Barack Obama's Impressive Road to the White House
Excellent article by Britain's Andrew Rawnsley in the Guardian here: Impressive Road to the White House.
Some of the parts that stood out for me:
Some of the parts that stood out for me:
You cannot entirely tell what a person will be like as President from the way he fought for the office, but it does offer useful pointers. It is one huge stress test of a candidate's temperament, ideas, judgment, strategic capacity, organisational skills and resilience. Take the last first. Initially and then repeatedly dismissed as a fashionable fad, a celebrity confection, Obama has proved that he is durable. To get here, the rookie senator has out-campaigned both the Republicans and the Clintons, besting America's two most formidable political machines by building from scratch an even better organisation of his own.
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They call it no drama, Obama. After two years under the searing spotlight of the most saturated media in the world, there has not been a single occasion when he has publicly lost self-control. Nor has his organisation lapsed in its self-discipline. It is a testimony to his ability to select and lead a team that his campaign has been so smooth in comparison with those of his rivals....
Grace under pressure has been a consistently striking feature of his campaign. It has also been one of the big contrasts with his opponent. ... it is Obama who has come over as the nerveless, reassuring, sober, mature and authoritative one, the presidential one. It is John McCain, frantically switching tactics and snatching after headlines to try to get traction in the contest, who has come over as the impetuous, angry, adolescent, erratic one, the unpresidential one....
One thing that particularly impresses me is that he knows what he doesn't know. He has the confidence to acknowledge his deficits in experience and expertise by gathering around him a pretty stellar cast of advisers on both foreign and domestic policy. Of course, that does not in itself guarantee a successful time in the White House. A President also needs the capacity to understand the advice he is given and to choose between competing counsels. From what we have seen of Obama, he has that capacity. He is analytical, pragmatic, open-minded, considered and subtle - qualities all notable by their absence from the White House during the last eight years. Joe Klein puts it very well: 'He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision.'Last, but far from least, Barack Obama has been true to himself. During 21 months of epic drama on this long road, he has never deviated from his essential vision and his core strategy. He ends the race as he began it, offering a positive prospectus of reconciliation, moderation and change.
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The big lesson is that the politics of unity and hope can still beat those of division and fear. At least, the world is united in hoping so.
