The New Republic

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"Obama has declared his presidential intentions, but it is up to well-informed and energetic conservatives like you to spare our nation from the scourge of a far-left President Barack H. Obama."

Nice!

- J.J. Gould

October 26, 2007 at 1:39pm

To Crowley's point: This seems of a piece with other problems Obama is having leveraging his "narrative." E.g., as Christopher Beam points out over at Slate this morning, he's already let Clinton get way too much distance reframing his "politics of hope" as some sort of absurd promise not to criticize his opponents policies (most recently, Clinton's support for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment).

- J.J. Gould

October 26, 2007 at 1:47pm

"they see Obama as someone on an incredible and inspiring personal journey"

WTF? He's an intelligent and interesting guy. But there's nothing very "inspiring" about his "journey." He went to HLS, did some community work, served briefly in a state legislature. BFD.

Look, Obama's a good guy, I like him, but the hype around him is just ridiculous. Compare the man's actual ACHIEVEMENTS with those of any *truly* inspiring and "incredible" young, liberal leader of the past half century-- Bobby Kennedy and MLK, for ex.- and you quickly realize why his candidacy's going nowhere. There's no single issue that I or anyonce can see this guy fighting for, with his heart and soul and if necessary his life.

- teplukhin2you

October 26, 2007 at 7:17pm

Maybe, tep, it's because, as President, you fight with other people's lives? (mostly snark)

- rishy

October 26, 2007 at 9:20pm

I don't know, man, as personal journeys go, I'd have to say that Obama's is pretty inspiring. Or if you like it a little more low-key: There's a lot of underexposed appeal in his biography. Crowley's main point is that most people don't know much about Obama, and the more they were to know, the more appealing they'd likely find him (plus: pity it's a hard story to tell, when you're running for president).

It has to be telling, at any rate, that the timeframe you choose for comparing Obama to other leading young, liberal leaders is a full half-century: There's been no young liberal as inspiring as this guy on the national stage going back through the '90s, '80s, '70s .... I'm sure there are all sorts of ways in which BHO is no RFK or MLK. But Kennedy, great as he was, came to his accomplishments a scion of privilege; and King, whose achievements are immortal, was never in contention to be the first African-American nominee for president of the United States.

Obama's is a compelling life story, more so than any other candidates' on either side, certainly more than his Democratic rivals', and above all more than Clinton's. Crowley's surely right that if Obama could leverage it more among non-political Americans, this would help his campaign get more traction.

- J.J. Gould

October 27, 2007 at 9:19am

I agree with Crowley that Obama's is a complex life story and therefore in some ways one that's hard to tell effectively on the campaign trail. But I also think that it's more important, still, that Obama be more assertive about the meaning of his campaign -- e.g., not letting Clinton control the story on what the "politics of hope" means. She's trying to say he's implicated himself in not criticizing his opponents' policies. He should embarrass her on that. Which should not be hard to do on the campaign trail.

- J.J. Gould

October 27, 2007 at 9:39am

Jim Webb's story is more inspiring than Obama's. Ditto for Bob Kerrey's. And in Webb's case anyway, his writings are more interesting.

Even if you disagree with the above, don't you find it odd that the man has written not one but two autobiographies? Before he's even racked up a single major accomplishment in his professional career?

Again, I like the guy, I just think that no one should be surprised that his candidacy's not catching fire. He's too green.

- teplukhin2you

October 27, 2007 at 2:27pm

Also, John Lewis has a more inspiring and interesting bio than Obama.

The common thread among Webb, Kerrey (with an 'e') and Lewis is that each underwent a searing experience as a young man, literally shedding blood for his cause.

By contrast Obama was upset about his absent dad. He acted out some race-based anger at his elite prep school.

The notion that this likeable, glib yuppie's life experiences would put him in the same category as any of the above men is more than a bit far-fetched. Hence the deflation so many feel when they wait, and wait, and wait for real passion, conviction, steel in the spine.

- teplukhin2you

October 27, 2007 at 2:57pm

Tep -- Jim Webb, Bob Kerrey, and John Lewis are all impressive men with arresting stories. But none of them are running for president. The question isn't, how awesome is Obama, compared with all other notable liberals in U.S. political life? It's how does Obama's life story compare to his competitors'? And I think Crowley is right that a) it's indeed a compelling story, and b) it's one that may be unusually hard to leverage in a campaign like this. I'd add explicitly what Crowley may be implying: c) it's ultimately a much more compelling story than Edwards's, and it's categorically more compelling than H. Clinton's.

