I really don’t want to give the Republicans any fodder for this upcoming general election, because I have more than a hundred rock-solid reasons why Barack Obama is better for this country -and the rest of the world for that matter- as the next president of the USA. Better than John McCain or any of the other presidential candidates in this field, when compared. And yes (if you caught it), the attempt at a pun was intended. Thus I will have to hold back a lot in this column for reasons that will be obvious to many; so read in between the lines please.
Come November, I intend to vote for Barack Obama -barring some unexpected cataclysm. I intend to vote for him with enthusiasm, with pride, with joy and with a lot of hope. I want to go even further and say that if offered a chance I will gladly work for his campaign and/or administration.
For this campaign, I have done a lot of volunteer stuff over the past year and a half, and I have done more than my part on these here blogs to advance Obama’s candidacy. For the first time in my life, I actually gave money to a presidential candidate: Barack “Barry” Hussein Obama. However, I will be a liar if I were to not say that I am a bit concerned right now; concerned that I may get my political heart broken again at the end of all this.
Look, maybe Michelle Obama was right all along, as she warned us not to deify Barack. She always alluded to him as mere mortal. She always tried to get many of us, to keep our soles firmly planted in the ground, as we fantasized of our dream candidate. In fact, she was often castigated in the media for giving up too much info, when she told lil human stories about Barack. Stories about him doing household chores like carrying out the garbage, or of his snoring in bed while smelling stinky with all that cigarette smoke on his breath, and other lil juicy items that awaken the gossipy side of us. Now it seems like she knew what she was doing all along: trying to keep Barack’s fans and supporters from creating a demi-god. Trying to protect against a possible let down if Barack doesn’t deliver on his beautiful speeches.
She must have known that supporters (especially believers) would be rather disappointed, if he turns out to be just another mere mortal; another stereotypical politician with above-average luck, and also above-average glibness and foresight. One blessed by the true Gods with real good-looks (big ears subtracted), grace, style and charm in abundance.
Surely Michelle Obama knows more than we do. Why else would she answer certain questions in certainly strange ways? For example, remember when they asked her whether or not Barack would run again in four years time, if Hillary were to win the primary and nomination but lose the general election? Well, she said no; she didn’t think that he would run again because they (both she and Barack) would be in a different place (a different space).
Most scholars of politics know that first runs are usually preps for second attempts. Most political students know that although losing the first presidential attempt is in actuality a setback, it is still often enough a setup for a comeback. Many nominees were candidates who had run before (Reagan, Bush, Johnson, Nixon, Gore, et al), thus the position Michelle Obama took on this question was not only puzzling but also a lil troubling; but I won’t get into that here.
Look, what we need right now -here in the USA (and in the world at large) – is a leader; not another calculating politician. The issues we face require nothing less. And when Obama announced his presidential bid last February, many of us had hoped that he was ready for the task at hand and that he was up to it too; and that he knew EXACTLY what he was getting into. We had also hoped that he was more than just the good writer that we had read. We hoped that he was better than (or as good as) his speeches. We were especially enamored with his 2002 speech opposing the impending Iraq War; and also of the speech at/to the 2004 Democratic convention –where he talked about not just red and blue states, but about unifying elected officials of all the (United) States of America. These speeches were nothing short of brilliant.
But, haven’t brilliant speech writers and talented speech makers broken our political hearts before? Didn’t Mario Cuomo do this? And Jesse Jackson? And Ted Kennedy? And others before and after them? And don’t they always seem to use the Dems convention as heartbreak hotel? Is this all about de-ja-vu all over again?
Look, I could list umpteen good speakers on the contemporary political scene -Eric Dyson, Chuck Hagel, Cornel West, Alan Keyes, Colin Powell, Ralph Nader, Al Sharpton, Charles Barron, Joe Biden and others- but how many of them are truly inspirational? Few are; but Barack Obama is.
And what about the other brilliant speechmakers who broke our hearts because of their misfortune, and because of their unfortunate and tragic demises? People like John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, Martin Luther King, Steven Biko, Mahatma Gandhi and others? And of course, my personal favorite: Malcolm; a man who epitomized that “change” can be beautiful.
These were people who offered so much with their promise; people who inspired so many with their inner-beauty. Don’t think for a second that many of us haven’t been in daily pain because of Barack; sweating bullets every time he wades into a crowd; thinking Harvey Lee Oswald and telescopic rifles, every time he stands before tens of thousands of people, to deliver another one of those confectious speeches. Losing heartbeats whenever we hear an announcer on radio or television say: “we interrupt this program to bring you a breaking news development”. Supporting Obama is a stressful undertaking.
But what is the end game here? What’s it all about Barack? Is it only for the moment we win? Are we going to actually get the change you have been promising? Can you truly deliver? Or will we be looking for a quickie divorce when the honeymoon is over?
Many of us had hoped that before jumping into this race, Mister Barack had done the pre-requisite philosophical agonizing, racial and religious cleansing, mental purging, intellectual developing, psychological analyzing, spiritual awakening, political thinking, moral testing and other profound pre-requirements of a special leader. We also hoped that David Axelrod was not just another Karl Rove -tactically brilliant but intellectually shallow; all about power but not about change.
