Posted on 11/06/2006 4:45:02 PM PST by SJackson
Wisconsin is squarely in the eye of Obamamania this week with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama crossing the border to campaign for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, attorney general candidate Kathleen Falk and Congresswoman Gwen Moore.
Two years ago, when Obama showed up at Milwaukee's Martin Luther King Park to campaign for Moore and Sen. Russ Feingold, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel didn't even bother to run a story the next day. With every magazine and talk show in the nation now promoting the possibility of Obama becoming America's first black president, even the most oblivious local media have taken notice.
That's why I was surprised when I expressed excitement at the rising prospect of an Obama candidacy on my daily talk show in Milwaukee, which has a large African-American audience, and was immediately lambasted for being hopelessly naive.
Make no mistake about it. An overwhelming majority of the black community would be excited and energized by Barack Obama's candidacy and would turn out in unprecedented numbers to support him. They just can't bring themselves to truly believe very many of us white folks would. Call me a starry-eyed optimist as many callers did but I think they're wrong.
The source of all the skepticism among African-Americans is reality-based. It is based on the actual history of racism in this country from slavery up through an hour ago.
Black folks have seen black candidates used by white power brokers before. Several harked back to the excitement of the 1988 candidacy of Jesse Jackson, when he won 11 primaries and, for a short time, was actually the front-runner in delegates for the Democratic nomination.
Jackson was obviously far too exciting for the Democratic Party. The nomination eventually went to the thoroughly unexciting, but white, Michael Dukakis.
A couple of callers specifically recalled a white, female union worker interviewed on television during the 1988 Wisconsin primary on her way into her polling place and again as she left.
On the way in, she was excited about voting for Jackson, who had spoken at a rally of her union. When she left, she said at the actual moment of voting, she kept thinking about a black man in the White House, and she just couldn't do it.
Obama in 2008 isn't Jackson in 1988, even beyond the obvious passage of 20 years.
The first generation of black candidates for the presidency came directly out of the civil rights movement. They had long been demonized by whites for doing the necessary work of knocking down racial barriers and attacking white privilege.
Obama is the brightest star of the next generation of black political leaders who took advantage of opportunities opened up by the civil rights movement to excel at the highest levels academically and professionally.
As a brilliant graduate of Harvard Law School, Barack Obama does not need politics. Politics needs him. Intelligence has taken a beating in the last two presidential elections. The Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry were clearly much smarter than George Bush, the intellectually lazy son of a privileged political family.
Unfortunately, intelligence didn't come across as very voter friendly in either Gore or Kerry. Both came off as stuffy and smarty-pants. The not-so-smart Bush seemed more likable.
Well, after six years, not-so-smart isn't nearly as likable as it once was. It's been deadly for 2,800 American soldiers. The only people who have any reason to like Bush any more are millionaires and billionaires at tax time.
By 2008, we're going to be ready for intelligence in a presidential candidate again, especially in someone as genuinely likable and thoughtful as Obama.
It's not black people who are driving the media interest and voter interest in Obama as a presidential candidate. It's white people.
Obama himself probably would have preferred to build up a little more experience in the U.S. Senate before jumping into a national campaign.
But sometimes history requires a leader to seize the moment.
Momentum is expected to be on the side of the Democrats after the midterm congressional elections. But every other potential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards or Joe Biden seems to have more ties to the past than to the future. Obama isn't just pretty good for a politician. He is the kind of individual who would rise to the top of any field he chose. Let's be honest. Those are rarely the kind of people who choose politics.
Progressive whites have been waiting for a candidate like Obama for a long time. Not-so-progressive whites may be ready to support him as well, just to show the world, and maybe themselves, they're not racist.
The argument that it's too soon for Obama to run has a familiar ring in America. Deep in our hearts, we know it's long past time.
Why?
His father and step-father were both Muslim. His mother an atheist!
This is laughable. The democrats come up with a black standard bearer every election cycle. They build him, or her up as the next great savior of the American political system. In the past, it has worked to keep the black vote solidly in the democrats lap, hoping against all reason that finally they really mean it. They do not. It is a cynical ploy. The fat{Ted Kennedy comes to mind] white boys, figuratively and literally, who control the democratic party, remain in office, thanks to the never rewarded black voters.
Carol Moseley Braun was one of those experiments, also from Illinois. Google it. It didn't work very well.
Let's have a look at a real contender, Michael Steele, candidate for senator from Maryland, the blackest of blue states.
Michael is republican, and he is up for election right now, not in 2008. Republicans really want him to be elected, and for good reason.
Africa is calling and desperatly needs his "inteligent" help!
Not needed here for politics.
The Democratic candidates Al Gore (stupid son of privileged political family) and John Kerry (ignorant husband of 2 wealthy heiresses) were clearly much smarter than George Bush ( a Harvard MBA graduate and twice successful candidate for the presidency of the United States).
Proof positive that as vapid as political discourse is in this country now, it can always be worse.
Right, stepfather, not grandfather. My guess his father was an animist, but irrelevant since he didn't know him. His mom was Christian, as were his grandparents who raised him. The stealth Muslim route is silly, there are plenty of things wrong with Obama's political worldview, we don't need to concentrate on conspiracy theories about his parentage.
Can't blame me for Ryan, I voted for the Dem. And it would be nice if Fitzgerald would give up on Scooter Libby and come back home.
2008 may well be the Oprah campaign.
Gore was a reporter for a while for a liberal newspaper in Tennessee, and Kerry tried to run a cookie shop (everything plagiarized from a successful one), but I don't recall if he had any personal involvement beyond investing some cash--he may have had hired help doing all the actual work.
I don't think he's good-looking. Maybe in a feminine, metrosexual way (from a woman's perspective, of course).
I won't hold my breath for a Barack Obama High School in chicago. Maybe I will...
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