- J.J. Gould

October 27, 2007 at 3:44pm

Maybe it's worth adding, as well: We're not, and shouldn't be, electing someone on the basis of how impressive his or her life story is. It's just one of the factors that go into how we see and evaluate a candidate. Likewise his or her resume, frankly: important, but not all-determining. There is also, e.g., the kind of judgment a candidate's shown in the offices he or she has held. And there are intangibles around leadership ability. Which are particular strengths of Obama's -- and among the reasons why he's garnered the support he has, despite only recently coming into any prominence whatsoever nationally.

- J.J. Gould

October 27, 2007 at 3:56pm

"We're not, and shouldn't be, electing someone on the basis of how impressive his or her life story is. It's just one of the factors that go into how we see and evaluate a candidate"

Agree 100% with that. Less so with your points re leadership. There has to be some kind of searing, deepening, maturing experience in the background of the would-be presidential leader. A toughening that also imparts deep wisdom of the intuitive, not the philosophical, variety. I see Obama as at best a latent leader. He may well have such quantitites but there's little in his record or statements to suggest it at this point.

- teplukhin2you

October 27, 2007 at 11:46pm

Could be right, Tep. But here you're talking about what you take to be ultimate criteria for leadership capability. We might disagree on their meaning, or we might disagree on the extent to which Obama meets them. But it's a whole other level of discussion from whether there's this significant, untapped potential in Obama's life story that, if he could effectively integrate it into his working "narrative" on the campaign trail, would benefit his campaign appreciably.

Above you were making a point about why you think Obama won't win the Democratic nomination -- which isn't a question of whether Obama meets your (I think, very sound) criteria, but one of why, in your view, he won't beat Clinton, or possibly Edwards. And I don't see how those guys, Clinton or Edwards, meet your criteria even closely to the degree that Obama does, let alone more.

In other words, your "objective" argument about leadership strikes me as working against your "relative" argument about Obama's putative liabilities against the other Dem front-runners.

So why aren't Obama's numbers up near Hillary's? I think that this point of Crowley's is a very plausible part of the story: a) Obama is so far having a hard time turning some of the more compelling aspects of his background into catalysts for political support. I'd add, on related notes: b) Hillary and her political machine have successfully spun a dense-in-BS narrative about her background, presenting her as a tested and historically accomplished leader, effectively embodying all of the qualities that you, Tep, would look for in a president; and c) the Obama campaign has so far let Hillary's control too much of the narrative about what's at stake between their candidates, particularly over the meaning of the "politics of hope."

- J.J. Gould

October 28, 2007 at 11:29am

I'm not crazy about any of  the candidates. I wish Webb would run, but I know it ain't going to happen, and in case our idiotic system's bias toward fibs 'n' fairytales would pretty well destroy Shotgun Jim in short order.

You rightly bring up Obama's narrative. The problem with his narrative-- and no quote marks are needed for that term in his case, because he has (twice already) given us a _literal_ narrative of his journey-- is that the point of his narrative is not to connect with someone else or some other group but with HIMSELF. His journey is all about establishing his identity-- a wonderful subject for a bildungsroman, but one guaranteed to lead to disappointment for those of us who expect our pols to be outward focused, not inward.

I suspect the man may be in the wrong profession. He's clearly got the makings of a great writer. If he;s nominaed of course I'll vote for him rather than any GOP berserker, but I think he's frankly not ready for prime time. Putin would have him for breakfast. My $0.02, anyway. Appreciate the conversation.

best,

t

- teplukhin2you

October 28, 2007 at 12:17pm

Likewise, Tep.

And I appreciate what you say about problems with the Obamabildungsroman dominating his early campaign. I think the difference may be that I tend to see the reliance on introspection as a tactic more than a personal tendency -- a preliminary way of putting the "politics of hope" in play by inviting us, his readers, his audience, to relate to his personal journey, and the political views it's brought him to, directly, positively, rather trying to range us behind him and against some Schmittian enemy.

If you look at it that way, I'd suggest you see more evidence of a deliberate choice for the high road than narcissism or inexperience. Now, there's no way this was ever going to work if Obama were simply unwilling to fight. But there's a qualitative, meaningful difference between going into this race playing the same old game of gunning for victory by fostering division and enmity, on the one hand, and fighting tough and clean when it comes time, on the other -- which we're apparently starting to see (interview in today's NYT, e.g.).

We'll see if he can make this over the next two months -- embodying a politics of hope while punching heavy where he has to. My feeling is he can ...

- J.J. Gould

October 28, 2007 at 2:36pm