Obama - perspectives

[cured]

I have quite a bit to say about this election but, for now, I thought I'd drop an interesting note from a conservative who had this to say about Obama's tenure at the Harvard Law Review:

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I think Barack took 10 times as much grief from those on the left on the Review as from those of us on the right. And the reason was, I think there was an expectation among those editors on the left that he would affirmatively use the modest powers of his position to advance the cause, whatever that was. They thought, you know, finally there's an African American president of the Harvard Law Review; it's our turn, and he should aggressively use this position, and his authority and his bully pulpit to advance the political or philosophical causes that we all believe in. And Barack was reluctant to do that.
It's not that he was out of sympathy with their views, but his first and foremost goal, it always seemed to me, was to put out a first-rate publication. And he was not going to let politics or ideology get in the way of doing that ...
He had some discretion as president to exercise an element of choice for certain of the positions on the masthead; it wasn't wide discretion, but he had some. And I think a lot of the minority editors on the Review expected him to use that discretion to the maximum extent possible to empower them. To put them in leadership positions, to burnish their resumes, and to give them a chance to help him and help guide the Review. He didn't do that. He declined to exercise that discretion to disrupt the results of votes or of tests that were taken by various people to assess their fitness for leadership positions.
He was unwilling to undermine, based on the way I viewed it, meritocratic outcomes or democratic outcomes in order to advance a racial agenda. That earned him a lot of recrimination and criticism from some on the left, particularly some of the minority editors of the Review. ... It confirmed the hope that I and others had had at the time of the election that he would basically be an honest broker, that he would not let ideology or politics blind him to the enduring institutional interests of the Review. It told me that he valued the success of his own presidency of the Review above scoring political points of currying favor with his political supporters.
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There's more from others who remember the Harvard Law Review days here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/obama/harvard.html

[BeautifulBurnout]

I have already said enough, particularly as I didn't even get to vote... :p

A final word though, here in The Stranger (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/11/yes_we_did), a Seattle paper:

I ride the 7 bus to work those mornings I can’t face my bicycle. It comes up from south Seattle and traverses rich and poor neighborhoods, the International District, Pioneer square and Downtown. Usually, it is a hateful, loud, messy conglomeration of tired people. This morning, an older black man sat with a grin on his face. He was dressed for construction work. Out of the blue, he shouted, “YES, we can!” It was completely infectious- people responded in a chorus of “Yes, we can,” and there was clapping, and there were grins, ear to ear. And we rode on together.


I'm running out of kleenex. :o

[cacophony]

that's great.

[gambit]

Suddenly, it may be cool to be American again (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_election_an_american_abroad)


VIENNA, Austria – She was a stranger, and she kissed me. Just for being an American.

It happened on the bus on my way to work Wednesday morning, a few hours after compatriots clamoring for change swept Barack Obama to his historic victory. I was on the phone, and the 20-something Austrian woman seated in front of me overheard me speaking English.

Without a word, she turned, pecked me on the cheek and stepped off at the next stop.

Nothing was said, but the message was clear: Today, we are all Americans.

For longtime U.S. expatriates like me — someone far more accustomed to being targeted over unpopular policies, for having my very Americanness publicly assailed — it feels like an extraordinary turnabout.

Like a long journey over a very bumpy road has abruptly come to an end.

And it's not just me.

An American colleague in Egypt says several people came up to her on the streets of Cairo and said: "America, hooray!" Others, including strangers, expressed congratulations with a smile and a hand over their hearts.

Another colleague, in Amman, says Jordanians stopped her on the street and that several women described how they wept with joy.Brilliant.

[cured]

I'm going to Inauguration in two months :)

[Troy McClure]

I'm going to Inauguration in two months :)

Someway I'm going to try my hardest to be in D.C. on Inauguration Day, too. I don't know if you need a ticket to be there or where to get them.

All I know I'll probably need some gloves, a warm coat and a hat.

