If Anything Gives Me Pause About Obama …

I don't get his point or what you're agreeing with.

As I read it, Bowen is raising the prospect that Obama as portrayed by Obama may be too good to be true; that Obama the candidate may be an intentionally manipulated design by Obama the opportunist, from his choice of churches to everything else -- i.e., he's a brilliantly self-fabricated man.

Unlike Bowen -- who seems sold on the notion that this portrayal is accurate -- I thoroughly want to believe it's not. But there's a part of me that fears it might be.

I talked to my Aunt the other day. 88 years old. The staunchest of democrats in America. She bleeds Democrat.

She said to me "Your not voting for Obama are you?"

No I shook my head. "Are you."

"Good heavens no." She snorted in indignation so much so that I was sure that she hated him.

"You don't like Barak Obama?" I asked, full expecting her to launch into a tirade of all his negatives.

"Oh no. I like him." She shook her head as she put on her coat and stopped staring at the wall her back to me slumped over with the age of a wise old woman.

"Its not his turn."

I think thats the gist of this post. Obama's leap into the fray at this moment in history is just wrong. Its not his time.

Pete,
Thanks for clearing that up :-)

I think if you're looking for the "messiah" then you will disappointed. It's without question that our perception of Obama has been shaped by his extraordinary campaign. It's a certainty that he has made decisions in his life that were designed to make him more electable contrary to his own personal beliefs. However, it would be a mistake to think this is somehow unique to Obama.

"If Barack Obama had married Shaniqua instead of Michelle, I’d take his attraction a lot more seriously,"

Talk about someone that can't see the forest for the trees. Its hard to take seriuosly someone that said the above statement. Seriously Pete, just because he says Obama isn't black enough you're questioning yourself? Either you like what he says and believe there is some change around the corner or you don't. And as for whocares auntie, well old people are wrong a lot. Not his time based on what? A sign from the heavens? You make your times and sure as hell don't wait for your enemies to tell you when its your turn. Not unless you like to sit out history on the bench.

Slamfu -- I don't think he's saying Obama is "not black enough," I think he's saying Obama has gone to extraordinary lengths to manipulate public perceptions of who and what he (Obama) is -- perhaps moreso than the typical politician, and certainly more so than a "post-partisan," "new politics" candidate probably should.

I'm not sure Michael has a good reason to believe that, but he suspect its true, and the fear that it might be has bounced around in my brain for a long time. Face it: GWB said all the right things in 2000, in my opinion, casting himself as a made-again "compassionate" even "centrist" conservative.

I guess I've been trained by repeated disappointments to be skeptical. I want to believe Obama is better, different, more capable -- not perfect -- but better. And yet there's this nagging voice in the back of my head: What if I've misjudged him all along? He's so good at what he does, what if I've totally overlooked the steak due to the sizzle?

And as for whocares auntie, well old people are wrong a lot.

Old people are very bad this time around cause they vote for Hillary so we know that old people are wrong.

and sure as hell don't wait for your enemies to tell you when its your turn.

And now those who are opposed to Barak Obama are his enemies.

I continually stand amazed at the case being made for Barak Obama. It is as poisonous as the case they have made against GWB.

Pete have you read either of his books?

Old people are very bad this time around cause they vote for Hillary so we know that old people are wrong.

Clearly, the point is that old people can be just as wrong or as right as anyone else. From your account, your aunt offered nothing but a blanket assertion without any sort of convincing argument. Without an argument or particular claim to authority or expertise her opinion has just as much worth as anyones.

And now those who are opposed to Barak Obama are his enemies.

By definition, yes.

I offered up my aunt's analogy hoping to give pause.

Instead.........

"I don't think he's saying Obama is "not black enough,"

Oh really? Read that last paragraph again. That seems to be the entire point of it. That Obama is a poser, despite the fact he's been pretty much not mentioning race until his opponents(better than "enemies"?) rammed it down his throat and he had to. There are only two types of ways to refer to a black candidates race. Either he isn't black enough, or he's too black. How Obama has managed to keep it out of things until now I'm still not sure, but man I wish folks would just let it go and recognize a man who, even if he is faking, seems to have a clue. A man who can make a speech and answer questions more directly and honestly than any other dares to.

Lets go ask Hillary what her favorite baseball team is and watch her go into vapor lock trying to remember whether the Sox or Yankees polls better.

yes opponents is much better.

