The Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Obama comes as a stunning reminder for those who elected him less than a year ago of what they expected when they put him in the White House. As the President faces another embattled day of economic and foreign policy conflict, amid falling approval ratings, a voice of universal moral authority can be heard as a rebuke to Americans who are forgetting what he represents.
"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the Nobel committee says.
"His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."
The uproar on the domestic Right will no doubt set new records in volume and vitriol, but for those who still believe that American goodness and hope can survive in a darkening world, it is a moment to savor and remember.
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barack Obama. Show all posts
Friday, October 09, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Carterizing Obama
John McCain, who relaxed during last year's campaign by improvising a "Bomb Iran" ditty, is back to lead a Republican chorus taunting Barack Obama as another Jimmy Carter.
The tune is familiar, but the words are all wrong. Three decades ago, Carter dealt with a vulnerable revolution in Iran by fumbling every move from allowing the deposed Shah into the US to watching American Embassy hostages in Tehran paraded on TV for 444 days with time out for a lethally inept rescue attempt.
Now, as Roger Cohen writes from Tehran, "Iran’s 1979 revolution took a full year to gestate. The uprising of 2009 has now ended its first phase. But the volatility ushered in by the June 12 ballot-box putsch of Iran’s New Right is certain to endure over the coming year. The Islamic Republic has been weakened."
Unlike Carter, who tried to placate and then was overwhelmed by forces he could not control, Obama has been firm and statesmanlike in denouncing tyranny in Iran without be seen as pouring gasoline on the fire in the streets, reiterating that "the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering with Iran's affairs.
"But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."
The images of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman killed in the street protests, will endure as witness to a brutal regime but by themselves will not bring it down any more than the 1970 Kent State killings of four students unseated Richard Nixon back then. Yet four years later he was gone.
As a student of history, Obama understands the difference between an historical process and red-meat rhetoric, even if McCain and his GOP pygmy imitators don’t. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, those of us who knew Jimmy Carter in his prime can testify that Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter.
Not even close.
The tune is familiar, but the words are all wrong. Three decades ago, Carter dealt with a vulnerable revolution in Iran by fumbling every move from allowing the deposed Shah into the US to watching American Embassy hostages in Tehran paraded on TV for 444 days with time out for a lethally inept rescue attempt.
Now, as Roger Cohen writes from Tehran, "Iran’s 1979 revolution took a full year to gestate. The uprising of 2009 has now ended its first phase. But the volatility ushered in by the June 12 ballot-box putsch of Iran’s New Right is certain to endure over the coming year. The Islamic Republic has been weakened."
Unlike Carter, who tried to placate and then was overwhelmed by forces he could not control, Obama has been firm and statesmanlike in denouncing tyranny in Iran without be seen as pouring gasoline on the fire in the streets, reiterating that "the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering with Iran's affairs.
"But we must also bear witness to the courage and the dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore the violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place."
The images of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman killed in the street protests, will endure as witness to a brutal regime but by themselves will not bring it down any more than the 1970 Kent State killings of four students unseated Richard Nixon back then. Yet four years later he was gone.
As a student of history, Obama understands the difference between an historical process and red-meat rhetoric, even if McCain and his GOP pygmy imitators don’t. To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, those of us who knew Jimmy Carter in his prime can testify that Barack Obama is no Jimmy Carter.
Not even close.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Obama, Reagan, Jews and Nazis
As the Great Communicator is canonized with a new statue in Washington, his 21st century counterpart is in Germany dealing with the same thorny issue his predecessor faced there a quarter of a century ago.
On his way to Buchenwald, President Obama speaks feelingly about his great-uncle's trauma in World War II over what the Nazis had done to six million Jews, as skeptics see the trip as a sop to those unnerved by his emphasis on a two-state solution for Palestinians during his Cairo speech and his pressure on Israel to stop expanding settlements.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan took flak for visiting a military cemetery in Bitburg, paying homage to the new Germany at the graves of SS members who headed Hitler's execution squads.
In his authorized biography, Edmund Morris describes Reagan's trip to a death camp soon afterward to placate incensed Jewish groups and his claim that he had witnessed the liberation of such places during the war. Given the Great Communicator's tendency to dramatize, it turned out that all he had actually seen was movie footage at the Army training film unit where he served.
Now Obama is explaining his Buchenwald stop by saying "this one has a personal connection to me," telling reporters that his grandmother's brother came home in shock over what he saw there as a young soldier.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel at his side, the President today said, "These sights have not lost their horror with the passage of time. More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I have seen here today.”
In a world of widespread Holocaust deniers, bearing witness has meaning, whatever the motives.
On his way to Buchenwald, President Obama speaks feelingly about his great-uncle's trauma in World War II over what the Nazis had done to six million Jews, as skeptics see the trip as a sop to those unnerved by his emphasis on a two-state solution for Palestinians during his Cairo speech and his pressure on Israel to stop expanding settlements.
In 1985, Ronald Reagan took flak for visiting a military cemetery in Bitburg, paying homage to the new Germany at the graves of SS members who headed Hitler's execution squads.
In his authorized biography, Edmund Morris describes Reagan's trip to a death camp soon afterward to placate incensed Jewish groups and his claim that he had witnessed the liberation of such places during the war. Given the Great Communicator's tendency to dramatize, it turned out that all he had actually seen was movie footage at the Army training film unit where he served.
Now Obama is explaining his Buchenwald stop by saying "this one has a personal connection to me," telling reporters that his grandmother's brother came home in shock over what he saw there as a young soldier.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel at his side, the President today said, "These sights have not lost their horror with the passage of time. More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I have seen here today.”
