Posted on 06/05/2008 11:41:31 AM PDT by The_Republican
Most aspiring presidents and prime ministers face a myriad of challenges as they embark on their journey. Controversial issues, questions about ethics or past conduct, wounds within their party all raise their heads. But the doubts that Barack Obama faces are far more existential than the superficial questions about most candidates. They go to his very core as a person, calling into question his values, his world view, even his patriotism.
Hard racial divisions have softened in America, but fear of the “other” persists. Their possible next president has a strange name. He grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. He had a Muslim Kenyan father who left when he was a baby. He made his political career in the cesspool of American politics - the traditionally corrupt Chicago Democratic machine.
His pastor of 20 years, after whose sermons he named a book, seems to hate white people in general and America in particular (despite $15 million federal funding for his church). His wife says that she is proud of America for the first time in her adult life - and she is in her mid-forties. He is a bit of a reach for the average American voter.
If he were white he would be suspect. But he comes from a world that few white voters know or understand. Fears linger that he is some kind of latter-day Manchurian candidate, a sleeper poised to take control of the US Government.
What makes all this particularly difficult to fathom is that Mr Obama is a mild-mannered intellectual, with a marvellous sense of poise and decorum, who handles himself eloquently and with dignity, bringing to politics a style and grace not seen since JFK. His pedigree includes Columbia University and Harvard Law, where he edited the Law Review. He taught constitutional law. His manner and appearance are as far from his controversial background and associates as one could imagine.
But the disjuncture between who he is and what his background and associations suggest he might be, is so profound that it leads to the most basic of doubts and worries among American voters.
Hillary Clinton has always been a bête noire to blue-collar, downscale, American men. But they lined up to vote for her, so deep was their fear of who Mr Obama might turn out to be. Their inveterate sexism was no match for the racial fears ignited by the questions around Mr Obama.
None of these questions is of Mr Obama's own making. In two years of campaigning, in an environment in which every waking moment is recorded, he has never uttered a single word to lend credence to those who imagine him an alien figure. He has been consistently classy, almost boringly straight. The worst one could say about him is that he is a Hamlet-like intellectual who is often subject to paralysis by analysis.
But to win, Mr Obama must reach down deep and dispel the doubts people have about him. So far, he has avoided inflaming them and taken great care not to lend them any credibility by his own statements or positions. Now, he must go further and reassure voters who want to believe him, but are afraid.
Is America ready for a black president? Hell, yes. Mr Obama's triumphs in states where there are virtually no blacks attest to it. Until the Rev Jeremiah Wright opened his mouth, the candidate was sweeping white voters. Even when the black community discovered Mr Obama and abandoned their historical affection for the Clintons, the white electorate refused to polarise along racial lines; Mr Obama consistently won about half of the white vote. But when Mr Wright spoke, he sent a shiver of fear down the nation's spine and millions of voters who wanted to back Mr Obama, and hated George W. Bush, abandoned the black candidate out of fear.
Blowing away this miasma of doubt will not be easy. Mr Obama, a private person who dislikes public displays of emotion, will have to speak from the heart about what America means to him. He will have to embrace our national sense of uniqueness and give voice to what Ronald Reagan said: “You can call it mysticism if you want to, but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage.”
American exceptionalism is deeply rooted in our national consciousness and has been so offended by Mr Wright's characterisation of the US as a force of evil in the world that Mr Obama must assuage that hurt if he wishes to appease our fears.
While the US has always worked to keep Church separate from government, there has always been a kind of civil religion in America that speaks to our values and mission in the world. The president of the United States is the high priest of that religion and it is up to him to give it voice and apply it to the challenges that pop up in our path. Mr Obama must make clear to his countrymen that he subscribes to that faith and can pick up his duties as high priest. He needs to articulate the narrative that underpins the nation's faith in itself and show that he identifies with it.
I doubt that this election will be close. Either Mr Obama or John McCain will win it in a landslide, depending on whether or not Mr Obama can fulfil his existential mission of explaining to the American people who he really is.
Dick Morris was Bill Clinton's campaign manager in the 1996 election and encouraged him to pursue a policy of “triangulation”
What did the taxpayers get for their 15$ million a year?
Federal money to an ecclesiastic authority is an abomination.
This is all chillingly reminiscent of the way tyrants come to power.
The America he envisions will be a nightmare for everyone.