Jason

[chuck]

At my school today - I was saying good morning to students as they arrived.

One of the Year 2 students stopped next to me, paused - looked me up and down - then said "You like like that guy that got elected." She laughed - and ran on.

Didn't know what to say - but it made me smile thinking a 6 year old had watched Obama become President-elect - and had remembered it the next day.

[cured]

I don't know if you need a ticket to be there or where to get them.

I'm still trying to figure that out, too. You can kick it on the streets for his walk on the street but I don't think you need a ticket unless you're trying to get really close. There are tickets for the grandstands.

Anyway, it was nice not having McCain supporters come in and take their frustration out on me today. I read a lot about the world reaction and I was very heartened to hear some of the stories. Just to have a guy with intellect in the White House would have been good enough for me but it looks like we got the whole package; a student of Reagan, a student of the Constitution, Clinton's charisma, MLK's legacy, and so on.

[cacophony]

i hope this doesn't come off condescending, but i'm very very happy for african americans today. i don't know how else to say that without sounding condescending, i guess. i feel like it's that old "us" and "them" thing again. those of "us" who feel like we hold no remnants of the tradition of discrimination have had no way to prove it and let "them" know that we can move past it as a single community. there's been a culture of distrust, i think, where as individuals we feel like the amorphous masses might not be as interested in equality as we are. this election proved, in a way, that so many of us truly believe in that equality and it's almost like we can all look each other in the eye en masse and say, "well thank god, i'm glad i'm not the only one." i feel hopeful that "we" have managed to let "them" know that we think of each other as fellow americans and fellow human beings with inner qualities first and demographics second.

maybe that's overly optimistic and overly simplistic.

i'm reminded of an interview i saw with chris rock after he'd had his family tree researched by a genealogist. he was amazed to find out that one of his ancestors was elected twice to the south carolina state legislature back when the abolition of slavery was still a new concept, and that this same ancestor had owned land and was financially successful. he said as an african american you always feel like you came from nothing, that there was no power or success preceding you to lift you up as you strive to succeed in your own life. you feel like if you make it, you'll be the first. to learn that there were people in his own family who had been successful, that it's not an anomaly for a black man to make it in america, was an incredible revelation for him. for those african americans who don't have access to their family ancestry i hope they can see themselves in the success of obama, and broaden their vision to see how many black americans have already paved the way as senators, mayors, businessmen/women, etc.

again, maybe this isn't a sentiment that can be expressed by a white woman without coming off as condescending. i don't know how to express it otherwise so i hope it's taken as sincere.

[Deckard]

Well a white man like me is probably no better qualified to judge either, but fwiw, I don't think it's condescending at all. I think you summed up very nicely what lots of people - members of the human race - are feeling. I've no idea who (if any) on here is black but I'd be interested to hear their thoughts too. In fact anyone who isn't white, since that's the real significance too. When he reached through that magic 270, I felt it to be a fantastic symbolic victory for non-whites everywhere, including those close to me. At the risk of sounding mawkish, it felt like we all somehow got a bit closer that night.

[Sean]

As yet another white guy, I agree Cacophony.

And here's an interesting interview with Ann Nixon Cooper (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/obama.centenarian.fan/index.html), the 106 year old woman Obama referenced in his victory speech:

"Things are changing, changing, changing, and I look for more change now that it's the first black president in victory of faith over fear," she says. "Don't you know, that's quite something to be proud of."

and:

"I ain't got time to die 'cause I've got to see a black president," she said, giggling with excitement. "I've got to see that."

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

Honestly I think the race angle is pretty played, but I couldn't help but wonder; is this the first time a president/prime minister/king or whatever you use was elected in ANY country that went against the 'majority' race?

[cacophony]

interesting question. i'm not even sure how you'd dig up an answer without simply being a history expert.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Honestly I think the race angle is pretty played, but I couldn't help but wonder; is this the first time a president/prime minister/king or whatever you use was elected in ANY country that went against the 'majority' race?