In a world of widespread Holocaust deniers, bearing witness has meaning, whatever the motives.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Nancy Reagan's Last Hurrah
Approaching her 88th birthday, the former First Lady ventures an opinion on Barack Obama: Sometimes he isn't political enough.
Interviewed in Vanity Fair, Nancy Reagan says the new President could have gained more advantage from reversing Bush’s policy on embryonic-stem-cell research by inviting her to the announcement.
“I would have gone, and you know I don’t like to travel,” she says. “Politically it would have been a good thing for him to do. Oh, well, nobody’s perfect. He called and thanked me for working on it. But he could have gotten more mileage out of it.”
Mrs. Reagan, who knows about political mileage, is logging some herself by emerging from seclusion to give a wide-ranging interview, pose for pictures and turn loose surviving members of her inner circle to offer memories of the Reagan years.
In this last hurrah, she may be responding to the obvious--that the new man in the White House is the first president since her husband to dominate the office with his personality, and now Nancy Reagan must do everything she can to preserve the legend to which she is as devoted as she was to the man himself.
Just before retiring as an editor, I ran an interview with her in which she said that, if "Ronnie" had decided to run a shoe store, she would be spending her time polishing shoes. Now she is back to polish his image for history, the timing no doubt prompted by the fact that up to now it hasn’t been necessary.
Asked if she ever tried to discuss the stem-cell issue with George W. Bush, Mrs. Reagan says, “I think once I did, and then I didn’t anymore.”
Interviewed in Vanity Fair, Nancy Reagan says the new President could have gained more advantage from reversing Bush’s policy on embryonic-stem-cell research by inviting her to the announcement.
“I would have gone, and you know I don’t like to travel,” she says. “Politically it would have been a good thing for him to do. Oh, well, nobody’s perfect. He called and thanked me for working on it. But he could have gotten more mileage out of it.”
Mrs. Reagan, who knows about political mileage, is logging some herself by emerging from seclusion to give a wide-ranging interview, pose for pictures and turn loose surviving members of her inner circle to offer memories of the Reagan years.
In this last hurrah, she may be responding to the obvious--that the new man in the White House is the first president since her husband to dominate the office with his personality, and now Nancy Reagan must do everything she can to preserve the legend to which she is as devoted as she was to the man himself.
Just before retiring as an editor, I ran an interview with her in which she said that, if "Ronnie" had decided to run a shoe store, she would be spending her time polishing shoes. Now she is back to polish his image for history, the timing no doubt prompted by the fact that up to now it hasn’t been necessary.
Asked if she ever tried to discuss the stem-cell issue with George W. Bush, Mrs. Reagan says, “I think once I did, and then I didn’t anymore.”
Friday, May 29, 2009
Good-Cop, Bad-Copping Obama
With a decade of rehearsal, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have their act down pat--the regular guy who never raises his voice and his hair-trigger partner who chews the scenery. After weeks of shaking up by the Snarler, here is the former Decider to sooth our nerves.
Defending his torture policy as unequivocally as his vice president has done, Bush gave an audience of business people yesterday a spoonful of sugar with the reheated argument that, after checking with the lawyers, he only did what was legal and necessary and that "the information we got saved lives."
If Obama differs, Bush insists, he is not going to blame him (implicitly for not saving lives). "Nothing I am saying is meant to criticize my successor," he said. "There are plenty of people who have weighed in. Trust me, having seen it first-hand. I didn't like it when a former president criticized me, so therefore I am not going to criticize my successor. I wish him all the best."
Such fake "generosity" is even more grating than Cheney's outright attacks on Obama for making the country less safe, but it's par for the course in Bush's act as the good cop in their collaboration.
Asked what he would like his legacy to be, the 43rd president had a ready answer:
"The man showed up with a set of principles, and he was unwilling to compromise his soul for the sake of popularity."
Or reality.
Defending his torture policy as unequivocally as his vice president has done, Bush gave an audience of business people yesterday a spoonful of sugar with the reheated argument that, after checking with the lawyers, he only did what was legal and necessary and that "the information we got saved lives."
If Obama differs, Bush insists, he is not going to blame him (implicitly for not saving lives). "Nothing I am saying is meant to criticize my successor," he said. "There are plenty of people who have weighed in. Trust me, having seen it first-hand. I didn't like it when a former president criticized me, so therefore I am not going to criticize my successor. I wish him all the best."
Such fake "generosity" is even more grating than Cheney's outright attacks on Obama for making the country less safe, but it's par for the course in Bush's act as the good cop in their collaboration.
Asked what he would like his legacy to be, the 43rd president had a ready answer:
"The man showed up with a set of principles, and he was unwilling to compromise his soul for the sake of popularity."
Or reality.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Twaddle About Obama's Toughness
Lyndon Johnson's appraisal of Richard Nixon comes to mind in the growing debate about President Obama's toughness or lack thereof.
"Not much here," said LBJ, pointing at his head. "Even less here," touching his heart, then lowering a hand to below his belt: "But enough down there."
Now there is clucking on both the Right and Left about how much Obama has "down there."
"In some of his earliest skirmishes," the New York Times worries, "Mr. Obama eventually chose pragmatism over fisticuffs" and quotes a former Clinton official: “The thing we still don’t know about him is what he is willing to fight for. The thing I worry about is that he likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation and he likes to make people happy. It’s hard to think of a place where he’s taken a really hard position.”
Say what? Ramming through a stimulus bill and budget that could make or break his presidency? Pushing auto makers to the brink of bankruptcy if they fail to shape up? Ordering use of force to rescue an American captain in the Indian Ocean (too much, by Rush Limbaugh's lights)? Making public the torture memos (risky, says Bush's CIA chief as those on the Left complain about his refusal to prosecute former agents)?
The critics are confusing bluster with toughness. Republican Sen. John Ensign huffs, "I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez" this weekend, but Obama shrugs off such posturing as politics that makes "no sense."
