http://www.thenation.com/article/167344/what-do-we-see-obama What Do We See in Obama? Gary Younge The Nation: In <http://www.thenation.com/issue/april-30-2012> the April 30, 2012 edition When Jerry Kellman received an application for a job as a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s with a cover letter signed Barack Obama, he thought, What the hell is this? And Honolulu? I thought, Well, hes Japanese. Once Obama arrived in Chicago, some who heard his name assumed he was of Irish descentOBama. By the time he ran for president, the right was more interested in the fact that his surname rhymed with Osama and his middle nameHusseinreminded people of Saddam. Obama has always been something of a Rorschach testthe psychological experiment wherein a patient is presented with a series of inkblots and is asked what they mean. The blot is the same for everyone. But everyone sees something different in it.
Similarly, people take one look at Obamaor in the case of his name, not even thatand project their aspirations and anxieties onto him. One Zogby poll in 2006 showed that after being told his parents race and nationality, more than half (55 percent) of whites and 61 percent of Hispanics classified Obama as biracial, while two-thirds (66 percent) of blacks regarded him as black. The truth, of course, is that hes both. Same information. Same man. Different takes. The notion that people would project their hopes and fears onto a political leader is not unique to Obama. But the particular confluence of events and identities makes the discrepancies between who Obama is and who people want him to be particularly acute. This is not news to Obama. In The Audacity of Hope, he wrote: I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. Back then he chalked it up to his being a relative newcomer on the political scene. But familiarity has not attenuated the problem. If anything, with six months to go before the election, its accentuated it. For as he returns to the campaign trail, he is starting to sound like the politician many liberals thought they had voted for: principled, smart and commanding rather than the compromised, inept moderate negotiator we have seen so much of. Which raises the question: Where has this Obama been for the past four years? So it was when Obama slammed Ryans budget proposals as social Darwinism. Obama was right, of course: for a party so skeptical of evolution, the Republicans seem curiously at home with the survival of the fittest. Ryans plan would not only represent a devastating attack on poor Americans while redistributing resources to the rich; it would actually make the deficit worse. But its not as though Obama has lacked the opportunity to face down the Republicans over their misanthropy and fiscal innumeracy before. Why are we hearing this now? Every once in a while he tries to get politically cute, argued David Brooks in the New York Times. And he puts on his Keith Olbermann mask. (Its about the only accurate line in the piece, which goes on to praise Ryans budget.) That many on the right have distorted Obamas record beyond recognition is predictable. Its what they do. Attend enough Rick Santorum rallies and youd be forgiven for believing that socialism is imminent and Obamacare gives Joe Biden the right to break into your house and administer a pap smear. The persistence of the fantasies among liberals is more surprising. It seems that any attempt to discuss Obamas record must first be tempered by some speculation about what he would have done (were it not for political obstacles) or could not do (because the office would not permit it). As Aileen, a caller in an NPR discussion about civil liberties, said, Sometimes on the left we can be very naïve because after he stopped being a campaigner and became the president and was privy to information that we do not see, he changed his mind on a number of issues, because his primary responsibility is to protect us. While we cannot divine his intentions, his record, clearly, is a mixed bag. The claim that hes achieved nothing is as untenable as that America would be like Sweden right now if only the Republicans hadnt gotten in his way. Obviously, like any elected politician he must navigate the situation he inherited. But that doesnt stop people from deluding themselves that he was more worthy of the wave of optimism that swept him into power than he ever was. As one person told me while leaping to the presidents defense over the escalation in Afghanistan, You dont know whats in his heart. True, I replied. Only his cardiologist can know that. But that knowledge would make little difference to the people of Afghanistan. Obama is no mere passive recipient in this process. While he does not control it, he has at times tried to leverage and game it. Rhetorically, at least, he projected a far more dynamic, idealistic and populist campaign than the one he was really running. But when it came to matters of substance, far from raising expectations too high, he set them quite low. Some of his first actions in office at a time of war and economic crisis were to keep Bushs defense secretary, reinstate Bill Clintons economic team and put in a banker at the Treasury. The man is not a radical. He never was. Nor did he say he was, though he was happy for some to think he might be. If he had been, he would never have won. A winner-take-all voting system where both parties are corporately financed, Congressional districts are openly gerrymandered and 40 percent of the upper chamber can block anything is no vehicle for radical reform. Nor is the presidency. This doesnt mean theres no difference between Obama and his Republican opponents. It means we should not make excuses for him. Hes the best that could be elected last time, and this time. And thats the problem. * * * From: Jan Goodman [mailto:[email protected]] Subject: FIX OUR AMERICA - JAN & JERRY'S Sunday Afternoon, May 6. 2012 in Santa Monica PLEASE JOIN US SUNDAY MAY 6, 2012 2pm ON RSVP if possible, so we can plan for chairs, snacks, etc. JERRY & JAN Fix Our America For those who have been to a Fix Our America event, please help us keep momentum going by sending this along to friends and relatives. For those of you who want to have a good time while participating in fundamental positive change in the country, come join us from 2pm to 4:30 on Sunday May 6 at our entertainment-rich, much fun and informative Become an Amender party and comedy fest at the beautiful home garden of Jan Goodman and Jerry Manpearl. Jimmy Dore and David Samson are featured comics. Please see the attached flyer to get a sense of the people involved. Youll be joining the Great Cooperation to get money out of politics started by a group of LA leaders who believe that the mother of all issues for the U.S. at this time is the corruption of the democratic system by campaign financing. Fix Our America has developed a methodology for rapid progress toward getting a Constitutional Amendment that can work. So please come enjoy and learn. This is an event that will help put teeth in the project...and your participation will advance the cause. Check-in starts at 2:00 and theres a chance to network and party before and after the entertainment begins. There will also be a brief information segment. RSVP to <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] to get the house address. Please RSVP even if you know the address. For more information go to Fix Our America on Facebook. Inline image 1 _____ No virus found in this message. 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