Not to sound like I'm attacking you, but this very question fuels racial competition.

Let us hope this is the dawning of a new timeless age of looking past minor differences(race, sex(...), religion, etc) as to what's possible.

[gambit]

Honestly I think the race angle is pretty played, but I couldn't help but wonder; is this the first time a president/prime minister/king or whatever you use was elected in ANY country that went against the 'majority' race?From what I've heard, Europe hasn't yet. I don't know about other countries, but I doubt the list would be very long.

[cacophony]

Not to sound like I'm attacking you, but this very question fuels racial competition.

Let us hope this is the dawning of a new timeless age of looking past minor differences(race, sex(...), religion, etc) as to what's possible.

i admire your progressive thinking but i'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with your assessment of his/her post.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

i admire your progressive thinking but i'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with your assessment of his/her post.

Please elaborate, Momma(1)
Yeah, elaborate(2)

[BeautifulBurnout]

A really cool Flickr page here (http://www.flickr.com/groups/messageforobama/pool/), set up by the Guardian. :D
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2008/nov/07/barack-obama-uselections2008)

[gambit]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1108/The_other_European_reaction.html

Well this is disconcerting. Europeans?


There's been an enormous global embrace of Obama, but that story's been told in a way that generally skirts the fact that some Europeans aren't actually that thrilled with the idea of a black president.

Der Spiegel reports (http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,589035,00.html) that "the Wolf Blitzer of Austria" is among them, and got in some trouble for saying, "I wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man."
The story continues: Emmerich himself voiced no regret. On the contrary, he even took a harder line in subsequent interviews. Obama's victory was an "extremely disconcerting development" he told the Austrian Standard on Wednesday, because "blacks aren't as politically civilized." Meanwhile, he told Die Presse in an interview published on Friday that Obama has "a devil-like talent to present his rhetoric so effectively."
That does seem to be an outlier, though, in an overwhelmingly positive global reaction.

[BeautifulBurnout]

Austria: birthplace of Adolf Hitler. Home of right-wingers. Politically as significant as that lump of something stuck to the bottom of my shoe..

[cacophony]

Please elaborate, Momma(1)
Yeah, elaborate(2)

because pretending the issues of race and racism don't exist don't make them go away. in fact i would say the only reason we've come to a point in american society when we could consider finally voting for a black candidate for office is because we dragged the issue out into the light. you don't fuel racial competition by simply asking about its existence and occasionally taking a measurement of its pervasiveness.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

because pretending the issues of race and racism don't exist don't make them go away. in fact i would say the only reason we've come to a point in american society when we could consider finally voting for a black candidate for office is because we dragged the issue out into the light. you don't fuel racial competition by simply asking about its existence and occasionally taking a measurement of its pervasiveness.

(1) OK Mom.
(2) Whatever. I thought we're supposed to capitalize the first word in a sentence?

[chuck]

Superb article written about Obama - back in 2004, when he was just becoming noticed in Illinois.

The Candidate (http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/05/31/040531fa_fact1?currentPage=all)

A couple of choice quotes:

Kirk Dillard, a leading Republican senator from the Chicago suburbs, looked chagrined when I asked him about Obama. “I knew from the day he walked into this chamber that he was destined for great things,” he said. “In Republican circles, we’ve always feared that Barack would become a rock star of American politics.” Still, Dillard was gracious. “Obama is an extraordinary man,” he said. “His intellect, his charisma. He’s to the left of me on gun control, abortion. But he can really work with Republicans.” Dillard and Obama have co-sponsored many bills.
People are whupped,” Obama told me. “I’m whupped. My wife is whupped. Unless it’s your job to be curious, who really has the time to sit and ask questions and explore issues?”

