[digg-me]Barack Obama sees the importance of this moment – as many of us now do – and he sees what our nation needs; in response to this moment, he is trying to conjure the movement, the politics, and the consensus we need to tackle the long-term problems and strategic challenges we face as a nation.
Barack Obama is not the answer to these problems; he cannot overcome the challenges. But the movement he is trying to conjure is and can.
The paradox of Obama’s campaign is that it requires belief – a leap of faith in the possibilities of the American people. The phrase sounds like boilerplate bullshit. It’s not.
What Obama and his supporters are counting on are the choices of many individuals to take a leap of faith – a faith not borne out by recent history, but a faith in a better tomorrow – specifically a better tomorrow founded on the discernment of the American people. This is what Obama means when he speaks of “the audacity of hope”, the “fierce urgency of now”, and “the great need of the hour”. It is what skeptics call “drinking the Kool-Aid“.
What Obama is attempting to do is call on the “better angels of our nature”. The paradox is that he will only succeed if America is transformed through a leap of faith. And a majority of individuals will only take the leap of faith if they first believe he will succeed. Which is why his campaign is a conjuring act. It is also why his campaign – unlike Hillary’s – will require American politics to rise to a different level.
The question now is: can he get Hillary to rise to that level? Can he convince Hillary to trust the American people and say what she means? Can he convince Hillary that the American people will see beyond the gutter politics dominating the campaign? Can he convince Democrats that he can win in a politics dominated by character assassination?
The paradox is in the answer: the only way he can show Hillary or the Democratic party that he can get past the gutter politics is to win. And the only way he can win, is to convince a majority that he not only deserves to succeed, but that he can succeed.
It’s a neat magic trick. I, for one, believe.
73 replies on “The Paradox of Barack Obama”
Just a quick note to let you know that there are people like me who stop by your site and read your commentaries without ever leaving a comment.
Your comments and analysis are dead-on. The more I hear Obama talk the stronger his message comes across and I’ve been on the Obama bandwagon for over a year.
It’s just sad how the Clintons and the National Democratic Party are controlling — and damaging — the process.
To me, it is a simple question … do voters have to choose between Cheney-Lite Clinton with $4/gallon gas or Outreach Obama with $2 gas ( in other words, do you want the Armed Services Committee approach of conflict with Iran or the Foreign Relations Committee approach of engaging Iran and Syria … it’s a simple question that you will pay at the pump.)
Keep up the good fight.
another great post and a wonderfully beautiful and inspirational photograph! Keep up with the great job!
IN COLLEGE,IT WAS REQUIRED THAT ONE COURSE IN PHILOSOPHY BE TAKEN.
MY WIFE SUGGESTED I TAKE THE CLASS ENTITLED”THE PHILOSOPHY OF WOMEN.”
“WHY?”, I ALMOST SHOUTED.”I AM A MAN.SHOULDN`T I BE MORE INTERESTED IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEN?” SHE REPLIED,”NO! YOU ARE A MALE CHAUVINIST PIG.AND
YOU NEED A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WOMEN.” SO I TOOK THE CLASS JUST
TO BECOME A MALE CHAUVINIST PIGGY.
WHEN I HEARD HILLARY WAS RUNNING,I THOUGHT, A WOMEN PRESIDENT IN
MY LIFETIME. SINCE I`M NOT A RESIDENT OF NEW YORK,I WOULD NEED ONE HECK
OF A MESSAGE TO GET A RESPONCE DIRECTLY FROM HER.SO I SENT SUCH
A MESSAGE. HER WEBSITE THANKED ME FOR WRITING HER,BUT IT WOULD
NOT LIKELY GET HER ATTENTION SINCE I AM FROM OUT OF HER STATE.
AM I JUST A FOOL FOR TALKING TO NOBODY?
WELL,NOBODY ALWAYS LISTENS. AND ONLY FOOLS GET TO HEAVEN.
I BELIEVE IN HUMANITY.AND I ALSO BELIEVE BARACK OBAMA BELIEVES
IN HUMANITY.
There are several things that scare me about putting this man into office.
Lets start with his name Barack Hussein Obama which was given to him by his father a know Muslim.
Barack sounds like Iraq,
Hussein (Saddam),
Obama (Osoma).
He has had association with Muslim extremist and claims that he is no longer associated.
This sounds like another 9-11. This is a terrorist plot to infiltrate the US government system from the inside for Osama Bin Laden.
