Given the re-emergence of Obamamania, I offer thoughts from a post I had on mydd earlier this year. My basic point is essentially in line with David Sirota's, if with less virulence and hopelessness attached: Obama has hardly done anything to warrant the level of excitement that his potential '08 presidential run has generated.
Further, I'd say the reason most Americans ever started going gaga over Obama is that in his highest-profile performance ever, at the '04 Democratic National Convention, he went out of his way deny the racial divide that exists in America. When a black politician does that, white Independents get moist. And as an African-American, I am particularly sensitive to, and frustrated by, such maneuvers.
Unfair? Really? Well, Bill Clinton has always been smart, articulate, charismatic, but at no time during his first campaign -- or pre-campaign -- did the country go ape-shit over him the way it is currently behaving toward Obama. Why? The racial component is the key.
I don't think Barack Obama is great.
Neither do I consider him a disappointment.
But I do think that much too much attention has been paid to, and too many expectations have been placed on the shoulders of, Senator Obama.
Before he set foot in the the Senate chamber, he was celebrated as the next political superstar, based entirely on the strength of his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
That was a mistake.
To be sure, it was great speech, overflowing with optimism, bonhomie, and shout-outs to the some of the best of traditional Democratic ideals. And it was delivered with a high degree of articulateness.
Yet the adulation heaped upon Obama coming out of that performance was clearly disproportionate for a man who had not even been elected to the Senate at that point. After all, even Georgw W. Bush has delivered a couple of good speeches in his time in Washington.
So why so much love for Obama? One word" race.
Typically, any black Democrat who credibly espouses what are typically thought of as traditional Democratic values will be positively received by the overwhelimg majority of black voters, and by a solid majority of white Democrats. But one thing that often helps that politician win "crossover" support from white Independents, and that can make him a superstar with white Democrats, is a willingness NOT to openly acknowledge the racial divide that exists in the US. Just like Obama did in his star-making speech.
Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.
Of course, he is correct -- literally speaking. There is only a singular internationally and internally-recognized entity called the United States of America. But rhetorically, Obama's assertion is ludicrously Pollyannaish. My personal preference for brevity doesn't allow me to list the various data, facts, and philosophical differences which demonstrate that there are, for all practical purposes, a white America and a black America -- even if some members of either nation freely exist within the other. Even the Vice Presidential candidate he was endorsing that night was famous for pointing out that there were "two Americas" (divided by economics and power, which often serve as good proxies for race in America).
...
And yet, I am not disappointed in Senator Obama. That's because I never actually anticipated greatness from him. It's not that I expected him to be a poor choice for the Senate. It's just that I've learned that when we fall head-over-heels for an elected official at first sight, we often wind up getting crushed.
Furthermore, I'm past expecting greatness from any U.S. Senator -- especially one who is widely discussed within the Beltway as near-term presidential material.
I'm past expecting Joe Biden to protect the finances of the middle class against MBNA's desire to re-write American's bankruptcy law.
I'm past expecting Hillary to acknowledge that it wasn't such a good idea to give George W. Bush the authority to launch an unprovoked military attack against a Middle Eastern Muslim country.
And I'm past expecting Barack Obama to publicly acknowledge that blacks and whites do largely inhabit separate Americas, no matter how much we wish it weren't so.
Now, on to the White House!