During the campaign, Maureen Dowd had asked Obama, "Do you worry that you might be putting yourself on a pedestal too much? Because people also want to see you mix it up a little. That’s how they judge how you’d be with Putin.”
“When I get into a tussle,” he answered, “I want it to be over something real, not something manufactured. If someone wants to get in an argument with me, let’s argue about how we’re going to fix the health care system or where we need to go on Iraq.”
Critics of all persuasions will have to learn to live with the style of a President who doesn't puff himself up as the Decider but actually goes about the hard work of making decisions by consensus if he can but unilaterally when he must.
"Not much here," said LBJ, pointing at his head. "Even less here," touching his heart, then lowering a hand to below his belt: "But enough down there."
Now there is clucking on both the Right and Left about how much Obama has "down there."
"In some of his earliest skirmishes," the New York Times worries, "Mr. Obama eventually chose pragmatism over fisticuffs" and quotes a former Clinton official: “The thing we still don’t know about him is what he is willing to fight for. The thing I worry about is that he likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation and he likes to make people happy. It’s hard to think of a place where he’s taken a really hard position.”
Say what? Ramming through a stimulus bill and budget that could make or break his presidency? Pushing auto makers to the brink of bankruptcy if they fail to shape up? Ordering use of force to rescue an American captain in the Indian Ocean (too much, by Rush Limbaugh's lights)? Making public the torture memos (risky, says Bush's CIA chief as those on the Left complain about his refusal to prosecute former agents)?
The critics are confusing bluster with toughness. Republican Sen. John Ensign huffs, "I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez" this weekend, but Obama shrugs off such posturing as politics that makes "no sense."
During the campaign, Maureen Dowd had asked Obama, "Do you worry that you might be putting yourself on a pedestal too much? Because people also want to see you mix it up a little. That’s how they judge how you’d be with Putin.”
“When I get into a tussle,” he answered, “I want it to be over something real, not something manufactured. If someone wants to get in an argument with me, let’s argue about how we’re going to fix the health care system or where we need to go on Iraq.”
Critics of all persuasions will have to learn to live with the style of a President who doesn't puff himself up as the Decider but actually goes about the hard work of making decisions by consensus if he can but unilaterally when he must.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Accessible Obamas
The First Couple is out in the real world this week, the President sympathizing with people who have lost their jobs in California and scheduled to schmooze with Jay Leno tonight, while the First Lady is hugging DC school kids and encouraging them to dream big.
The Obamas are easily the most accessible people ever to occupy the White House, and an aged skeptic keeps waiting for the inevitable backlash that will brand their attempts to connect with voters as cosmetic and manipulative.
When Lynda Bird Johnson was working for me during the Johnson Administration, a coworker watching her at an office meeting complained, "Who does she think she is, pretending to be just like other people?"
In the era of connectivity, the White House's societal role is being redefined, and the balance between the President as an authority figure and a source of empathy in hard times is being recalibrated.
So far, as the polls show, Obama is holding on to voters' trust without pretending to perfection, as he did yesterday in deflecting blame from his advisers for the AIG bonuses. But real trials are ahead.
If the economy keeps stumbling, the public's need for a stern father figure rather than a smart, good-hearted big brother will be put to the test, and the "I feel your pain" cliché may collide with "Nice guys finish last."
At least that's what the shiftless Republican relatives are counting on.
The Obamas are easily the most accessible people ever to occupy the White House, and an aged skeptic keeps waiting for the inevitable backlash that will brand their attempts to connect with voters as cosmetic and manipulative.
When Lynda Bird Johnson was working for me during the Johnson Administration, a coworker watching her at an office meeting complained, "Who does she think she is, pretending to be just like other people?"
In the era of connectivity, the White House's societal role is being redefined, and the balance between the President as an authority figure and a source of empathy in hard times is being recalibrated.
So far, as the polls show, Obama is holding on to voters' trust without pretending to perfection, as he did yesterday in deflecting blame from his advisers for the AIG bonuses. But real trials are ahead.
If the economy keeps stumbling, the public's need for a stern father figure rather than a smart, good-hearted big brother will be put to the test, and the "I feel your pain" cliché may collide with "Nice guys finish last."
At least that's what the shiftless Republican relatives are counting on.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
The Interactive Presidency
FDR gave Americans fireside chats on radio. JFK came into living rooms through live TV news conferences. Barack Obama is connecting with worried voters by Internet--email, online videos and proliferating web sites.
In each case, as a new medium of communication became universal, the White House wired into it to speak directly to people--one at a time.
What's different now is that voters are invited to talk back, which may in part account for the President's continuing popularity during the darkest period in generations. In this interactive presidency, Americans are not feeling abandoned.
This week, the Obama Administration unveiled another web site, on health care reform, to go with White House.gov, Recovery.gov and others sure to come, giving information and asking for feedback.
In another move on the tech front, the President appointed as the first federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra, 34, to oversee expanded use of cutting-edge technology for information sharing between agencies, greater public access to government information and questions of security and privacy.
Whatever happens in the coming months, nobody will call Obama another George W. Bush, out of touch with the American people.
In each case, as a new medium of communication became universal, the White House wired into it to speak directly to people--one at a time.
What's different now is that voters are invited to talk back, which may in part account for the President's continuing popularity during the darkest period in generations. In this interactive presidency, Americans are not feeling abandoned.
This week, the Obama Administration unveiled another web site, on health care reform, to go with White House.gov, Recovery.gov and others sure to come, giving information and asking for feedback.
In another move on the tech front, the President appointed as the first federal chief information officer Vivek Kundra, 34, to oversee expanded use of cutting-edge technology for information sharing between agencies, greater public access to government information and questions of security and privacy.
