 |
Obama: The Chameleon on Plaid II |
 |
So the Boston Pheonix has proclaimed 2008 to be the Year of the Nerd, citing the victory of Barack Obama as a salient proof:
Barack Obama is many things. Dedicated senator. Devoted husband and father. Adept orator. President-elect. Nerd.
They go on to elaborate his nerd credentials; he flashed the Vulcan sign to Leonard Nemoy. He collects Spider-Man comics. He has an “undisguised love of poetry.”
But wait a minute. Obama’s a nerd? What about Hip Hop legend and movie star Mos Def calling Obama a Rock Star? Or the McCain campaign cuing up Paris Hilton as they labeled him the biggest celebrity in the world? How is it that Obama can be all these things at one time? He’s black. He’s white. He’s a nerd. He’s a rock star. He’s progressive. He’s a darker-hued version of the Great Communicator. What is this?
Of all Obama’s talents, this ability to be everything to everyone has to be the gem in his crown. He at once appeals to almost every demographic, both political and non. It reminds me of Herbert Hoover’s comment on FDR, calling him a “chameleon on plaid.”
Hoover meant it as an insult, that FDR’s politics and ideolody were not fixed but rather adaptable to situation and circumstance. In the end, however, FDR came out as anything but a flip-flopper. Rather, he was able to play the role of pragmatic politician, able to earn more than 12 years in the White House, implement the New Deal, and almost seamlessly shift “Dr. New Deal to Dr. Win-the-War.” And all without sacrificing his underlying vision.
With luck, Obama will prove to be the same sort of president; popular, pragmatic, and able to build consensus with the American people through a combination of wide personal appeal and unwavering vision. At present, there’s little that signals otherwise. Let’s hope history bears it out.
Yeah, since the primary that always amazed me about Obama. Progressives saw him as one of them, centrist dems identified with him, etc.
Very well said. As a progressive, Obama is undoubtedly going to disappoint me sometimes, but I recognize that my views are to the left of many people and that his responsibility is to be the president for everyone. I’m willing to sacrifice some of my ideological preferences if it means that he is successful at changing the poisonous political climate where partisan fighting prevents anything from ever getting done. That doesn’t mean I’ll give him a blank check, but I respect him for reaching out to Republicans on the stimulus even if it means that we have to make certain concessions that I’d rather not see. Bush and the Republicans shut Democrats out and rammed everything through when they were the majority and look where their party stands now. In the long term it’s better for the party and the country if Obama can reach out to Republicans and try to be a president for everyone and not just the people who voted for him. I know that’s not a popular opinion among some Democrats, particularly in the blogosphere, who just want to see us ram through our priorities the way the Republicans did. But if we overreach and pretend that the 46% of the country that voted for McCain doesn’t exist or doesn’t matter we’ll be out in the woods again just like the Republicans are now.
Obama the Chameleon - photomontage posted at http://mundosonhos.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/obama-i-am-the-change/