Obama Americana
Frank Rich's most recent column pointed out that "Americans" are tired of hearing about Obama, which is actually the McCain attack/deflect attention machine's fault. Possible subtext: Americans aren't just tired of hearing about Obama, but about "others" in general. After all, as leaked by Obama insiders, the plan seems to be to use the Democratic Convention to create an "all-American image" for Barack, to "tackle what members of both parties see as his greatest vulnerability with undecided voters: his 'otherness.'"
Speculation about his vice-presidential pick at the moment, center around two "normal" guys, Evan Bayh, Tom Kaine, and the slightly less normal Joe Biden, furthering the sense that otherness is next to un-electability-ness. Wonder about last week's reportage about "growing diversity in swing counties" could make a lot of this de-othering process not as necessary as his handlers think.
posted by Spanglishkid at 12:22 PM
1 Comments:
It seems to me that the whole 'otherness problem' you allude to is one of perception and assimilation. i.e. people need to get used to associating power with other kinds of images (a black person in charge, etc.)
That being said, Obama must be a pretty straight up normal guy. No minority gets to be where he is without playing much or less strictly by the rules. That is politically attractive to me because it shows the guy has a really strong will, and a moderately reformist temperament.
He could have been a rabble-rousser, a populist, a loud contrarian (among other things)...but he chose not to. I respect that. Now...will he just ignore the otherness debate and choose the best and optimal vice-presidential mate? Or will he take the pedagogical road and choose the safe mate, just so people get used to it? I think he'll go in between...
a white freak!!!!! ha ha ha.
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