Whatever happens in the coming months, nobody will call Obama another George W. Bush, out of touch with the American people.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Those Titillating Republicans
In all the hooha between Michael Steele and Rush Limbaugh, the GOP is overlooking the fact that, by long tradition, John McCain is the titular head of their party.
That precept struck me in 1964 during a long conversation with former President Eisenhower. Discussing various issues, he clearly could not bring himself to mention Richard Nixon by name but kept calling him "the titular head of the party" as their 1960 candidate, even though Ike himself was the most recent Republican to occupy the White House.
This year, Republicans are no more enamored of McCain than Ike was of Nixon back then. Their 2008 candidate was non grata at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend, where they also pummeled their 21st century Ike, George W. Bush.
The only prominent national politician who seems to recognize McCain's standing is his former opponent, Barack Obama, who had the Arizonan at his side today as he ordered his administration to conduct a review of how contracts are awarded throughout the government.
At a White House meeting last week, McCain had needled the President about the extravagant cost of new helicopters for the Commander-in-Chief and this week is pressuring him to do something about earmarks in the budget.
While most Republicans are howling in the wilderness with Limbaugh and Steele, John McCain is acting every inch as the titular head of the party, the loyal opposition on substantive issues.
That precept struck me in 1964 during a long conversation with former President Eisenhower. Discussing various issues, he clearly could not bring himself to mention Richard Nixon by name but kept calling him "the titular head of the party" as their 1960 candidate, even though Ike himself was the most recent Republican to occupy the White House.
This year, Republicans are no more enamored of McCain than Ike was of Nixon back then. Their 2008 candidate was non grata at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend, where they also pummeled their 21st century Ike, George W. Bush.
The only prominent national politician who seems to recognize McCain's standing is his former opponent, Barack Obama, who had the Arizonan at his side today as he ordered his administration to conduct a review of how contracts are awarded throughout the government.
At a White House meeting last week, McCain had needled the President about the extravagant cost of new helicopters for the Commander-in-Chief and this week is pressuring him to do something about earmarks in the budget.
While most Republicans are howling in the wilderness with Limbaugh and Steele, John McCain is acting every inch as the titular head of the party, the loyal opposition on substantive issues.
Oink
As John McCain rails like King Lear, Barack Obama is doing Scarlett O'Hara ("I'll think about that tomorrow") over Congressional pork in the new budget.
Literally. The President is scheduled to speechify about wasteful spending today after his press secretary promised yesterday, "The rules of the road going forward for those many appropriations bills that will go through Congress and come to his desk will be done differently."
Getting between a member of Congress and meat for the voters back home is a dangerous move for a president, no matter how high his approval ratings.
"I don't think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer huffs, adding, "I, philosophically, believe that it would be an undermining of the Article I responsibilities given to the Congress of the United States if it were to abandon its right to add items that it believes are priorities for our country...That's our responsibility, and we ought to keep that responsibility."
So taxpayers will keep underwriting the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii, improving blueberry production in Georgia, cricket control in Utah and all those other vital expenditures in a crashing economy.
“When do we turn off the spigots?” McCain wailed on the Senate floor yesterday. “Haven’t we learned anything? Bills like this jeopardize our future.”
But, until some form of public financing for elections kicks in, projects like tattoo removal for former gang members will be a priority for insuring the future of his Congressional colleagues.
Literally. The President is scheduled to speechify about wasteful spending today after his press secretary promised yesterday, "The rules of the road going forward for those many appropriations bills that will go through Congress and come to his desk will be done differently."
Getting between a member of Congress and meat for the voters back home is a dangerous move for a president, no matter how high his approval ratings.
"I don't think the White House has the ability to tell us what to do," House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer huffs, adding, "I, philosophically, believe that it would be an undermining of the Article I responsibilities given to the Congress of the United States if it were to abandon its right to add items that it believes are priorities for our country...That's our responsibility, and we ought to keep that responsibility."
So taxpayers will keep underwriting the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii, improving blueberry production in Georgia, cricket control in Utah and all those other vital expenditures in a crashing economy.
“When do we turn off the spigots?” McCain wailed on the Senate floor yesterday. “Haven’t we learned anything? Bills like this jeopardize our future.”
But, until some form of public financing for elections kicks in, projects like tattoo removal for former gang members will be a priority for insuring the future of his Congressional colleagues.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
League of the Over-Articulate
The "Axis of Evil" man has found his soul mate. Michael Gerson, George W. Bush's oratorical muse, is now in love with Bobby Jindal, who "has the ability to overwhelm any topic with facts and thoughtful arguments--displaying a mastery of detail that encourages confidence...with the world-changing intensity of a late-night dorm room discussion."
Others saw the Louisiana governor's response to Obama last night differently. Andrew Sullivan called it "tired, exhausted, boilerplate" and even the Fox News folks "panned" it. But Gerson recognizes a fellow wonk when he sees one--a "hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president" from high-school days.
The problem with such over-articulate nerds as Gerson and Jindal is that their fluency with words is too often disconnected from what everyone else would call reality.
Gerson could give Bush the "smoking gun, mushroom cloud" metaphor when there was absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein was anywhere close to having a nuclear weapon, just as Jindal can now prate, "The way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians."
As Barack Obama is making brains popular again with the American people, it's important not to confuse rhetoric alone without the kind of emotional intelligence needed to connect facts with feelings, understanding with empathy.
As Gerson has been demonstrating in his stint as a Washington Post columnist after Bill Kristol's disastrous year with the New York Times, the bar for brilliance is set low in the Neo-Con world. Next to them (and Sarah Palin), Jindal may indeed be of more imposing intellectual stature than he showed last night.
