Saturday, August 2, 2008
Obama's Sister Soljah Moment
Obama couldn't script things better. He is currently running in the general election, no longer playing to the Democrats alone, and there are doubts about him. He has got the nomination but what does he need? Rejecting someone laying claim to his values via identity politics, to show Obama serves no defined constituency. Obama needs to show he is for the country. Obama needs a Sister Souljah moment. If Hillary were in his place identity politics is probably all we would hear (judging by the way she ran her campaign when things got rocky) but Obama with some troubling slips has been pretty good about leaving race off the table. (The counter argument being that it percolates there without comment and need not be mentioned to achieve pc criticality.)
So Obama appears in Florida and behind him a demonstration about something (it was a brief TV clip) - some complaint by a black group claiming Obama isn't sensitive to their needs as blacks. Obama has them removed but allows an emotional question; he responds, don't vote for me if you don't like me. The partisan crowd might be silenced by confusion as to correctness: what to do? They applaud Obama's response. Perfect. All of it. The timing. The response. The calculation of a permitted interchange. The guy was born under a lucky star. Let's just hope some of that luck rubs off on the country after, in all probability, he is elected. Luck is a fragile reed in the uncertain gusts of history.