Thursday, March 20, 2008

Obama, Again   [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader: 

Subject: Missed It 

Jonah,

Obama didn’t go back to old ways of thinking, you foundered in listening with a deaf ear. You missed the historic importance of Obama’s speech in that it included all of America, not just African-Americans. And that is why so many white people, me included, were devastated by the wisdom and clear eyed vision of his speech.

Look at it again without blinders on.

Me: Riiiiight. It must be because my listening and comprehension skills are so much poorer than this guy's. It couldn't have anything to do with what this reader WANTED to hear as opposed to what Obama actually said.

Still, it is true, that Obama talked about "all Americans." But there's nothing new there.  Jesse Jackson talked  quite a lot about all Americans too. His campaign claimed to speak for a popular front — a rainbow coalition, in fact. And, Hillary Clinton talks about all Americans. Every politician talks about All Americans. Why is Obama's rhetoric so much more credible?

What this reader seems not to comprehend is that proclaiming a new unity based on old-fashioned great society boilerplate isn't really unity. It's intellectual bullying to get your way on programs and policies you can't sell on the merits but you can sneak over the plate with the spitball called "unity."

No sale.  

03/20 10:42 AMShare