At the outset of the Presidential campaign, Barack Obama transmitted the sense that he was, or was going to be, America’s favorite candidate. Sure he was inexperienced compared to his opponents. Of course he had little foreign policy understanding. According to Senator Obama, none of this mattered, and it really didn’t have to do with being President anyway. He maintained that most of it had to do with rising above political partisanship and Washington mind games. For a time, it seemed America bought this sunny idea, and many Americans still may, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Obama is a politician above all, and he cannot bridge any gaps or rise above it all.
Coupled with his idealistic political message, Senator Obama spoke of racial harmony. He spoke of peace and justice, and how it can be obtained. Not only could he overcome politics, he could overcome racial barriers and change the thinking of many. He was raised by a white, middle-class mother. His father was a black native African. He was college educated at the best educational institutions the nation has to offer, yet he was not above recognizing poverty. Instead of working in corporate law, where his intelligence would have been handsomely rewarded, Barack Obama, the seemingly well-off young man of a relatively privileged upbringing, sacrificed all that to become a civil-rights activist. In a sense, according to Obama and his supporters, he had the very best of both worlds, if the best was to be had in at least one of those worlds.
The need for an end to racially-motivated thinking and political agendas is extraordinarily needed in this country. There are few people within mainstream society, of any school of political thought, who would disagree with that. The idea, however, that one person can change all of the misfortunes of this country simply by becoming president is misguided and unrealistic. All of that aside, Barack Obama has shown America why he is not the solution, and why he will likely never be the solution, either on his own or within a group.
Barack Obama discovered that his associations with certain people were actually subject to some scrutiny. Surely this was a shock to him because the mainstream media has, for the most part, been on bended knee for him. Nevertheless, when it was disclosed that Barack Obama associated with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a minister who has made many controversial remarks about America and race, the Obama campaign was set back for the first time in many months. Obama was in a fix. Not only did SenatorObama know Mr. Wright, he attended his church for twenty years, and Wright married Barack and his wife, as well as baptized the Obama children. The Obama campaign could not shrug this off.
There is no good way for a politician to get out of a situation like what Mr. Obama has found himself in. In many ways, it is not what the candidate has done, but how he or she deals with the crisis that makes or breaks a campaign. Obama could have, and should have, publicly apologized for allowing himself to be portrayed in such a light, and then explained his exact thinking as to why he allowed himself and his family to listen to such angry rhetoric. Then, Senator Obama should have condemned Jeremiah Wright for such Anti-American speech, recognized that Wright’s comments were just as bigoted as those made by any white supremacist in the past, and rejected any notion of returning to the church. Making such a speech still may not have undone the damage, but it would be a much better shot than what Obama did do.
Barack Obama suddenly became a clear-cut politician. His nervousness was apparent as he attempted to speak about the issue in a speech in Philadelphia this week. He rejected nothing in particular and tried to make the issue more about overall racial tensions than his association with such a controversial figure. There were no specific condemnations of his minister’s comments, such as the aids virus being invented by the government for genocidal purposes, or Wright’s quote, “God Damn America!” Instead, Obama tried to make the issue more about racial tensions that, for the most part, do not exist In America today. In short, Barack Obama deflected the issue, just like a politician, rather than dealing with it. He walked a fence. He justified without justifying. He changed the subject without changing it, and he failed.
Barack Obama’s masterless performance in Philadelphia proves that he will not be an accessory to harmony. He is a politician after all. What is most disturbing, especially in a world like today’s, is that Obama proved he cannot face a problem head on. He ducked. He panicked. Most of all, he solved absolutely nothing.