Others saw the Louisiana governor's response to Obama last night differently. Andrew Sullivan called it "tired, exhausted, boilerplate" and even the Fox News folks "panned" it. But Gerson recognizes a fellow wonk when he sees one--a "hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president" from high-school days.
The problem with such over-articulate nerds as Gerson and Jindal is that their fluency with words is too often disconnected from what everyone else would call reality.
Gerson could give Bush the "smoking gun, mushroom cloud" metaphor when there was absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein was anywhere close to having a nuclear weapon, just as Jindal can now prate, "The way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians."
As Barack Obama is making brains popular again with the American people, it's important not to confuse rhetoric alone without the kind of emotional intelligence needed to connect facts with feelings, understanding with empathy.
As Gerson has been demonstrating in his stint as a Washington Post columnist after Bill Kristol's disastrous year with the New York Times, the bar for brilliance is set low in the Neo-Con world. Next to them (and Sarah Palin), Jindal may indeed be of more imposing intellectual stature than he showed last night.
Obama's Body Language
By my count, Barack Obama kissed at least two dozen women on his way in and out of the House last night, but the affectionate post-speech highlight was a quick back rub from Sen. Barbara Boxer, who had been seen having an ecstatic reaction during the President's words on health care reform.
There were hugs, too, many of them for men, including his polar political opposite, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, for whom Obama expressed friendship during the campaign.
Not to make too much of it, but all this body language reflects an extraordinary ability to connect with people beyond the routine political pressing of the flesh with a wary fixed smile.
During the speech, some reactions from Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden were animated well beyond the usual, but apparently Obama's sensory appeal has its limits. Close-ups of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner showed them looking blank and immobilized, pretty much the way they had been during the weeks of debate on the stimulus bill.
It looks like we have a long way to go before Republicans get all touchy-feely.
There were hugs, too, many of them for men, including his polar political opposite, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, for whom Obama expressed friendship during the campaign.
Not to make too much of it, but all this body language reflects an extraordinary ability to connect with people beyond the routine political pressing of the flesh with a wary fixed smile.
During the speech, some reactions from Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden were animated well beyond the usual, but apparently Obama's sensory appeal has its limits. Close-ups of Mitch McConnell and John Boehner showed them looking blank and immobilized, pretty much the way they had been during the weeks of debate on the stimulus bill.
It looks like we have a long way to go before Republicans get all touchy-feely.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Obama Says No to the Party of No
At the White House today, the President made it clear that his Inaugural message to Muslims "on the wrong side of history"--that "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist"--applies to Congressional Republicans as well.
Responding to Rep. Eric Cantor's objection to the proposal to increase benefits for low-income workers who don't owe federal income taxes, Obama reminded him of the November election results. "I won," he said. "I trump you on that."
He also suggested to Cantor, John Boehner, Jon Kyl and other leaders of the GOP's negative wing, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."
Eager as Obama is for bipartisan support for his efforts to prop up the economy and the financial system, these are the first small signs that he may be willing to take some lessons from the Rahm Emanuel school of political hardball.
In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had a near-death experience in the November balloting, seems to have gotten the memo.
“I realize," he said today, 'that if you told most people Mitch McConnell was down at the National Press Club hoping for bipartisanship, they’d tell you that’s like an insurance agent hoping for an earthquake. Most people don’t exactly view me as the Mr. Rogers of the Senate.”
But, he added, “Everybody believes that government action is necessary. This is coming out of the mouth of someone who doesn’t normally advocate government action as a first resort.”
This could be a reality check for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is announcing on its web site: "Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong."
If the GOP is to avoid becoming the irrelevant Party of No, they will have to get real at their annual retreat in the resort of Hot Springs, Va. next week as they pick a new chairman, while mingling with lobbyists who are paying $25,000 a head for the privilege.
Otherwise, their party may turn out to be as "robust" as the economy.
Responding to Rep. Eric Cantor's objection to the proposal to increase benefits for low-income workers who don't owe federal income taxes, Obama reminded him of the November election results. "I won," he said. "I trump you on that."
He also suggested to Cantor, John Boehner, Jon Kyl and other leaders of the GOP's negative wing, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."
Eager as Obama is for bipartisan support for his efforts to prop up the economy and the financial system, these are the first small signs that he may be willing to take some lessons from the Rahm Emanuel school of political hardball.
In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had a near-death experience in the November balloting, seems to have gotten the memo.
“I realize," he said today, 'that if you told most people Mitch McConnell was down at the National Press Club hoping for bipartisanship, they’d tell you that’s like an insurance agent hoping for an earthquake. Most people don’t exactly view me as the Mr. Rogers of the Senate.”
But, he added, “Everybody believes that government action is necessary. This is coming out of the mouth of someone who doesn’t normally advocate government action as a first resort.”
This could be a reality check for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is announcing on its web site: "Thanks to Republican economic policies, the U.S. economy is robust and job creation is strong."
If the GOP is to avoid becoming the irrelevant Party of No, they will have to get real at their annual retreat in the resort of Hot Springs, Va. next week as they pick a new chairman, while mingling with lobbyists who are paying $25,000 a head for the privilege.
Otherwise, their party may turn out to be as "robust" as the economy.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inaugural Address Confidence Game
The very word cuts both ways--meaning true trust and also deception, as in "confidence game." But the added layer of irony for Barack Obama's Inaugural Address is that, in an environment of potential panic, confidence is a key to getting America back on track.
Whatever he says after taking the oath today will in itself be as crucial, as real in its impact, as the stimulus bills, bailouts and fiscal maneuvering to come.
The new President knows that. With his uncanny emotional intelligence, Obama understands that he will be treading many lines today--between rhetoric and reality, between offering hope and asking for sacrifice, between creating uplift and being down to earth, between Martin Luther King's lofty dreams and his "fierce urgency of now."