If you do a search on the Internet for Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein guess whose name appears with the search, Barack Hussein Obama
I do not want a third world extremist rag head leading our country, DO YOU
Just say No to Obama,
You’re kidding, right? I support Clinton, but anyone literate can see that what you have written is either excellent parody or terrible libel.
I’ve been a political junkie for decades now. This year I am in heaven. I’ve been spending lots of time watching debates (yet ANOTHER debate Hillary? – Alright already, so we know that you’re the student of the month) Yes, I have become Obamacized. It’s an epidemic here. They are everywhere. We share secret smiles and in spite of Hillary’s stern warnings, we dare to hope.
The other day I went to the doctor. He says to me “Hey, I didn’t see you at the caucus. How come?” I told him that I wanted to go but sent my proxy instead. He bends over and whispers “I voted for Obama.” Then he grins from ear to ear. I told that I did too. We shared our excitement and did the secret handshake. As I was leaving he announced to the nurses that I was an “Obamafile” too. They all nodded and grinned and we broke into Obamasong and the celestial choir sang back up.
It had been a long day, so instead of waiting for the bus I treated myself to a cab ride home. The driver was obviously Muslim. Lots of prayer beads and a prayer rug. But he was listening to NPR – a program about the Mortgage crisis. He started talking about how the financial institutions had taken advantage of the little people. “Yea” I said, “That’s why Americans love Jesse James, the bank robber.” I had to explain Jesse James but he got all excited and started telling me how Dennis Kucinich (Dennis Kucinich??????) was the only candidate who understood. How the multinationals were buying up debt in third world nations and foreclosing. Forcing families off farms they had owned for generations and sending them to refugee camps.
I told him that I thought Obama would make a great President. He wasn’t too impressed. I asked if he knew that Obama’s father was Muslim. I told him how people had been circulating an email that said that Obama was a Muslim who went to a Madrassa school and he was a “sleeper cell” – just to scare people out of voting for him. He asked if he was a Muslim and I told him that he was Christian but his father was from Kenya and Muslim. He shot back, “Yea but his mother is a Jew. I got an email about his mother.”
I nearly laughed out loud. Funny how the mud is custom made for every climate.
Then I told him that it was the banking deregulation that happened under Clinton One that opened the door for the mortgage crisis we face now. The results of the things that President Clinton “deregulated” are now becoming obvious. Deregulation of the FDA has put some dangerous drugs on the market. NAFTA has not exactly been a gleaming success. The list goes on. I said that the real affects of the Clinton era need some serious reconsideration. Clinton One let the fox in the hen house and then acted surprised when the hens disappeared and Bush Two showed up with a mouth full of feathers. I was afraid of Clinton Two.
“Fox in hen house?” he asked? Then he looked puzzled and then delighted. He dropped me off and as he drove away I heard him say “FOX IN HEN HOUSE!!! Yes, it is a fox in our hen house!”
Hillary keeps using the line that she and McCain have a lifetime of experience and Obama has a speech. In truth, her only real foreign policy experience is a speech she gave in Beijing on women’s rights. It was a great speech. It was a courageous speech. But it was just a speech. Unlike the students in Tiananmen Square, she risked nothing by making that speech. She has never been unemployed, or homeless or even hungry. The real problem with her comment about Martin Luther King and President Johnson was that she dismissed Obama as a candidate for President and regulated him to mere entertainment. “Over there, boy” she was saying. “Leave the real work to the white folks.” Where were the Clintons during Katrina? Where was she when Bush wanted permission to invade Iran? Where was she when Obama interrupted his campaign to vote against giving immunity to the telecom industry? She has been silent. On all the major issues, she has acquiesced to Bush. She follows the strong man.
No doubt that Hillary is a strong a forceful voice for the women’s movement. I don’t’ want to elect a woman President. I want to elect the best possible person and not care if about race or sex or religion. Obama speaks for everyone. He’s not the black candidate, the male candidate, the young candidate, the Midwestern candidate, the child of immigrant candidate, the preppy elite candidate or the Chicago steelworker candidate. He’s the Democratic candidate. He’s fighting both Clintons with one hand tied behind his back because he refuses to “win dirty” and yet he keeps winning delegates and still you ask “Is he tough enough?’ What part of this don’t you understand?
[…] seemingly impossible loop. Because he already did so with a similar loop – which I described in The Paradox of Obama. Or even better, and more appropriately, the answer might come from citizens discussing these ideas […]
Keep working ,great job!
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