All of this is compelling. Americans desire a fresh candidate, someone to believe in, someone if not exactly sinless, then almost. Campaign media advisers deftly (or is that cynically?) manipulate this need, their clients marching toward Iowa.Obama is not at fault. He seeks the White House and could become a fine president. Right now, he must sell himself as the Democratic antidote to Sen. Hillary Clinton. That's his job, and he's doing it well. But what isn't mentioned this weekend is part of the story too.
He transcends race? How many times have you heard or read that slogan--hundreds, thousands of times? What does it mean, exactly? It is politely vague, yet if Obama were not of African descent, would foreign journalists flock to Springfield?
What if his name were, say, Michael Brannigan or Chris Rypczinski? And he spent years in the Illinois legislature taking orders from the wily state Senate Democratic boss Emil Jones. (Jones once double-dipped adroitly as a city sewer inspector, making him the only sewer inspector in alligator shoes and camel-hair coat.)
And later, say, Brannigan/Rypczinski ran for the U.S. Senate, as other candidates imploded from sex scandals and allegations of spousal abuse, and Brannigan /Rypczinski were elected accidental senator from Illinois? Could either one convince you they were transcending the old politics?
Another aspect often ignored in the approved national narrative is Obama's perplexing endorsement of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. As the national Democratic Party's anti-corruption poster child, Obama correctly lectured Republicans on corruption scandals that would help cost them control of Congress.
Daley's people were all around him by then, the mayor's brother Bill, and their media consultant, David Axelrod, who also is Obama's media guy. The Daley administration in Chicago is one of the most corrupt in history, roiling with federal investigations, convictions of top aides, convictions of Outfit-connected mayoral cronies, scandals costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And amazingly, the uncynical Obama endorsed Daley's re-election bid.
Yet this will most likely be ignored in national accounts, politely avoided by design. The heroically dead Lincoln will crowd out Chicago's living and powerful Democratic machine mayor in the weekend's symbolism. The mention of indicted influence peddler Tony Rezko will most likely be avoided too.
"Rezko? Who is Tony Rezko?" asked Guillaume Serina.For a second I thought Serina worked for The New York Times. But I wrote Rezko's name out for him, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment