Monday, May 19, 2008

BARACK OBAMA

The Obama Campaign's Rules For Political Discourse

There's a distinct pattern emerging in the way that the Obama campaign deems some topics fit for public consumption, and others strictly verboten.

 

Take, for example, the candidate's ethnic heritage.

Obama, in his “A More Perfect Union” speech:

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

Obama, responding to Geraldine Ferraro:

Ferraro, a Clinton fundraiser and supporter, told a California newspaper that Obama would not be in this position in the contest "if he were a white man, or if he were a woman of any color". She said the country is "caught up in the concept."

Senator Obama called Ferraro's comments "patently absurd" and "divisive." He spoke to ABC News' morning television show.

"I think that if anybody was looking for the quickest path to the presidency, they would not say 'I want to be an African-American man named Barack Obama.' I do not think that is in the handbook for running for president," he said.

He’s right, being an African-American man may not be the quickest path to the presidency. And Obama ought to rise or fall based on his ideas or policy proposals, and qualifications for the office. But we’ve seen others bring up the race issue… while touting Obama.

Andrew Sullivan:

What does he offer? First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effective potential re-branding of the United States since Reagan. Such a re-branding is not trivial—it’s central to an effective war strategy. The war on Islamist terror, after all, is two-pronged: a function of both hard power and soft power. We have seen the potential of hard power in removing the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. We have also seen its inherent weaknesses in Iraq, and its profound limitations in winning a long war against radical Islam. The next president has to create a sophisticated and supple blend of soft and hard power to isolate the enemy, to fight where necessary, but also to create an ideological template that works to the West’s advantage over the long haul. There is simply no other candidate with the potential of Obama to do this. Which is where his face comes in.

Consider this hypothetical. It’s November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man—Barack Hussein Obama—is the new face of America. In one simple image, America’s soft power has been ratcheted up not a notch, but a logarithm. A brown-skinned man whose father was an African, who grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, who attended a majority-Muslim school as a boy, is now the alleged enemy. If you wanted the crudest but most effective weapon against the demonization of America that fuels Islamist ideology, Obama’s face gets close. It proves them wrong about what America is in ways no words can.

Or Anne Applebaum:

No wonder the clichéd word change works like magic for Obama. And no wonder it is beginning to seem, possibly for the first time in history, that it is better to be black. To put it bluntly, for a large, frequently inattentive electorate, there could be no more potent symbol of his differentness, his non-Clinton-non-Bushness, than Obama's dark skin. His race also functions as a form of branding, telling you that he is the anti-oligarch in this race, " the man from Hawaii by way of Jakarta, Chicago, and Harvard." It's even more effective than a famous surname. You don't even have to hear him speak to know he isn't related to this president or any other: Just look at his photograph.

So apparently when critics of Barack Obama refer to his skin color it reveals racism, but when supporters refer to his race to promote the virtues of an Obama presidency, it's okay.

Or references to his middle name “Hussein.” Take a look at Team Obama's response when John McCain denounced Bill Cunningham.

“We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Obama, talking to Jeffrey Goldberg.

It’s conceivable that there are those in the Arab world who say to themselves, “This is a guy who spent some time in the Muslim world, has a middle name of Hussein, and appears more worldly and has called for talks with people, and so he’s not going to be engaging in the same sort of cowboy diplomacy as George Bush,” and that’s something they’re hopeful about.

It's out of bounds for Cunningham to refer to Obama's middle name, but it’s okay to talk about Obama’s middle name when it’s discussed as a virtue of an Obama presidency.

Finally, on Michelle Obama, who we are told "routinely draws audiences of 1,000-plus supporters even when she's campaigning on her own." The candidate touts the value of his spouse:

"She's tough," Obama, 45, said of his wife after she spoke at the luncheon Monday that launched a new group, Women for Obama. "There's something about her that projects such honesty and strength. It's what makes her such an unbelievable professional, and partner, and mother, and wife."

It’s okay to talk about Michelle Obama when it is done to promote the virtues of an Obama presidency. But if you quote her in an ad, it's "detestable."

The rule appears that any topic is okay if it is used to praise the candidate, but many of those same topics are outside the bounds of civilized discourse the moment they're used to criticize the candidate. 

05/19 01:56 PMShare