How Far Can Obama Go?
Is the United States truly ready for a Black first family? Quite a few Africans appear to doubt it. This op-ed article from Nigeria’s This Day asks, ‘Has White America truly purged itself of its notorious resistance to interracial harmony? … Obama represents all that White America has been struggling to prevent. … In short, it’s not news that race remains a raging issue in America.’
“If Obama somehow manages to beat Hillary in the race to jump the Democratic hurdles, he may not go much further – unless White America confronts this demon that is ravaging their nation.”
By Tayo Agunbiade
January 3, 2007
Nigeria – This Day – Original Article (English)Does Senator Barack Obama have all it takes to become the next President of the United States? Media analysts publicly swear by him and think that with no trouble at all, he’ll be able to carry the responsibilities of the White House on his shoulders. They sing about his capacity to hold the audience’s attention during debates and convince people of his genuineness. Although one can’t help but notice that more often than not, a sentence or two about Obama’s experience-deficit emerges at the end of most polling result reports.
As far as Obama’s policies, one news magazine described some of his statements as “bizarre,” noting that he’s unprepared (a euphemism for lacking courage) to disagree with the thinking of the party base. It concludes that he needs to beef up his foreign policy statements to make up for his lack of experience.
If there’s one thing that stands him in good stead with the anti-war lobby, it’s that he has been consistent about his stand against the Iraq War. Others think he has something else that could put him in good stead to win the race: the color of his skin – although the candidate himself doesn’t seem to push this as a unique selling point! One international newspaper says his face offers “an effective potential re-branding of the United States.” In other words, America’s unpopularity around the world can be fixed with a black face. Hence what Americans need at this point in time is a black President.
But just how true is this in present day America, where racial profiling is said to still hold sway? Though it is vehemently denied of being racial profiling, the actions adopted by some law enforcement agencies mean that people – Black and Hispanic men in particular – are more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts.
For fear of being branded racist, many refrain from asking this blunt and pertinent question on a subject that still holds sway in present-day America. Clearly an elephant in the room, pundits deftly avoid the issue. Another up front question is: Is America ripe for a black man to occupy that most powerful office in the world? Are Americans truly ready for a Black first family? Has White America truly purged itself of its notorious resistance to interracial harmony?
Obama represents all that white America has been struggling to prevent. He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii and his father was an African from Kenya. These are not the usual credentials for the candidacy of the Anglo-Saxon White House, and as we saw in the case of Republican Senator John McCain, not a color that is necessarily acceptable to White America. A few years ago when Senator McCain last made a bid for the White House, he received a first-hand taste of raw racism. The Senator was quickly reminded that he had an adopted child of Bangladeshi origin! A non-plussed world could only wonder in amazement about the connection between the two issues. The whispering was used as a crude weapon to discourage him from seeking higher political office.
[Editor's Note: In South Caroline before that state's 2000 Republican primary, telephone calls reported to have been made to voters on behalf of the Bush campaign in South Carolina asked, "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?"]
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11 Responses to “How Far Can Obama Go?”
If I didn’t know any better I would think that article was written in 1968.
The United States certainly has racial problems. But so does the rest of the world. And it seems to me that Obama is the first black person who can really appeal to both sides of the racial divide.
However this notion that white people need to come to grips with their racial demons is just downright absurd. Of course there are racists in America. But most people are not, by a good margin.
I am a White American. I am closing in on 60 years old. I was in the military when the racial hate was staggering.
I would VOTE for Obama if he had a clue. If he had 10 or 15 years of public service in which he was actually involved in something more then who gets the next beer license.
I watched a Peanut farmer from Georgia sweep into the White House on a promise of change and royally screw things up. I watched a former managing general partner of a baseball team and a couple year governor from Texas sweep into the White house with the promise of change and to be a uniter only to watch this country splinter.
I have seen this message over and over during my life time. Everyone promises to be the agent of change. Everyone lies about that. But as Shaun Mullen points out, if you can convince a bunch of the new voters who forgot to attend history during their school daze then once again we will get saddled with a clueless candidate who will be in WAAAAYYY over there head.
Bush was a knee jerk to Clinton. Obama will be a knee jerk to Bush….
