Ohhh, But Are You Experienced? Have You Ever Been Experienced?
David Weigel | January 16, 2007, 3:43pm
The men of Powerline
serve up a perfect example of Republican opinion on Barack Obama.
Unless one counts his good looks, good speaking, and bi-racial status, it's difficult to discern Obama's qualifications for the presidency. Obama has never run anything of substance... A serious country would not take his candidacy seriously.
The last open election for the White House pitted Al Gore against George W. Bush. Gore had been in national politics for 24 years; eight years each as congressman, senator, and vice president. Bush had been the governor of Texas for six years, and before that a businessman with - let's be nice about it - a mixed record of achievements. Still, the Bush campaign tried to present their candidate as a man who'd lived in the real world and the corporate world versus this orange-colored hack who'd grown up in Washington, D.C. and never really left. Fifteen percent of voters cast their ballot based on experience. Gore
won them by
sixty-five points. But Bush had beaten Gore soundly on the questions of trustworthiness, likeability, and being a strong leader, which more voters cared about, so he won (despite getting fewer votes overall etc etc).
The point is that voters don't make their presidential decisions (arguably
any political decisions, but especially presidential ones) based on a checklist of the factors that make a good president. The issues change every four years. And there are two possibilities for 2008. One: We learn that 21,500 extra troops were what was standing between total defeat and total victory in Iraq, and George W. Bush becomes the most beloved president since
Jed Bartlet. Two: Iraq gets worse, the Bush presidency continues to crumble, and voters want to scramble away from the legacy of the last eight years faster than the audience at an
Uwe Boll movie. If we find ourselves living in that second scenario, a cipher like Obama (especially if he colors in his bio by talking about cutting spending and getting out of Iraq) is exactly who Americans will want to elect. They won't necessarily be "unserious" for wanting to, either.
Republican grumbling about Obama is probably all about projection, anyway. Republicans have been gunning to elect the first black president for a while, hence the 1996 Colin Powell boomlet, the 2005 Condi Rice boomlet, and the 2006 efforts to elect a black Republican farm team to office in Pennsylvania (Swann), Maryland (Steele) and Ohio (Blackwell).
Sambo | January 16, 2007, 5:00pm | #
"If Obama could displace people like Al Sharpton and Jesee Jackson from the national scene, he would do more good for the country than he ever could as President."
From today's Opinion Journal:
The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama, Illinois's African-American junior senator, has established a presidential exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run next year. Meanwhile, London's Sunday Times reports that there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm among so-called civil rights leaders:
At a meeting of activists in New York last week, the Rev Jesse Jackson, the first black candidate to run for president, declined to endorse Obama. "Our focus right now is not on who's running, because there are a number of allies running," Jackson said.
The Rev Al Sharpton, the fiery New York preacher who joined the Democratic primary race in 2004, said he was considering another presidential run of his own. And Harry Belafonte, the calypso singer who became an influential civil rights activist, said America needed to be "careful" about Obama: "We don't know what he's truly about." . . .
When asked about Obama's likely candidacy, [Sharpton] shrugged: "Right now we're hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I'm not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we'll find out if it's just fat, or if there's some real meat there." . . .
"He's a young man in many ways to be admired," Belafonte said. "Obviously very bright, speaks very well, cuts a handsome figure. But all of that is just the king's clothes. Who's the king?"
What's going on here? It's common enough for black "leaders" to attack black Republicans like Clarence Thomas and Michael Steele--Belafonte has even made racist remarks about Colin Powell--but Obama is a Democrat, so the hostility toward him isn't partisan in origin. Nor is it ideological, really. Obama may not be as ultraleft as Belafonte, but he is a very liberal Democrat--certainly more liberal than either of the Clintons, whom the "civil rights" crowd lionize.
Our view is that Obama threatens Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte precisely because he has an appeal that transcends race. If Obama is able to gain widespread appeal as a national political figure, it undermines the basis of white guilt, namely the assumption that America remains a deeply racist society. Men like Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte have made their careers on the exploitation of white guilt. Obama is a threat to their power and livelihood.
