Barack Star
They lined up like Grateful Dead fans to get in to see him at Borders. He has graced the cover of Time magazine with the tagline "Why Barack Obama Could Be the Next President."
I'm inclined to like Obama--he appears to be intelligent, liberal, doesn't talk in sound bites or talking points (or at least does so, as Bill Clinton did, with sufficient fluidity that it was not apparent), and it doesn't hurt that he represents my home state (even though I haven't lived there in nearly a dozen years--but the whole "favorite son" thing has nothing to do with reason) and that his multiracial background plays to my bleeding-heart, affirmative-action liberalism (again, we have left reason to wait in the car, which is, after all, what most people do when they vote). But the next president? Not so sure, at least not yet.
He's certainly doing what has become the expected thing: write a book. Not so much because everyone will read the book and draw conclusions about the author's views, but rather because newspapers and magazines and TV programs will read it and provide the books salient points in sound-bite-size portions to the masses who are never going to read the book--the political equivalent of seeing the movie. And of course there is the book tour: free publicity that is not governed by the strictures of the campaign. C'mon, Famous Politico comes to your city to make a speech: the Times might cover it--or might not, if s/he doesn't say anything remarkable or provocative--and maybe, just maybe, the group hosting it will webcast it or put a transcript up. But draw a big crowd at Borders and you make the national news. Print, radio, and TV.
And of course you act coy about whether or not you're going to run, because as soon as you're running, (1) the rules change, and (2) you become one of those hated politicians. Interesting that writing a book from which one expects to profit personally is pure, but taking public campaign funding and asking for people's vote is crass pandering. The genteel age of my youth (I didn't think I was middle-aged, but these kind of things assure me that I am) in which it was unseemly and impolite to talk of or admit to participating in commerce (even though we all did, in the latter case) has been replaced by the age in which it is unseemly to admit that one would like to hold the public trust. (And that is enough parentheses for one sentence.)
Okay, so Obama knows the drill. And is executing flawlessly.
But the fresh face may yet turn out to be too fresh, i.e., young, or he may peak too soon, or he may simply be flavor of the month, to be replaced when the next new flavor comes along, or a more familiar one--good old reliable vanilla or chocolate, that you know you're going to like--reappears on the scene and wins public favor. Of course the other possibility is that upon closer inspection he may not turn out to be the intelligent, refreshing, thoughtful man he appears on the surface, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's for real--partly because I am tired of being cynical all the time, partly because anyone who has executed so precisely up to this point has probably already made sure he has his house in order. (Just because I am tired of it doesn't mean it has stopped coming naturally.)
If I had to make a prediction, I would say with certainty that Obama will run for president. With a little less certainty, I'd wager he will make a solid but not stellar showing in the primaries, get his face and his name out there so that next time around he is the reliable, known quantity, and, moreover, the issue of his race has already been addressed and people are over being concerned about whether they are ready for a man of color as president. And perhaps in the intervening years he will work to gain the depth of experience and knowledge and character that will permit him to become a leader of true greatness.
And that will be Barack Obama's time.
I'm inclined to like Obama--he appears to be intelligent, liberal, doesn't talk in sound bites or talking points (or at least does so, as Bill Clinton did, with sufficient fluidity that it was not apparent), and it doesn't hurt that he represents my home state (even though I haven't lived there in nearly a dozen years--but the whole "favorite son" thing has nothing to do with reason) and that his multiracial background plays to my bleeding-heart, affirmative-action liberalism (again, we have left reason to wait in the car, which is, after all, what most people do when they vote). But the next president? Not so sure, at least not yet.
He's certainly doing what has become the expected thing: write a book. Not so much because everyone will read the book and draw conclusions about the author's views, but rather because newspapers and magazines and TV programs will read it and provide the books salient points in sound-bite-size portions to the masses who are never going to read the book--the political equivalent of seeing the movie. And of course there is the book tour: free publicity that is not governed by the strictures of the campaign. C'mon, Famous Politico comes to your city to make a speech: the Times might cover it--or might not, if s/he doesn't say anything remarkable or provocative--and maybe, just maybe, the group hosting it will webcast it or put a transcript up. But draw a big crowd at Borders and you make the national news. Print, radio, and TV.
And of course you act coy about whether or not you're going to run, because as soon as you're running, (1) the rules change, and (2) you become one of those hated politicians. Interesting that writing a book from which one expects to profit personally is pure, but taking public campaign funding and asking for people's vote is crass pandering. The genteel age of my youth (I didn't think I was middle-aged, but these kind of things assure me that I am) in which it was unseemly and impolite to talk of or admit to participating in commerce (even though we all did, in the latter case) has been replaced by the age in which it is unseemly to admit that one would like to hold the public trust. (And that is enough parentheses for one sentence.)
Okay, so Obama knows the drill. And is executing flawlessly.
But the fresh face may yet turn out to be too fresh, i.e., young, or he may peak too soon, or he may simply be flavor of the month, to be replaced when the next new flavor comes along, or a more familiar one--good old reliable vanilla or chocolate, that you know you're going to like--reappears on the scene and wins public favor. Of course the other possibility is that upon closer inspection he may not turn out to be the intelligent, refreshing, thoughtful man he appears on the surface, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's for real--partly because I am tired of being cynical all the time, partly because anyone who has executed so precisely up to this point has probably already made sure he has his house in order. (Just because I am tired of it doesn't mean it has stopped coming naturally.)
If I had to make a prediction, I would say with certainty that Obama will run for president. With a little less certainty, I'd wager he will make a solid but not stellar showing in the primaries, get his face and his name out there so that next time around he is the reliable, known quantity, and, moreover, the issue of his race has already been addressed and people are over being concerned about whether they are ready for a man of color as president. And perhaps in the intervening years he will work to gain the depth of experience and knowledge and character that will permit him to become a leader of true greatness.
And that will be Barack Obama's time.
posted by Maines at 10:09 PM
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