On Obama
07 December 2007 8:00 am by Taylor Marsh
I’ve said it many times, but it bears repeating. I respect the talent of Barack Obama. My argument with him is ideological. Whether it’s skipping out on votes that he later says were critical, like Kyl-Lieberman, or his “present” votes that are anything but a profile in courage, I find Obama’s politics in action do not come close to matching his soaring rhetoric. I’m not alone.
Reader PamelaB pointed to an article by Ellen Goodman in a
comment yesterday. Goodman hits the problem with Obama’s candidacy in a nutshell.
The ’60s opened up huge and important conflicts. It was not all about boxers or briefs, inhaling or not. Issues surfaced around black and white relationships, male and female relationships, gay and straight relationships, all kinds of authority and our place in the world. These still go on. Not because they are relics of old college dorm fights but because they are still important and unresolved. Now we come to the 2008 primary season. Barack Obama is an appealing icon of change. He has the capacity to turn a problem around, roaming across its many surfaces. He gets it. His philosophical frame of mind appeals to the educated elite of the Democratic Party. His largest group of supporters are college-educated. But I am forced to ask, against my own grain, whether Democrats need a philosopher or a combatant. … ..
… .. Obama is a notoriously uneven performer. Alone on a stage, he is often eloquent and inspirational, if I may use an Oprah word. But on the debate platform with his opponents, he is, well, less impressive. Temperamentally he prefers to be above the fray. But the campaign against any Republican will take place in the fray. … ..
There’s still a difference between being an icon of change and an
agent of change. And there is a difference as well between being a fine philosopher
king and a strong presidential challenger. … ..
Obama’s talent, passion and mission to bring people together are commendable. However, the Republicans we face are as polarizing a group as I’ve seen in my lifetime. Mr. Obama has got to look like red meat to them, primarily because he has so little passion for ideology. Republicans going in know Obama’s goal is to deal; not because he has to but because he wants to find a half-way meeting point between issues, urging conciliation not confrontation, which often ensues after taking a stand on principle.
I agree with Goodman on this one, we need a fighter for Democratic principles at a time when conservatism has collapsed in on itself. Giving quarter at this point serves no one but them and will come back to bite us in the end.
