OPINION & EDITORIAL
Obama’s charisma essential to victory
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Also by Gerald Cox:
- I'll take a female president, just not her (December 3, 2007)
- Religion aside, faith perseveres (November 26, 2007)
- Want Big Ten sports? Get a dish (November 19, 2007)
- Civil rights movement needs 'Black-In' (November 12, 2007)
Related Stories:
- Barack Obama: Political St. Nick (October 15, 2007)
- Obama: Visionary, not fraudulent (September 19, 2007)
- The audacity of open, transparent government (December 11, 2007)
- Idealism on tap at Obama fundraiser (October 16, 2007)
- Readers stop punching pillows, respond (September 21, 2007)
by Gerald Cox
Monday, January 29, 2007
Seven years ago, Barack Obama was reeling from an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives. Now, Obama is steeling himself for a long campaign for president as one of the democratic front-runners. Transforming from failure to front-runner in seven years is an impressive feat for a man who is younger than both of my parents. But Obama has a number of hurdles to leap on his way to the White House. Most troublesome of these hurdles may not be the fact that he is just as black as he is white, but that Hillary Clinton wants to be president just as much as he does.
And Bill Clinton wants her to be president just as much as she does. That especially does not bode well for Obama.
There is no doubt Obama's ethnicity will play a significant role throughout his campaign — it already has. However, Obama's black father played a rather small part in his life and Obama spent his childhood in Hawaii and Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama was brought up by a white mother, an Indonesian father, and white grandparents. While he is black, he does not exude the civil right activist aura black presidential hopefuls like Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson did. In short, white Americans do not see him as someone who is just looking out for black Americans — a stigma Jackson and Sharpton could never overcome — and black Americans appreciate him as someone to whom they can relate. That equates to big gains in swing states with large black populations like Virginia. Obama's ethnicity will not be much of a handicap like it was for Sharpton and Jackson but more of a selling point like it could have been for Colin Powell.
Assuming Americans can look past Obama's glaring lack of experience, it may be that there is only one thing in the way of Obama's nomination to his party's ticket. Or rather, two people: the Clintons. No doubt Hillary's campaign will try to invoke the unabashed democratic glory of Bill's enchanted eight years in the White House. Hillary will not mind if many voters see a Clinton presidency as a sort of third term for Bill. During the primaries, Hillary just has to convince other Democrats that she is the best Democrat for the job. And who better to convince Democrats of anything than quintessential Democrat Bill Clinton? Imagine having Bill Clinton campaigning for you full time in the primaries. Many democratic White House hopefuls would kill an intern or two for such a thing. Hillary just has to be his wife.
The stakes are high. After two terms of Bush, and as the mid-term elections clearly showed, Americans are not in a Republican mood and may remain so for the next two years. As it stands, the Democratic primaries may decide the next president of the United States of America.
Perhaps it is fitting, then, that it is Barack Obama who is facing the formidable Clintons. Obama has evinced likeability and charisma that Clinton simply cannot match. Obama is the kind of guy you want delivering the keynote speech at your party's convention. Conversely, Hillary's on-screen personality is like a cross between Lane Kiffin of the Oakland Raiders and a bag of tree bark. If you don't know who Lane Kiffin is, rest assured he is only slightly more exciting to listen to than a bag of tree bark (unless you're Randy Moss).
Barely out of the Illinois Senate, Obama is hoping Americans will overlook his lack of a record. Hillary is hoping she can get people to forget hers. As the most powerful and intelligent first lady in American presidential history, she was also the most unlikable — critics question whether she actually did anything to help her state during her years in the Senate. She also suffers from the stigma of Bill's Oval Office indiscretions and all the convoluted implications they carry. She also went from being a Cubs fan to a Yankees fan a bit too soon after her successful bid for the U.S. Senate in New York.
A lot of people just don't like Hillary Clinton; they may not have a lot of reasons, and they may not be able to explain why, but, boy, they just cannot stand her. Obama is just the opposite: There really isn't a real reason to be so incredibly pleased and excited with Obama — Americans just are.
It's going to be that kind of incredible "electability" and likeability that Obama will need to overcome the prodigious war chest of Hillary Clinton and the legacy of Bill Clinton.