He didn’t look whupped. Still loose and alert after a long day, Obama was sipping iced tea in a busy, Caribbean-themed restaurant in a small shopping center in Hyde Park. But he had already spent sixteen months running for the Senate—and seven years as a state senator—and he could ruefully sympathize with the political apathy of the average beleaguered citizen. Tonight, he had turned his cell phone off and dismissed his aides; he just wanted to get home for the bedtimes of his daughters, who are two and five. His wife, Michelle, is also a lawyer, and their daily lives are the familiar three-ring American family circus—even without the steroidal additive of Barack’s political career. Yet Barack had been reluctant to take even a semester off from teaching while campaigning, partly because he needs the income. To survive this campaign financially, the Obamas will take out a second mortgage on their apartment.


“Teaching keeps you sharp,” Obama said. “The great thing about teaching constitutional law”—his subject—“is that all the tough questions land in your lap: abortion, gay rights, affirmative action. And you need to be able to argue both sides. I have to be able to argue the other side as well as Scalia does. I think that’s good for one’s politics.”

Jan Schakowsky told me about a recent visit she had made to the White House with a congressional delegation. On her way out, she said, President Bush noticed her “obama” button. “He jumped back, almost literally,” she said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’ ”

Pretty sure he does now. :D

[Troy McClure]

I feel compelled to add, since my background is half Caucasian / half Mexican descent. My initial support for Obama was that he felt the same way about Iraq War 2.0 as I did. I also liked how he portrayed himself and his upbringing as not really being any different than what's normally considered the 'American Dream™'. Yes his skin color was different, but he didn't use it to his advantage or as an excuse. That's how I was raised by my white mom (my parents divorced, but I was still close to my Mexican dad). When I got to college in 1995, it was hard to relate to my non-white friends who used their skin color as an excuse / advantage. I know they had different experiences than I did, with name-calling and stuff like that. But as they became close friends, we all realized you make your own path, and if something is blocking, you either quit, or bulldoze through it.

Also, my neighbor came over to celebrate with my mom and I. She is turning 80 in January and she is black. I had never seen her that joyful since her grandkids were born. She told us of growing up during segregation, and now this is the best 80th birthday present she could hope for.

Obama winning should be the example of kids anywhere in America. You don’t need that traditional family crap that the GOP trots out. Kids just need someone who believes in them.

-Jason

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Obama got in trouuuble, Obama got in trouuuble:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/07/obama.seance/index.html

[Sean]

Obama got in trouuuble, Obama got in trouuuble:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/07/obama.seance/index.htmlSo glad to see that the country is maintaining it's laser-like focus on the important issues we're up against - like Obama telling a bad joke. Whoop-de-do. :rolleyes:

[Sean]

I feel compelled to add, since my background is half Caucasian / half Mexican descent. My initial support for Obama was that he felt the same way about Iraq War 2.0 as I did. I also liked how he portrayed himself and his upbringing as not really being any different than what's normally considered the 'American Dream™'. Yes his skin color was different, but he didn't use it to his advantage or as an excuse. That's how I was raised by my white mom (my parents divorced, but I was still close to my Mexican dad). When I got to college in 1995, it was hard to relate to my non-white friends who used their skin color as an excuse / advantage. I know they had different experiences than I did, with name-calling and stuff like that. But as they became close friends, we all realized you make your own path, and if something is blocking, you either quit, or bulldoze through it.

Also, my neighbor came over to celebrate with my mom and I. She is turning 80 in January and she is black. I had never seen her that joyful since her grandkids were born. She told us of growing up during segregation, and now this is the best 80th birthday present she could hope for.

Obama winning should be the example of kids anywhere in America. You don’t need that traditional family crap that the GOP trots out. Kids just need someone who believes in them.

-JasonThanks for sharing the perspective. :)

[BeautifulBurnout]

This just in!

Obama's Use of Complete
Sentences Stirs Controversy

Stunning Break with Last Eight Years

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama's appearance on CBS' "Sixty Minutes" on Sunday witnessed the president-elect's unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth. But Mr. Obama's decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style jarring.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a President who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, "Okay, subject, predicate, subject predicate - we get it, stop showing off."

The President-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has
already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.