Insightful Foreigner Visits New Orleans and Explains This Election
It's from the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz and it's by an Israeli journalist who is covering our election from New Orleans.
This is his take.
"What may frighten some Americans about Barack Obama is his very excellence. His fiercest critics have so far had little else to go on.
"But if he is truly that scary, why is it so necessary to lie about him?
"If the real truth about him is so frightening, why is it so necessary for someone like Daniel Pipes to ingeniously resuscitate the lie that Obama is a Muslim?
"If the actual facts are so damning, why was it so necessary for Fox and others to pump up the packet of hardbound fictions called Obama Nation, a miserable book whose manipulative distribution propelled it to a debut at the top of The New York Times best seller list?
"There will be those for whom race is the deciding issue, but I believe their numbers are few. For many more, well-meaning and tolerant people, I believe the reason is fear. It is fear of the unknown, but not only fear of the unknown Obama.
"I believe that the real fear is finding out what lies behind the big lies of George Bush, and, more ominously by far, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and a host of other neo-con-artists...
"This foreign visitor doesn't believe that this election is about race. It is about the difficulty and the sacrifice involved in changing course, acknowledging error, actively working for a better common future.
"It is a battle over the kind of complacency and fear of change that put into the Oval Office its most underqualified occupant in living memory. Perhaps that is how the joke statistics should be understood - and taken seriously.
"But what the foreign visitor finds the most frightening, the most dangerous, is the voter who, after eight years of abject catastrophe, continues to pray "Please, please, give me a reason to vote for the person who says that things are all right, after all."
"Someone like Bush."
The journalist is insightful and correct. Race is only one factor that the Republican attack is built on and it is used in a secondary way. But it is still an integral and important factor in the Republican plan to smear and discredit Obama.
Because black people generally (like all racial minorities and women) are judged more harshly and have to always meet more stringent tests to achieve the same things as whites, it is easier to cast doubt and raise fears. Because of the higher bar imposed consciously or not by the race factor, when McCain and his campaign make specious claims it is more credible and so on. That's just the reality. Many whites who aren't even racist, if they really examine themselves, will find that the bar is higher, their judgements more harsh and that they maintain double standards when it comes to evaluating whites vs nonwhites.
That Obama does little or nothing to vigorously defend himself and take the initiative away from the Republican swine only enhances the effectiveness of the smears because his failure to defend himself and repulse these illegitimate attacks makes him look weak, ineffective, and cowardly. These are not attributes Americans seek in their leaders. Ever since FDR the Republicans have always used these lines of attack. FDR's popularity allowed him to crush the Republicans regardless of the absurd charges. Harry Truman understood the nature of the opposition and fought them tooth and nail and prevailed in 48. Stevenson failed utterly to defend himself against the charges of being an "egghead" and weak on communism. JFK understood that in order to win the Presidency it is necessary to fight and defend one's self against the false claims and lies of the Republicans. Despite the overwhelming support for Democrats in the aftermath of the assassination of JFK and the unpopularity of Goldwater's right wing nuttiness, LBJ took nothing for granted and crushed the Republicans by making sure the nation knew just how extreme and dangerous they were. Since then, with the exception of Bill Clinton's two campaigns, Democrats seem to have forgotten how to fight and certainly how to defend themselves from illegitimate attacks. It seems Obama, like the other losing Democratic candidates also refuses to fight and defend himself effectively. Only this morning I read about how the Obama campaigning is editing all speeches at the convention to cleanse them of attacks on the Republicans. That's why we don't hear the words "corruption". "lawlessness", "cronyism", "lies", and other perfectly accurate descriptions of why the Republicans must be barred from the White House. Bad sign. Bad sign indeed.
If the Israeli author is correct and if Obama is to win, it seems most observers understand that he will have to fight hard from now until election day in order to overcome those fears and the underlying reluctance to change course. It doesn't seem, however, that Obama himself or his campaign understand this crucial fact.
August 27, 2008 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Burston's analysis is spot on. It's so often the views from outside that are the most penetrating.
By the way, your link above has an extra "http//" in it. Here's one that should work:
August 27, 2008 12:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
WTF? I really hate this comment system!!!