My prediction is, as it was months ago, that McCain will win by a substantial margin, even without my vote. I’ll stick to that even if Hillary is the VP candidate, though I’ll be slightly less certain then. I’ve always thought that, though the Democrats always push the touchy-feely diversity crap, most of them don’t have the stomach or the guts to actually put these two in office. The crossover Democrats will more than make up for those of us conservatives who just can’t pull the lever for McCain.
Geez... Morris is a moron. The only reason Obama has even a hint of a chance is because of the poor quality of his opposition.
It’s more likely he will lose in a landslide. A huge number of Dems are likely to go over to McCain or not vote.
Republicans and Conservatives who don’t want to vote for McCain will be so sick of ‘Bama and his associates by November it will be over before it starts.
jw
When I was young the politicans promised a chicken in every pot.. All Obama has to do these days is promise a joint in every stash.. and he will get all Libertarians most all democrats and 1/2 of the republicans even “conservatives”....
Bull! Obama is a liberal-socialist whose understanding of the Constitution can be found in his call for higher taxes, bigger government, socialized medicine, unchecked regulation, endless litigation and a wrongheaded foreign policy. Obama has pissed on the Constitution every day of his life!
That's the best description of McCain that I've seen thus far!
Quote: “First off, bold prediction their Dick.”
Correction: First off, bold prediction there Dick, not their.
Huh?
“existential mission”? What is that?
Obama is Jesus now? Hey, Dick, we already know who Obama really is. Obama spiritual advisers Jeremiah Wright and “Rev” Pfleger have told us all we need to know about Obama. Hey, didn't Dick Morris write a whole book a couple of years ago, swearing that Condaleeza Rice would be the Republican candidate?
If the Republicans had selected anyone other than McCain or Guiliani, possibly Romney; they would have won in a landslide.
McCain simply isn’t a contrast to O’bama in such a way as to give him a landslide victory. A candidate with gravitas on border security and illegal immigration could have forced Obama into taking an unpopular position and it would have been all over for him.
Another candidate might have put forward what kind of people were being held at Gitmo and made some hay of Obama wanting these folks clogging up courts within our borders and among our population.
All McCain has done or will do is keep up the Iraq War and foreign policy rhetoric and then jump into other leftist positions like Amnesty and AGW. Damn, now there is a formula for success. All McCain needed was to be somewhat of a conservative and he would have won in a landslide.
McCain is an incredibly weak candidate, but not without hope, due to the complete ignorance, arrogance, inexperience
and unabashed Marxism of his opponent. Only in America, huh? Wait, allow me to rephrase that. Only in what used to be, America.
The most disturbing thing about obama to me is that beyond his shadey and dispicable associates his messianic speeches about himself. This guy is desperately trying to make his cult of personality.
Or that McCain picks a RINO like himself to run with.
Obama sweep the South, surely you are joking Mr Morris.
Obama does not care one bit about God or Country, black father-white mother. His only interest is getting elected to be the first black president after that, you and I are screwed.
Given his friends and associates, I doubt that Obama could get a Top Secret clearance. Can you imagine for a minute the people he will appoint and if they will be able to get security clearances?
When given a choice between two libs, libs will always choose the one with the “D” after his name. Conservatives don’t see that as a “choice.” Every time the Republican party has strayed from it’s conservative base, it gets (deservedly) whacked.
Do not be surprised when and if that happens again this year and DO NOT think that you lost because you weren’t liberal ENOUGH.
Morris has predicted all three candidates will win the presidency as well as 13 others who weren’t even running.
Dick Morris worked Raila Odinga’s campaign for president of Kenya.
From ABC News’ Brian Ross:
“Political consultant Dick Morris, who rose to prominence as a key adviser for President Bill Clinton and then fell from grace after a scandal involving a prostitute, has surfaced as a political consultant in an unlikely place — Kenya.”
“Leading presidential candidate Raila Odinga has brought Morris on as a consultant to help him beat incumbent President Mwai Kibaki in next month’s elections. Last week Morris arrived in Kenya on a tourist visa and held a press conference saying he believed Odinga was poised to win the election.”
He works for the Obama/Odinga family.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/bridges-burned.html
“TIME Magazine’s” Man of the year
Morris has some good things to say but when I hear him going back and forth the way he does, one day saying Obama can win and the next saying and I quote that he is “un-electable” I tend to take his comments with a grain of salt.
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