Words are a powerful thing and they say a lot about the person using them.

Slamfu,

Well, what can I say? Regardless of Michael Bowen's point -- and while I could argue what I think he meant, it's probably not worth it -- I've had this nagging fear that Obama may be less "real" than he claims. Again, that has nothing to do with his race, but his overall presentation as "above" or "beyond" or "both" politics-as-usual. And again, that fear is not based on anything of signifcance other than "I've been burnt before, am I being suckered in again?"

I guess, in the end, this post is really more about my unfounded paranoia -- my fear that my being so fond of the candidate and his accomplishments could be a prelude to disappointment, and "told you so's." But per what you and to some degree ChrisWWW have argued -- maybe I need to just grow a pair and deal with it.

Because at the end of day, I do believe Obama is a better choice than Hillary, and I do believe on Iraq, time's up; for our boys, our economy, etc. -- we need to start dialing down our presence there, and be as committed to exit as we are to not leaving before the ill-defined mission is "accomplished." And I fear McCain is going to be more focused on the latter, and not sufficiently so on the former.

So where does that leave me? With Obama, regardles of my personal paranoia of being proven wrong.

Well I've already prepared myself for a letdown. Basically some poor schmuck is going to have all the refuse from the Bush administration dropped in his lap, and be expected to fix it in the first 100 days. The economy is going to be shakey, we'll have 2 wars still going south on us, and god knows what else. Basically no one is going to be able to manage all that. Also, we are the ones that have elevated Obama to this pedestal so we are ultimately responsible for any letdowns there. We know his record, his views, and most importantly how he approaches problems and I like what I see.

Pete,

We all wear masks to one extent or the other. It's an emotional survival characteristic, I think. The more people you need or want to appeal to the more likely it is that you have a "strong" one. Anyone who worries about that enough to reject a candidate better plan on never voting again. Bush's mask slipped more than a few times for those willing to see the signs (Remember Bob Jones University?) but lots of people, including pretty much every self-identified Republican didn't want to see it. But I didn't judge Obama by personality, I researched what his stands on issues were, including checking out those sections of his campaign web sites. I'm not particularly emotionally vested in him though the Clinton campaign has started to really irritate me.

As far as McCain goes, I'm sorry but except on one or two issues I see a continuation of the last 8 years and a candidate who decided to cozy up to the part of the Republican party that bothers me the most, the Religious Right.

I got a similar interpretation of Cobb's post as Pete did, and had a similar reaction. FWIW, my paraphrasing of Cobb would not be that he's not black enough, but that he's basically a new version of the "Uncle Tom", but in reverse. In stead of passing for white, or acting more white, he's deliberately chosen to act "more black".

Right or wrong, I do think this is a perception that a lot of people will have of Obama, and it's been made much worse by the public airing of the Wright tapes. I do feel empathy for the position that Obama is in; he really can't win, because he's biracial and can claim understanding of white culture and black culture, but the minute he veers in one direction or another, people will question his authenticity. Of course, philosophically and rhetorically he seems to be trying to call people on that, and say that we should just put all of that in the past. But he still has to answer for why then he closely associated himself with one segment of that divide.

Like I said, right or wrong, it just is. He will, I think, remain a polarizing figure if he can't understand that for every Wright in his circle of close friends, he needs someone who represents the other side to balance that out. I think he wants to tell people that Wright doesn't sway him in that direction, that he can still stand squarely in the middle and see both sides of the racial divide equally- but many white conservatives aren't going to buy it unless there's some more concrete proof of it in his associations.

And then you have the voices of blacks like Cobb, who don't like the philosophy about middle class being another tool of the white man to keep the black man down. They oppose people like Wright and want black people to feel comfortable aspiring to the American dream just as whites do. They reject the idea that being part of black ghetto culture is more authentically black than being middle class, upper middle class, or wealthy. People should never have to apologize for success.

At least that's why I get out of Cobb (not just this post, but others that I've read by him.) He doesn't seem to WANT someone who is 'black enough' in the sense that we've come to understand that term. I think that he wants someone who is completely neutral on race- which Obama claims to be, but Cobb (and others, including myself) find that he talks that talk better than he walks the walk- in terms of attitude if not on actual policy.

It's not that Obama isn't black enough. It's that Obama wouldn't have been perceived as black enough to nail the black vote the way he has without the credibility this church has allowed him to achieve (not just by his membership but with the opportunities it's brought him).