Obama - perspectives
 

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/frontl...a/harvard.html

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

A final word though, here in The Stranger, a Seattle paper:


I'm running out of kleenex. :o

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

that's great.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

Suddenly, it may be cool to be American again

Brilliant.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

I'm going to Inauguration in two months :)

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

As yet another white guy, I agree Cacophony.

And here's an interesting interview with Ann Nixon Cooper, 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."

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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?

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

A really cool Flickr page here, set up by the Guardian. :D

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmi..._reaction.html

Well this is disconcerting. Europeans?

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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.

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

The Candidate

A couple of choice quotes:

Pretty sure he does now. :D

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

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

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

Obama got in trouuuble, Obama got in trouuuble:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/...nce/index.html

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

So 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:

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

Thanks for sharing the perspective. :)

Re: Obama - perspectives
 

This just in!