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Obama On The Move

Hurricane Katrina, a Kodak moment for the nation, exposed (and continues to expose) the structural inequities in the American way of life and economy. In its destructive path and the inept federal response to it, Katrina showed the country and the world that America, truly, had a problem and that a doctor was needed in the house.
 
Psychologically, Katrina applied massive electro-shock to the heart of the nation and to the soft tissue of its eyeballs. Katrina was painful to watch. In the myth of America there is this naive assumption of innocence (but how can a slave whipping nation ever be innocent, please do tell) and if there was innocence (OK, let’s pretend, for argument’s sake, that there was “innocence”), then Katrina disrobed innocence in the public square for all to see on TV. The emperor, emphatically, had no clothes. Katrina showed that the heart of the nation needed a healer to address its domestic economic inequities and contradictions, not a “decider” to decide which developing country to stymie with war. The response to Katrina was an embarrassment to the nation.
 
That Genuine Factor in politics
 
The 2008 election is more than an election for President; this election whether America will take care of its own citizens in the 21st century, particularly in the areas of domestic unemployment, poverty, equitable educational opportunities, health care and corporate outsourcing of jobs.
 
In his vibrant youthfulness, Obama may be the healer needed in the White House. But the question is whether Obama can build a machine to beat back deep-pocketed politicos like Hillary and Bill Clinton or a John Edwards for the Democratic nomination. Edwards, unlike Hillary, is stealth, someone with the calculated charm of a lawyer. But Edwards is no Obama. Obama projects a natural charm, a sense of being genuine which connects with voters, and voters are responding.
 
Obama’s real-life-experience as a community organizer at the grass roots on the far Southside of Chicago shows his true-grit concern for the Average Joe. Obama is not just calculated charm. Obama’s experience with average folk is genuine, setting him apart from any other contender for the Presidency, and demonstrates his genuine capacity to connect with voters within the context of their lives.

The question for Obama is whether his Kennedy-likeness can duplicate the Kennedy Machine that seized the nomination for President on the first ballot at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles.
 
Kennedy defeated Nixon in the 1960 Presidential race because the Kennedy Machine understood the new media – TV – and heeded the rumbling undercurrent of discontent sweeping the land. The Kennedy Machine was not bogged down with looking back to the past for some mythic, contradictory American glory. The Kennedy Machine looked forward to an unfolding American Moment in history and then inspired a generation to create that America in their lifetime.
 
Count on the Democratic primary race to be an unprecedented multi-million dollar political slugfest. Governor Schwarznegger (formerly the Terminator) has moved California’s primary to February 5, 2008 to guarantee a west coast impact on Super Tuesday. Well-heeled politicos will not give ground to Obama easily, as evidenced by Hillary recently toting Bill to Selma, Alabama to commemorate the March 7, 1965 Bloody Sunday March for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, another Kodak moment in American history.
 
The Black elite may hesitate to support Obama simply because of their ties and indebtedness to established political machines or personalities. But to an average voter like me, Obama is a welcome departure from politics-as-usual. Imagine that – a candidate for President with a real-life background as a Community Organizer who helped folk needing help the most, those at the grass roots. [continues on page Obama 4]