he should have patience. He said he lacked experience. John Kennedy replied: "The world is changing. The old ways will not do!"

The audience at American University roared.

It was mostly young people, and to them, the Clintons are as old as the Trumans were in 1960. And in the students’ rapture for Kennedy’s message, you began to see the folding over of generations, the service generation of John and Robert Kennedy united with the service generation of the One Campaign. The grandparents and children united against the parents.

It's hard to tell what the practical effect of Kennedy's endorsement will be. But I will say this: he is a leader and in times of fear, uncertainty and doubt, people turn to their leaders for clarity. And Kennedy stepped up and provided that yesterday.

It remains to be seen if it is too little, too late. It remains to be seen whether or not the race card will bring Obama down -- now or later, if he gets the nomination. Because, make no mistake, that is all the Clintons have left to move their constituency: race.

And race is a powerful mover. It excites the base whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. If you are a Republican, you have a fear that the white majority is being threatened by a black candidate for President. If you are a Democrat, you have a fear of something else: that "the black candidate" cannot win. But fear is fear and it does move voters.

Will voters see through it? They will if enough people call attention to it AND if there is a candidate who can inspire opposing emotions of hope and optimism that we can move past the old prejudices and fears and on to something better and brighter.

I'm for Obama because I think he is that candidate.

The respect for institutions that was prevalent during the early ’60s is prevalent with the young again today. The earnest industriousness that was common then is back today. The awareness that we are not self-made individualists, free to be you and me, but emerge as parts of networks, webs and communities; that awareness is back again today.

E Pluribus Unum, baby -- we're all in this thing together.

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