Gerald Cox (gcox@badgerherald.com) is a junior majoring in economics and Middle Eastern studies.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 7:30am):
It's not a black, white, female or male issue, it's all about who voted to give our trigger-happy president a blank check to go bomb world's gas station.
Hillary, no matter what kind of time machine you come up with, you still have the same problem that John Kerry had: you sold your vote for POLITICAL GAIN rather than the best interest of OUR country.
I want to commend our Senator Feingold for having a spine and a conscience.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 12:30pm):
"Obama's glaring lack of experience"
Why do you say that? How many elected offices do you have to obtain before you're experienced? Maybe they should modify the constitution to require an experience prerequisite.
How much political experience did Eisenhower and Washington have before becoming president?
So, Gerald, do you either have to be a general or have X years in political office to be a viable candidate? How do years in politics and years in the military equate?
What about Ross Perot, Mike Bloomberg, and Steve Forbes? They have business backgrounds and ran viable campaigns.
I believe that "lack of experience" is a red herring. Lack of inteligence is something better to worry about.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 12:59pm):
I love Barack Obama!
OBAMA/SEBELIUS 08!
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 2:31pm):
There once was this guy who was from Illinois and had two years of experience in the US congress before running for president. You may have heard of him: Abraham Lincoln. He did allright.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 5:16pm):
"Abraham Lincoln. He did allright."
ROFLMAO, Lincoln's violations of civil liberties make Bush look like Little Mary Sunshine!
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 5:58pm):
I do not think that it's time for a black or a woman president. I do not feel that it is in the nation's best interest to have one at all.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 6:25pm):
Regarding 12:30's questioning of Obama's lack of experience:
While there is obviously no constitutional requirement for experience, it is indeed helpful to have an extensive and well-tested knowledge of the military, tax code, budgeting process, governing ability, directing a cabinet, etc.
It is not REQUIRED, but it is damn helpful to have these attributes before you assume the most difficult job on earth. Intelligence does not cut it ALONE, but in conjunction with the experience and battle-hardened politicking required of a president.
Washington obviously had no political experience because there were very few elected officials with any powers in pre-revolutionary America. We were under the control of the British empire. What could Washington have done? Been governor of the colonies? No. But he was a general, hero, and statesman unlike any other at the time, and that obviously turned out well.
Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander and national hero at a time when the nation wanted to elect a seasoned and sage caretaker for America to bring America into a post-war stability. And he did the job well.
Obama is great, but he doesnt have the credentials. If Obama was white and had a little less interesting of a personal history, nobody would be talking about him running for president, because that would make him like the 99 other senators. But the point is that hes the first accomplished, charismatic, non-civil rights zealot black leader that this country has really ever had. But just because hes unique doesnt mean he should have the most unique job in the world: president.
Anonymous (January 29, 2007 @ 7:36pm):
Senator Obama isn't as inexperienced as people think: Obama served as the Harvard Law Review President, he served seven years in the Illinois state legislature, and by the time the '08 presidential election rolls around, he will have served one full term as a US Senator. Thirteen years of experience isn't bad. In contrast, our sitting president was elected twice as governor of Texas, serving only SIX years in elected office before running for president. Hilary Clinton? Just 8 years as a US Senator by the time the next election is. Tell me who's more experienced? Experience is overrated anyway. Just ask Obama: "Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld have an awful lot of experience." Yeah... look where that got 'em.
Anonymous (January 30, 2007 @ 11:57am):
"Harvard Law Review President"
WOW, i'm wetting myself in excitement!
Anonymous (January 30, 2007 @ 12:25pm):
Just wait until the vultures start picking at Obama in the primaries. Do you really think Hillary is going to stand idly by and have a newcomer senator upend her lifelong dream to be presidient? You're already starting to see this happen, with Obama getting bogged down in explaining where his first name eminated from.
He'll be toast by this time next year. You can book that.
My money is on Al Gore...the only guy on the left that did not abandon his principles the last six years.
Anonymous (January 31, 2008 @ 8:15pm):
Check out the democractic primary debate. Obama had the crowd behind him in the beginning but Clinton slowly rallied them around her. I was taken aback by the fierceness and cleverness she displayed.
Anonymous (March 11, 2008 @ 1:19am):
It's the Economy, Stupid.
1. John McCain doesn't know about economics
2. And He is Stupid!
Go Democrats!
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