In all likelihood, Barack Obama will offer himself not as the agent of change but the instrument of the American people's determination to have it. His first words as President will be intended to inspire confidence, not in himself but his listeners and the community they have created.
The political pundits have been playing the expectations game for The Speech, but it will ultimately be judged not as a performance but as the start of a new era of straight talk.
Whatever he says after taking the oath today will in itself be as crucial, as real in its impact, as the stimulus bills, bailouts and fiscal maneuvering to come.
The new President knows that. With his uncanny emotional intelligence, Obama understands that he will be treading many lines today--between rhetoric and reality, between offering hope and asking for sacrifice, between creating uplift and being down to earth, between Martin Luther King's lofty dreams and his "fierce urgency of now."
In all likelihood, Barack Obama will offer himself not as the agent of change but the instrument of the American people's determination to have it. His first words as President will be intended to inspire confidence, not in himself but his listeners and the community they have created.
The political pundits have been playing the expectations game for The Speech, but it will ultimately be judged not as a performance but as the start of a new era of straight talk.
Monday, January 19, 2009
What Obama Means to Me
My parents were white shopkeepers in the black ghetto of Harlem, living in back of a small store, selling things to people even poorer than they were. Their customers were descended from African slaves, while they themselves had left behind a Europe where their kind would soon be killed by the millions.
We were all safe here from servitude and slaughter, but not fully American, free but far from equal.
When I was three and seriously ill, my parents gave up the store and moved away, but my father kept working in Harlem for the next forty years. When I was old enough, I would sometimes go with him on a Saturday for the fourteen hours he spent in a pawnshop there.
The patrons came parading through, most of them well-dressed, almost all black, carrying clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, cameras to offer as hostage for the few dollars they had to have for a few days or weeks.
Some seemed down and defeated, but many were jaunty, with the aliveness of people always dancing on the edge. Seeing me, they flashed white smiles from their dark faces, surprised and amused to find a kid among the forbidding figures guarding the pawnbroker’s cash box. I always smiled back, trying to drink in some of their joy.
Pawnbrokers made loans to the desperate, with higher interest than banks were allowed to charge. In earlier days, they were little more than fences, acquiring stolen goods cheap to resell. Now strict laws required them to be wary--but it was a sad business, bordering on usury, profiting from human misery. For my father, it was simply where he worked sixty hours a week to earn sixteen dollars.
Once he brought home an autograph, from Colonel Hubert Julian, an American pilot who single-handed had opposed Mussolini’s air force in Abyssinia to become known as Haile Selassie’s “Black Eagle.” What led him to a Harlem pawnshop I never learned, but for years I saved that scrap with the flamboyant signature of a genuine hero.
In the windows of Harlem shops, black-on-yellow placards showed the week’s offerings of local movie houses: Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen (huge letters) in “Gone With the Wind” with (much smaller) Clark Gable, or “The Big Broadcast of 1937” starring Rochester and (footnote size) Jack Benny. There was so little to nourish pride on those streets that when Joe Louis (called by newspapers, without irony, “a credit to his race”) knocked out Max Schmeling in their 1938 rematch for the heavyweight title, Harlem erupted in riotous joy.
After returning from World War II, I went to work at City College's Harlem campus, where I fell in love with a beautiful, brilliant young woman. But a decade before Barack Obama was born, we--certainly I--did not have the courage to marry and bring interracial children into that world so little changed from the time of my own childhood.
When the new president takes the oath of office tomorrow, my heart and all those memories will be with him.
We were all safe here from servitude and slaughter, but not fully American, free but far from equal.
When I was three and seriously ill, my parents gave up the store and moved away, but my father kept working in Harlem for the next forty years. When I was old enough, I would sometimes go with him on a Saturday for the fourteen hours he spent in a pawnshop there.
The patrons came parading through, most of them well-dressed, almost all black, carrying clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, cameras to offer as hostage for the few dollars they had to have for a few days or weeks.
Some seemed down and defeated, but many were jaunty, with the aliveness of people always dancing on the edge. Seeing me, they flashed white smiles from their dark faces, surprised and amused to find a kid among the forbidding figures guarding the pawnbroker’s cash box. I always smiled back, trying to drink in some of their joy.
Pawnbrokers made loans to the desperate, with higher interest than banks were allowed to charge. In earlier days, they were little more than fences, acquiring stolen goods cheap to resell. Now strict laws required them to be wary--but it was a sad business, bordering on usury, profiting from human misery. For my father, it was simply where he worked sixty hours a week to earn sixteen dollars.
Once he brought home an autograph, from Colonel Hubert Julian, an American pilot who single-handed had opposed Mussolini’s air force in Abyssinia to become known as Haile Selassie’s “Black Eagle.” What led him to a Harlem pawnshop I never learned, but for years I saved that scrap with the flamboyant signature of a genuine hero.
In the windows of Harlem shops, black-on-yellow placards showed the week’s offerings of local movie houses: Hattie McDaniel and Butterfly McQueen (huge letters) in “Gone With the Wind” with (much smaller) Clark Gable, or “The Big Broadcast of 1937” starring Rochester and (footnote size) Jack Benny. There was so little to nourish pride on those streets that when Joe Louis (called by newspapers, without irony, “a credit to his race”) knocked out Max Schmeling in their 1938 rematch for the heavyweight title, Harlem erupted in riotous joy.
After returning from World War II, I went to work at City College's Harlem campus, where I fell in love with a beautiful, brilliant young woman. But a decade before Barack Obama was born, we--certainly I--did not have the courage to marry and bring interracial children into that world so little changed from the time of my own childhood.
