1. Books will be written about the racial significance. It is indeed a milestone and a defining moment. The image of Jesse Jackson's tear stained face in the crowd listening to Barak's speech in Grant Park says it. It's the look of wonder in the eyes of African-American boys and girls who, even in this day, see this as affirming something new for them. Though legally permissible, the practical reality of one of them becoming president had not felt like a possibility. Now it is. It's what brought so many of us to tears that night, realizing that we hadn't even quite known how much we needed this defining moment until now it's here.
And this, that I didn't catch that night because -- who listens to the announcer? But now we read that Tuesday night with the crowd waiting for the speech and the hour at hand, the announcer did not say: "Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States." No, he said: "Ladies and gentlemen, the next First Family of the United States." And out onto the platform strode that beautiful, vibrant, comfortably assured young family -- Barak, Michelle, Malia, and Sasha -- who are all so devoted to each other and who genuinely find joy and love in their bonds and their time together. It's palpable, even from a distance. They will be a stunning role model as First Family, not just for African-American families, but for all families.
2. The Atlanta newspaper's Pulitzer winning cartoonist Mike Luckovich had another winner on November 5th. It showed President Obama sitting at his desk, taping back together the jigsaw puzzle-like fragments of the United States Constitution. Most of us don't even realize how much the Bush administration has shredded the fabric of our democracy. How fitting that we've elected a former professor of Constitutional Law to put it back together.
3. Howard Dean's 50 state strategy was right; it matched Obama's wise plan to campaign in and for all states. Hillary was wrong when she said "He can't win." Not only did he win, he won all age groups except the oldest. He won a majority of both women and, by a narrow margin, men. He won urban votes but also suburban. There were remarkable flips, especially in Hispanics, who went for him by big margins and helped carry FL, CO, and NM. With the exception of the Appalachian region, down through TN, AR, OK, and Northern TX, the whole country shifted toward Democratic candidates. Even in states Obama didn't win, votes were closer than 2004, like Salt Lake City which McCain won by 2,000; Bush had won by 80,000.
4. Obama's popular vote margin of 6.5% and his electoral vote of 365 to 173 is a decisive victory, enough to call a mandate for change: on exit polls, those who put "change" as their most important criterion voted for Obama by 89 to 9. McCain's attempt to co-opt the mantra of "change," to portray himself and Palin as the Two Mavericks, failed to fool the people. In fact, none of their negative tactics worked; at most they activated their own base. One take away lesson from this election: the American electorate is not so easily fooled as it was in 2000 and 2004. Perhaps an economic crisis makes you think more clearly about where your real interests lie.
5. It means, for one thing, that we can trust our government again. I had not realized what a relief this will be. I no longer feel constantly tense, knowing "they" are screwing things up every day and lying about it, feeling it's up to me to do something but without power to do so. How odd that this seems remarkable: we can expect a government that is competent, transparent, honest and trustworthy, and one that respects science and welcomes the knowledge of experts. Now, we can relax and just trust our new president to do the right thing and to choose his administration based on intelligence, knowledge, and competence rather than political loyalty and desire to undermine the department they control.
6. I find it refreshing lately to be able to quote the other side in praise of Obama. Charles Krauthammer is a conservative columnist for the Washington Post and, in my opinion, he is usually offensively wrong. But here's his take on our President-elect; after discussing the mistakes of the McCain campaign, he says:
Which is not to say that Obama did not run a brilliant general election campaign. He did. In its tactically perfect minimalism, it was as well conceived and well executed as the electrifying, highflying, magic carpet ride of his primary victory. By the time of his Denver convention, Obama understood that he had to dispense with the magic and make himself kitchen-table real, accessible and, above all, reassuring. He did that. And when the economic tsunami hit, he understood that all he had to do was get out of the way. He did that, too.7. One reason Obama's campaign was so drama-free and so successful is that he knew who he was and what he wanted to do, and he simply stuck with it. The campaign didn't have to spend hours every day figuring out how to change the message for political effect. David Axelrod said his concern at the beginning was whether Obama "had that pathological drive to be president. You know, so often, what defines presidential candidates is this need to be president, to define themselves. He didn't have that. And, you know, we told him, 'You're gonna have to find some other way to motivate yourself.' And he did, which was what he could do as president."
With him we get a president with the political intelligence of a Bill Clinton harnessed to the steely self-discipline of a Vladimir Putin. (I say this admiringly.) With these qualities, Obama will now bestride the political stage as largely as did Reagan.
We have elected a mature, healthy, whole man, not someone whose drive for power can only be satisfied by the ultimate power job, or someone who is trying to work out his conflicted relationship with his father. His ambition seems to be primarily what he can do for the country and, ultimately, for the world. Critics would say that betrays a grandiosity, even messianic mania. But, if it is grounded in a mature, coherent self identity, instead of narcissism, it also happens to define the rare, transformative leader.
8. Most of all, I am filled with pride and admiration and contentment. We the American people have chosen an extraordinary man for a perilous time. He brings remarkable intelligence, wisdom, emotional maturity, and seemingly an ideal temperament for the demands of the job. Watching him grow over the past 22 months assures me that he will continue to grow in office and that he will be judged by history as one of our great presidents.
Ralph
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2 comments:
"I've been trying to capture in words what this election means" ... and you did. Thanks for putting such an eloquent frame around this picture.
I wish that this election were not so tainted by what it replaces. We'll never be able to parse out the how much was anti-Bush, anti-hate, pro-Obama, racial, economic crisis, etc. In future history books, it will certainly be "first african american President, but I wonder if that captures the essence of it. It's more the things you mention - "mature, healthy, whole."
I don't recall any previous time when "Watching him grow over the past 22 months assures me that he will continue to grow in office and..." was true. To be sure, he had "the right stuff" when he decided to run, but it was his handling of the things that came up along the way that were most endearing [and enduring]. When he finally reversed himself on Reverend Wright, it wasn't because of some strategy meeting. It was because of what he saw in Wright's news conference, and his reaction was spontaneous and immediate.
The word integrity comes from "integrated" or "whole." So his opinions or policies might well change, but he doesn't. I expect that when it's all said and done, it's his personality integration that will have the biggest impact on the country, independent of how things proceed. We've lived with an Administration that thrived on divisiveness and contempt. Neither of those things live in Barack Obama. The contempt and divisiveness will live outside the White House for a change, and I hope [and expect] that they won't play so well when there's a model for the alternative.
One telling anecdote told by David Axelrod in the new conference he and other Obama staff held about the campaign:
They didn't have anguished strategy meetings about how to handle the Jeremiah Wright tsuname; Obama just came in and told them he needed some time to himself and to clear his schedule. He said, "I'm going to give a speech about race."
And he wrote it and gave it. David said it's good they didn't have a strategy meeting, because they might have tried to talk him out of it.
But, in my opinion, that speech will go down in history. And he wrote it himself -- maybe he had some help, but it was undoubtedly his speech.
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