One more try, without tags:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1015095.html
August 27, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
So have you changed your mind, you do agree with him, that it's the egghead thing and that
?Or are we going to see more posts on "it's all the fault of racism in this country" every time he dips in polls?
August 27, 2008 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Correction to the above: "egghead exotic problem."
August 27, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
The [Obama] signs are everywhere [in New Orleans]. Taped to vintage windowpanes in antebellum mansions in the tony Garden District . . . . Bradley Burston
Hmm. Sort of like this?
August 27, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
A personal thanks for that link! I had somehow missed seeing that particular Dorothea Lange before...
August 27, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you missed it you'll want to keep your eye peeled for a rebroadcast of PBS's “Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the F.S.A./O.W.I. Photographers”.
August 27, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes! Thank you!
August 27, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
"All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do - that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be."
As soon as Michelle Obama said those words early in her speech Monday night, I knew the right wing would have a new attack line. And here it is right on cue from K-Lo at NRO:
Radical? Right.
August 27, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, it's very important for them to cherry pick sentences from that speech in order to try to reframe that speech, back to some Michelle-is-not- patriotic theme, because that speech was an attempt to steal the "family values" flag from them. It was all about nuclear family values and working hard to get ahead. I think you're seeing a little panic about that speech.
August 27, 2008 3:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
AA - I smell the panic, too. Really, the only other theme against Michelle's speech that I've heard so far, is the same one currently in fashion against all Democrats where we treat the troops as 'victims'. (Apparently, wanting them to receive proper treatment instead of committing suicide is a form of victimization.)
So, I was somewhat blown away by Rich Lowry's assessment. He lists 5 reasons why her speech was a success and quite effective.
August 27, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some proof of the orchestration, intent, and how it has played:
August 27, 2008 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow - Did that conversation remind you of when Karl Rove was interviewed by Robert Siegel on NPR shortly before the 2006 elections? They were talking about the polls and how the GOP was not doing too well in them, which led Karl Rove to explain THE MATH:
SIEGEL: I don't know if we're entitled to a different math but your...
ROVE: I said THE math.
Why is Obama's pollster using Karl Rove's math?
August 27, 2008 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Really, who needs to be combative when the Right is reasonable about fixing real problems. Its not like they sit around rationalizing failure (Bush-Katrina, Bush-Iraq, Bush-fill-in-the-blank), institutionalizing corruption(the K Street Project), or enabling criminal behavior (Blackwater, No-bid Contracts, Gitmo Torture, etc etc etc...) or anything.
August 27, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
From what I can gather, Dave, rationalization is out. The new and preferred solution to problems is simple non-recognition. Problems, what problems? Change is radical.
As Friedrich von Schiller once complained:
Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.
August 27, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The inability to acknowledge error based on the belief that America is the greatest country in the world, and almost always attached to created by or blessed by God to be so, is one of the toughest challenges facing Obama. Just last night at the convention, it is a tightrope to walk discussing how the American Dream is slipping away without many (potential) voters recoiling in defense of this great land and its people (e.g. it's those dang illegal immigrants, etc.) You can't say things are getting worse without always praising Americans themselves, and the American spirit.
It is easier with a president with such low approval ratings, but still a potential minefield to cross.
August 27, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why does it often take a foreign journalist to report reality. Remember the Interview Bush gave that woman reporter in Ireland? She confronted him, compare that to Mike Allen's interview of Bush.
Listen to this guy with the British accent interviewing Bush;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcbEuHGsQI4&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/18/205933/072/873/538147
August 27, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its tragic, but some people seem to be incapable of paying atention to and learning from reality until it bitch-slaps them in the face.
You just have to wonder how hard reality's going to have to slap them before they get it, and just how many other people who already get it are going to take those slaps as well...
August 27, 2008 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's this mindset that Roosevelt was addressing way back when, when he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself." There really was nothing to be afraid of even in the Great Depression. It was simply a matter of getting down to the hard work it was going to take to get the country moving again. Under Roosevelt's leadership, that happened and people learned by experience that there was nothing to fear so long as they worked hard to get the country back on it's feet.
August 27, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The journalist meant "disingenuously," not "ingenuously."
People keep getting that backwards.
August 28, 2008 9:55 AM | Reply | Permalink