Philadelphia and Pittsburgh

[saavedra77]

Listening to Obama's "More Perfect Union" speech on race, Tuesday, I couldn't help feeling just agog at the sheer improbability of the whole thing: not just that a black guy named "Barack Obama" is in serious contention for the presidency of the U.S., not just that he could so adroitly deflect that tabloid buzzsaw, but that he managed to redirect the conversation from shouted soundbytes to a serious talk about equal opportunity.

Obama being Obama, a lot's been said about the speech's inspirational language.

Wonk that I am, though, I think that I was most impressed by his sense of history and the accompanying social and political analysis*: his account of the legacies of slavery and segregation, his thoughts on white working- and middle-class economic anxieties, his analysis of the social and political consequences of each, and the parallels he drew between them.

Listening to that section of the speech, it occurred to me these are exactly the themes that Obama needs to hone in on in order to have a real shot at winning in Pennsylvania, next month. This is the balance that he'll need to strike to thread the racial needle and compete simultaneously in, say, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

To me, Tuesday's speech suggested strongly that he understands this, that he knows the words. I suspect that the real question will be whether or not he also knows the tune, knows how to put those parallels across in a less professorial, more kitchen-table kind of way.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm cautiously optimistic.

(In the unlikely event that you haven't seen it by now, video of the entire "More Perfect Union" speech can be found here.)

*I have to admit that I enjoyed hearing Obama quote Faulkner, too--even though it encapsulated on several levels the aforementioned improbability: Can a candidate who quotes Nobel-prize-winning novelists actually be running for president? And if (as Faulkner said) the past "isn't even past" ... can an African American named Barack Obama actually be a serious contender for the presidency ...?

Comments

[pescana.livejournal.com]

I'm listening to it right now and I just keep boggling at how he raises the spectre and then punctures it. I'm glad to hear your analysis, it's good to know I'm not simply under the spell of compelling words (cerebral creature that I am).

I'm still thrilled I got to see him when he came to town. Inspiring isn't the right word for it.

I need to call my friend in Pittsburgh and find out what she's thinking. She worked for Dukakis in '88, and lives an "alternative lifestyle" so she should have some good perspective.

he managed to redirect the conversation from shouted soundbytes to a serious talk about equal opportunity

YES. He really does seem to have a great grasp on how to turn this kind of thing around, doesn't he?

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

He really does seem to have a great grasp on how to turn this kind of thing around, doesn't he?

It's a gift, alright--one that no other major Democratic candidate has possessed in years.

[pescana.livejournal.com]

I just keep thinking this: How can we let such promise go unfulfilled? I don't want to let that happen.

Now that I'm done watching, two more things. I kept wanting to hug my monitor. And the repeated statement: My dreams do not come at your expense. Your dreams do not come at my expense.

Hope, instead of fear. I think my time spent working in politics helped hone my critical skills at least a little (as did a few experiences since then), but I am still a complete sucker for hope.

[morganminstrel.livejournal.com]

I found it hilarious that, out of the entire speech, a WSJ editorial I read focused on his calling out about corporate greed as a culprit of a lot of people's anxieties and economic problems. They essentially ignored the rest of the speech and just focused on that one comment to declare Obama as nothing really new, just "another liberal" or somesuch.

It's just fascinating to see that what people take away from the speech sometimes says more about them than about the candidate...

(I pretty much agree with you here, by the by.)

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

You've got to say this for the WSJ: at least they're consistent.

I just can't help remembering Bob Dole growling about how "liberal" Bill Clinton was, and Clinton just grinning and saying "That dog won't hunt."

Folksy isn't exactly Obama's style, but I think that there's even more room to argue that that particular dog won't hunt, this year.