When the new president takes the oath of office tomorrow, my heart and all those memories will be with him.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Obamas' Arrival: Train of Thought
They came to Washington this evening after their Inaugural rail journey and got into a limo surrounded by security in an otherwise deserted Union Station, evoking memories of late nights in that place many years ago.
Back then, after attending a long-winded formal dinner, you could make your way through the desolate terminal at midnight or later and get aboard a waiting Pullman car to read or sleep as it pulled out at 2 a.m. and brought you into Manhattan in the morning, refreshed and ready for work.
Watching tonight's televised arrival there of the about-to-be African-American First Family made you wonder what A. Philip Randolph, whose statue stands in the concourse of Union Station, would have made of it.
In 1925, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a union for the dignified but deferential black men in white coats who made up beds in those Pullman cars and shined your shoes while you slept. For more than half a century after that, he fought racial discrimination.
During World War II, he was one of the leaders of a proposed March on Washington that pressured FDR into issuing the Fair Employment Act, the first law banning discrimination in industry.
In 1963, Randolph was a leading organizer of a March on Washington that did take place. It was there that Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream speech" to a quarter of a million Americans of all races that led to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Arriving in Washington to begin their journey into history, the Obama family did not see the statue of A. Philip Randolph, but he was there.
Back then, after attending a long-winded formal dinner, you could make your way through the desolate terminal at midnight or later and get aboard a waiting Pullman car to read or sleep as it pulled out at 2 a.m. and brought you into Manhattan in the morning, refreshed and ready for work.
Watching tonight's televised arrival there of the about-to-be African-American First Family made you wonder what A. Philip Randolph, whose statue stands in the concourse of Union Station, would have made of it.
In 1925, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a union for the dignified but deferential black men in white coats who made up beds in those Pullman cars and shined your shoes while you slept. For more than half a century after that, he fought racial discrimination.
During World War II, he was one of the leaders of a proposed March on Washington that pressured FDR into issuing the Fair Employment Act, the first law banning discrimination in industry.
In 1963, Randolph was a leading organizer of a March on Washington that did take place. It was there that Martin Luther King made his "I have a dream speech" to a quarter of a million Americans of all races that led to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Arriving in Washington to begin their journey into history, the Obama family did not see the statue of A. Philip Randolph, but he was there.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
Will Obama Be Bad For Blogging?
Over two years and 2000 posts ago, George W. Bush made a blogger out of me. I was coasting along in octogenarian ease, writing an occasionally lofty OpEd piece or irate letter to the editor, when my reactions to what Bush was doing--rage, ridicule and disbelief--demanded a more immediate and unbuttoned outlet.
Now, with Barack Obama on the horizon, a different set of responses seems to be in order. The new president, unlike Bush, is familiar with the connections between words and actions, and what he does and says is likely to prompt more serious and prolonged thought than raw emotion, analysis rather than upset, not the best aphrodisiac for blogging spontaneity.
If so, that would be a social loss. As Andrew Sullivan noted in his recent Atlantic piece, "The wise panic that can paralyze a writer—the fear that he will be exposed, undone, humiliated—is not available to a blogger. You can’t have blogger’s block. You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality."
This melancholy mood is inspired by Jon Swift's now-annual collection of the best blog posts of the year. Reading these self-selected outpourings of estimable minds and hearts is a reminder that the most effective criticism is inspired by boobery rather than brilliance (see John Mason Brown's classic review of a Hamlet performance: "He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace").
Will next year's collection be as much fun to read? Will Obama, with his elegance and (please God) effectiveness, subdue us into nodding our heads in agreement and interjecting the occasional, tentative "Yes, but..."? Will a literate Leader of the Free World enslave our critical savagery?
Not to worry. Right from the start, with his choice of Rick Warren for the Inaugural benediction, the new President has indicated he will show clemency for bloggers. He will, at a minimum, provide enough mistakes and miscalculations to inspire us to keep saddling up and riding to the republic's rescue with our wit and wisdom.
Even Obama's most fervent admirers should not "misunderestimate" his capacity for the kind of folly that keeps life interesting and bloggers blogging.
Now, with Barack Obama on the horizon, a different set of responses seems to be in order. The new president, unlike Bush, is familiar with the connections between words and actions, and what he does and says is likely to prompt more serious and prolonged thought than raw emotion, analysis rather than upset, not the best aphrodisiac for blogging spontaneity.
If so, that would be a social loss. As Andrew Sullivan noted in his recent Atlantic piece, "The wise panic that can paralyze a writer—the fear that he will be exposed, undone, humiliated—is not available to a blogger. You can’t have blogger’s block. You have to express yourself now, while your emotions roil, while your temper flares, while your humor lasts. You can try to hide yourself from real scrutiny, and the exposure it demands, but it’s hard. And that’s what makes blogging as a form stand out: it is rich in personality."
This melancholy mood is inspired by Jon Swift's now-annual collection of the best blog posts of the year. Reading these self-selected outpourings of estimable minds and hearts is a reminder that the most effective criticism is inspired by boobery rather than brilliance (see John Mason Brown's classic review of a Hamlet performance: "He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace").
Will next year's collection be as much fun to read? Will Obama, with his elegance and (please God) effectiveness, subdue us into nodding our heads in agreement and interjecting the occasional, tentative "Yes, but..."? Will a literate Leader of the Free World enslave our critical savagery?
Not to worry. Right from the start, with his choice of Rick Warren for the Inaugural benediction, the new President has indicated he will show clemency for bloggers. He will, at a minimum, provide enough mistakes and miscalculations to inspire us to keep saddling up and riding to the republic's rescue with our wit and wisdom.