It cut off the most important thing I was going to say which is………..
Bush was a knee jerk to Clinton. Obama will be a knee jerk to Bush….and this entire election will be about racial bigotry……..if you oppose Obama your a racist.
Just as we heard that if we opposed the last immigration bill we were Homophobes. The left is learning very well the power of labels.
For the next year anyone opposed to Obama is a racist white man with a hood and a burning cross.
If you look at the results on Goggle Maps, Obama won the Eastern half of the state (those counties closest to Illinois. I have yet to find a single pundit who has talked about any favorite son effects of Obama being from Iowa. I assume people in the quad cities and Dubuque remember the Obama election from two years ago.
http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fmapfiles%2Fmapplets%2Fiowacaucus%2Fiowacaucus.xml&ie=UTF8&ll=42.0656,-93.6914&spn=5.040111,5.493164&z=7&om=1
I also wonder if elections are going to become like the NBA draft where individuals are selected on potential instead of performance. Is Senator Obama the 18 kid leaving college early for the NBA before his weaknesses are discovered.
Well, I am skeptical of Obama’s abilities as well. He gives a great speech and has oodles of bipartisan, multiracial appeal, but seems a little short on experience in foreign policy and economic policy, which will be critical for anyone to succeed after the Bush years. Just calling for change is not enough. Seven years of an unpopular president has made that message too attractive, so that now more experienced candidates like Joe Biden , Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson were barely acknowledged by the media or the caucus goers.
I still think its a great day for America, however, because so many white Iowans of both parties were able to put race and ideology aside and go to bat for him.
I hear the experience meme a lot. And certainly it is very easy to disparage Obama supporters by saying that they haven’t read their history, or forgotten it.
But I don’t see a great deal of data to support the claim that prior experience is particularly useful.
Bush effectively had no prior experience but hired a bunch of really experienced people to guide him. Lot of good it did him. But it should also be noted that Bush used his ignorance of world affairs to gain popularity.
Clinton had no prior experience and hired a bunch of young turks to run the show. They had some missteps but made some sound choices.
HW Bush had 8 years under Reagan. His foreign policy was an extension of the Reagan years. Other than going after Noriega, a general waste of time, and moderate nuclear arms control agreement his 4 years can be summed up in “No new taxes. Oops. I mean after these”.
That brings us to Ronald Reagan. Reagan had virtually no foreign policy experience, like most new Presidents. He made some huge mistakes such as Lebanon and Iran-Contra. But he was able to keep his people on message and now he’s considered, by Conservatives, the man who toppled the USSR.
Carter’s failure are wildly overstated other than his failure in Iran. However that can’t be chalked up to inexperience as he was in office for over 3 years by the time that happened. Most of the other things he is branded with are more wrong place wrong time than poor policy ideas.
Nixon, lots of experience. Terrible President. Secret bombing campaigns. Price freezes. Other than talking with the Chinese I can’t think of one sound policy initiative of his(I don’t consider our leaving Vietnam his achievement).
It goes on and on. LBJ was experienced but a poor foreign policy president. JFK had none but a mixed result. Ike had lots of experience and did reasonably well but missed quite a few issues as well. Truman had very little and was effective.
So I would like to know how I am supposed to determine when someone’s experience or lack thereof is relevant. How does Hillary have relevant experience? Because of pillow talk with her husband? How does Rudy or Romney or anyone other than Richardson?
Please let me know.
I would have voted for Colin Powell years earlier, and I know at least two other users on this site would have, too.
Very nice comment, flyerhawk.
Thanks flyerhawk. Today we have McCain taking up the same failed “experience counts” meme that helped defeat Hillary. It’s a mistake, and Obama will kill them on this issue. He has already responded brilliantly to that attack:
Some still don’t get it that experience got trounced by change among Bush-weary Iowans. I believe that sentiment-yearning for change-pervades the country. And though Obama has not been my choice, I believe he will be honest with us and stand against the corruption that has disgusted so many voters.
I heard it today, I’ve read about it here, and y’all need to get ready to be nauseated by Hillary (emphasis of key phrase added):
“Experience” = Washington fixture!
(McCain has other baggage as well.)