There are times in the history of humans when a special leader is in demand: this is such a time. The question is whether or not Barack Obama is the special person.
During the debates we saw him stumble, stutter and stammer through a fair performance in general; Hillary Clinton out-wonked him policy wise. Sometimes we were like Walter Mondale’s old lady, asking him: “where’s the beef, sonny”? Other times we were disappointed at the slam dunks he blew; only once or twice he was real good. In all fairness to Mrs. Clinton, Barack got his head handed to him on a platter by the woman in the pants-suit; and this happened in a quite a few of the two dozen–odd debates. Barack Obama gets many a mulligan from the media and also from his supporters: he is one lucky SOB; one of the luckiest politicians ever to be born. But then you make your own luck sometimes; especially when you are qualified and prepared for the day opportunity storms the ramparts.
Truth is: he is just a basically loveable guy; everyday is probably Valentine’s Day for him. A particular ex-girlfriend of mine would have called him a “squishy” type. Someone you want to hug and squeeze; someone charming and intelligent; someone nice and smooth. Joe Biden knew what he was saying; he just wasn’t artful in the way he did; that’s all/lol.
I have always warned that debates don’t win elections; American voters are normally too idiosyncratic in this regard. When voters like someone as a candidate, it is something that’s really hard for an opponent to overcome; that’s why Hillary was almost in tears when she said at one debate: “ he is so likeable (sweet as compared to me) isn’t he”? And of course we saw a slightly egotistic and snotty Barack reply: “aww (shucks) Hillary; you are likeable enough”. LOL.
Barack Obama could be the typical mulatto who successfully rides both sides of America’s racial divide with finesse and skill, much to their personal benefit. He could also be one calculating mutha, who saw that a brilliant woman like Michelle could help realize his political ambitions. He has to now guard against the words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright coming back home like chickens looking to roost: “Barack is a politician; he does what politicians do (say anything in order to win)”.
After a while, one starts to wonder if Obama can be pinned down to any one place; whether it be on foreign or domestic policy, he has shown over the past 17 months, some fluidity, tremendous range, some contradiction, some flexibility, and a willingness to quickly reconfigurate. And while some may argue that’s good, others -like me- are somewhat dismayed if not outrightly perturbed. What are his core positions and beliefs? What does he hold dear and sacred? Didn’t he promise to be different?
Take the “Pakistan remark” about violating the sovereignty of an ally in order to get at Osama bin Ladin -which made many a person cringe. One of my favorite columnists in Trinidad (Rafique Shah) wrote a column castigating him for the remark; it was an eye opener for me. Then Barack qualified it a bit (“if Musharraf ‘would not’ or ‘can not’ act”) probably for international consumption; but the damage may have been done already: is he potentially another heavy-handed American president about to hit the world stage -with the same old American arrogance? Definitely not what the rest of the world is looking for right now.
And what about Iraq? Is he truly committed to ending this war ASAP? What does “as careful getting out, as we were careless (reckless) getting in” really mean? And what about the anachronistic Cuban policy; can’t he articulate a definitive policy-change without being fearful of losing Florida due to the many unforgiving Cuban ex-patriots? And does he know that there are millions of people living in the Caribbean basin? And why did it take him so long to speak out on Zimbabwe? And so on, and so on, and so on………….. I won’t elaborate here, for my own peculiar and selfish reasons.
Then relative to domestic policy, doesn’t Barack see the many contradictions he has been throwing up? Did he just stumble on to this “missing father/parental responsibility” issue, because of his own personal battles with the “missing-father syndrome”? And if fatherhood starts at conception, isn’t that undermining his pro-choice position? And if one of his daughters were to get pregnant as a teenager, he wouldn’t want her to be ‘punished’ by being forced to have the baby? What was that about? And if abortion was decided on “privacy rights”, and he Barack agrees with the Roe v. Wade decision, then doesn’t his position on FISA contradict all this?
And what about same-sex marriage? What’s his true position? At the core: is he for same-sex marriage? And if so: why not do what Denis Kucinich had the guts to do: come out and say so? Look, if you can sincerely articulate the reasons why you think marriage should be redefined, then people will follow. From the vantage point of many: Barack Obama is better at “triangulation” than both Hillary and Bill Clinton; and believe me when I say that they were real good at it. But this is not what many of us are looking for; definitely not.
And why the silence on so many salient issues relative to the historical black-experience in the USA? And why the ambiguity on gun control? And what about the fact that over 90% of all governmental contracts in the USA (federal, state and city/local) go to white-male-owned companies? And why not explicate the issue of “corporate abuse” in both national and international spheres? And what about putting more meat on the bones of political reform in this country? And where is he on nuclear energy; really? And so on, and so on, and so on………….. and I won’t elaborate here, for my own peculiar and selfish reasons.
What many of Barack’s supporters need to tell him is that people are not afraid of supporting his positions, once he is brave enough and strong enough to articulate them properly. It’s his decency, honesty, integrity, intellectual capability, morality and leadership skills that we are looking for mainly, not just his political skills; he has already proven that he is politically savvy. What many of us want to know is this: are you Barack Obama, the political leader that we have been waiting, wishing and hoping for since the sixties? Many of us are beginning to wonder.
Stay tuned-in; see if I follow up on this soon. I know I should; but…………………….we’ll see.