Even Obama's most fervent admirers should not "misunderestimate" his capacity for the kind of folly that keeps life interesting and bloggers blogging.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Two Nights in an American Park
Whatever else 2008 was, it was not a slow news year: the longest election campaign ever, a worldwide economic meltdown, natural disasters, scandals large and small filled media to the brim.
But one image belongs to a history that will be passed down through generations forever and lifts the heart for whatever the years ahead may bring--Grant Park, Chicago, the night of November 4th.
A quarter of a million faces radiated the joy of renewal, a burden lifted, a dream realized, a hope brought to life--not by the man who stood before them but by the American people themselves.
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible," Barack Obama said that night, "who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."
Those faces stay in the memory of someone who had a far different experience in that place 40 years earlier, on a night where the world saw a different answer to the question about "the power of our democracy."
On TV screens back then, Americans were watching kids being gassed, clubbed and herded into police vans at gunpoint for exercising their freedom of speech while at the Democratic convention, Walter Cronkite was looking at the footage and telling TV viewers in disgust, "It makes us want to pack up our cameras and go home."
Those two nights in Grant Park are both part of the American story in a single lifetime, and as 2009 begins, we know there will be other nights and other scenes, some inspiring and some ugly, but it's possible to believe the new president when he quotes Martin Luther King to say that "the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice."
But one image belongs to a history that will be passed down through generations forever and lifts the heart for whatever the years ahead may bring--Grant Park, Chicago, the night of November 4th.
A quarter of a million faces radiated the joy of renewal, a burden lifted, a dream realized, a hope brought to life--not by the man who stood before them but by the American people themselves.
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible," Barack Obama said that night, "who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."
Those faces stay in the memory of someone who had a far different experience in that place 40 years earlier, on a night where the world saw a different answer to the question about "the power of our democracy."
On TV screens back then, Americans were watching kids being gassed, clubbed and herded into police vans at gunpoint for exercising their freedom of speech while at the Democratic convention, Walter Cronkite was looking at the footage and telling TV viewers in disgust, "It makes us want to pack up our cameras and go home."
Those two nights in Grant Park are both part of the American story in a single lifetime, and as 2009 begins, we know there will be other nights and other scenes, some inspiring and some ugly, but it's possible to believe the new president when he quotes Martin Luther King to say that "the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice."
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Changing Change: 2008 and 1968
Those years are like bookends to our times, when one period of American life ended and another began.
After Democrats held the White House for 28 out of 36 years, the ground shifted in 1968 and, for 28 of the following 40, Republicans took control.
In 1968, Richard Nixon promised to "Bring Us Together" just as, four decades later, Barack Obama offers "Change."
Back then, Democrats were losing their grip on power after a disastrous war and years of domestic upheaval that were stirring fears about social stability in the face of new ideas about gender, race and conventional morality.
Now the Bush years have discredited the backlash of neo-con politics that brought another miserable military misadventure and the rollback of many hard-won individual rights in the name of keeping us safe from terror.
Once again, American politics are at a turning point and, even in the midst of economic misery, Barack Obama embodies hope for something better than what we have had for a long time.
His freshness and confidence are polar opposites of the qualities with which Nixon ushered in his era of reviving ancient grudges and reacting to the world with paranoia.
Party politics and ideologies aside, in the face of unprecedented challenges, Americans are once again ready for something new and better, and it's possible for even the old and jaded to believe that this time we are going to get it.
After Democrats held the White House for 28 out of 36 years, the ground shifted in 1968 and, for 28 of the following 40, Republicans took control.
In 1968, Richard Nixon promised to "Bring Us Together" just as, four decades later, Barack Obama offers "Change."
Back then, Democrats were losing their grip on power after a disastrous war and years of domestic upheaval that were stirring fears about social stability in the face of new ideas about gender, race and conventional morality.
Now the Bush years have discredited the backlash of neo-con politics that brought another miserable military misadventure and the rollback of many hard-won individual rights in the name of keeping us safe from terror.
Once again, American politics are at a turning point and, even in the midst of economic misery, Barack Obama embodies hope for something better than what we have had for a long time.
His freshness and confidence are polar opposites of the qualities with which Nixon ushered in his era of reviving ancient grudges and reacting to the world with paranoia.
Party politics and ideologies aside, in the face of unprecedented challenges, Americans are once again ready for something new and better, and it's possible for even the old and jaded to believe that this time we are going to get it.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sorcerer's Apprentice Transition
Barack Obama's to-do list just keeps growing as aides tell us he is "closely monitoring" the Gaza crisis even as they keep repeating the one-president-at-a-time mantra.
In the weirdest transition in White House history, the question of being ready on Day One, which was the subject of so much debate earlier this year, has morphed into two months of pre-presidential involvement in bailouts and economic stimulus debates--and now a full-blown foreign policy flap.
According to senior adviser David Axelrod, Condoleeza Rice is keeping the President-Elect up to speed "to get a handle on the situation, so that, when he becomes president on January 20, he has the advantage of all the facts and information leading up to that point."
When the training wheels come off that day, Obama may be hurtling downhill steering his way around a Middle East roadblock as he tries to get to the economic mess.
It's all beginning to look like the sorcerer's apprentice in an overflowing presidential workshop.
In the weirdest transition in White House history, the question of being ready on Day One, which was the subject of so much debate earlier this year, has morphed into two months of pre-presidential involvement in bailouts and economic stimulus debates--and now a full-blown foreign policy flap.
According to senior adviser David Axelrod, Condoleeza Rice is keeping the President-Elect up to speed "to get a handle on the situation, so that, when he becomes president on January 20, he has the advantage of all the facts and information leading up to that point."
When the training wheels come off that day, Obama may be hurtling downhill steering his way around a Middle East roadblock as he tries to get to the economic mess.
It's all beginning to look like the sorcerer's apprentice in an overflowing presidential workshop.
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