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To Argue or Not to Argue
An Obama-McCain electoral map makes these voters all the more important. As an Arizonan and a moderate on immigration, McCain complicates Democratic plans in the Southwest. Nor can Obama expect a surge of Hispanic votes in Florida, where the Democrats' chances aren't great in any case. That turns the focus back to where it usually is in presidential elections: the Electoral College Crescent around the Great Lakes region, from Minnesota and Wisconsin through Michigan and Ohio and on to Pennsylvania. That's where the Powder Shoot voters are: traditional on economic issues, culturally conservative.
As he reaches out, Obama will frame his reform message in economic, not cultural, terms. But the GOP will attack on that turf. In the primary season, Obama has faced little criticism for his liberal voting record in Illinois. That is about to change, as Republicans try to make Obama pay for his South Side Chicago roots, which produced votes in favor of handgun control and against the filtering of pornography on school and library computers, to cite two examples. It's not clear how much this will matter in the midst of a recession and an unpopular war, but the senator can't afford to assume that it won't.
If he is going to argue that elites have too much power—that he is the reformer to roust them from the corrupt temple—he needs to show that he isn't an elitist of a different but equally haughty sort. Carter never had that problem (and neither—Andover, Yale and Harvard notwithstanding—did George W. Bush). But it is an ironic measure of social progress in America that Obama—the law-professor product of prep school, Columbia and Harvard—does. There is a long American tradition of upper-crust reformers, including both presidents Roosevelt and many of the Founding Fathers. But most of them were either born with, or developed through long experience, a sure sense of the common man's argument on any issue.
Obama is still learning. He can be companionable, and is genuinely curious about people, but he can come off as a little lordly and self-regarding. The first-term senator is racing against time to steep himself in the country before he has to face it in its entirety in a general election. He jettisoned references to his favorite green tea and the local Whole Foods, but still seems out of place in a bowling alley or a mill-town tavern. He can seem a little clinical (or even, let's admit it, journalistic) about the wonderful "folks" he meets on the obscure byways that he hopes will lead to the Oval Office.
Far more important—and problematic—is the sense that Obama sees himself as too principled, earnest and thoughtful for the grubby game he must play to reform the country. He doesn't appear to relish being challenged, especially in public. He thinks of himself as a broad-minded guy, and, before he ran, he constructed shrewdly empathetic syntheses of issues, each designed to anticipate every argument in advance. But presidential campaigns aren't lived in advance.
In a nation built on the idea of argument, the object of reform is not to reach a point where everyone agrees—because no one ever does—but to ensure that everyone is heard. That was what the Founders where trying to achieve in 1787 when they locked themselves in the State House—a building that still stands, two blocks from last week's ABC debate site in Philadelphia.
And on at least one American Argument last week, Obama was listening to, and responding to, another side. The issue was gun control. The U.S. Supreme Court, the debate moderators noted, was reviewing the District of Columbia's handgun ban. What did Obama think? He answered as the constitutional-law professor he once was. Yes, he said, the Second Amendment did imply a personal, individual right to bear arms—a "general principle" that might make a total ban such as D.C.'s problematic. As it happens, that's the NRA's considered opinion, too. Obama's ruling wasn't as vivid and colorful—or as loud—as a photo op at an Indiana Powder Shoot. But it was an argument worth considering.
You can buy Howard Fineman's book, "The Thirteen American Arguments," here.
Adapted from The Thirteen American Arguments by Howard Fineman, to be published by Random House on April 22.
© 2008
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Member Comments
Posted By: stematwork @ 04/24/2008 5:31:49 PM
Comment: younger voters will worship obama with all of their hearts.
younger voters will root out the evils of the elderly. can't have their experience screwing it up for the unseasoned amongst us.
younger voters will favor a new law that prohibits anyone from ataining age 31.
younger voters will live in a bubble and not realize that there is another world outside of their city of "hope"
younger voters will be thwarted by the one man who didn't buy into their idea of utopia.
LOGAN.
Run Logan, Run!
(these obama worshipers scare me. seriously.)
Posted By: jamrock66 @ 04/24/2008 3:22:40 PM
Comment: Younger voters will reosnate with Obama because we can identify with him, and in some way he understand that the major part of the problem in this country is Older folks. They are to be blamed for taking us down the road we are presently on. They lack vision and so they are now dampening our dream of a brighter future and a more unified America.
They fail to understand that if our future continues to be as bleak as they lay it out for us, then, their social security will be limited in scope and we will force them back into the stone age. Let's see how they like bread and water. As young people we will take back this country and prove to the rest of the world that we can unite and become masters of our own destiny.
Those old folks who are championing for the Clintons can forever continue to hold on to fading dreams. All this garbage about black and white is but a stench in a drifting wind that will eventually fade away. Obama gives hope to both Black and white, in that the presidency is now open to any child regardless of his family background. If we should look at Hilary we can see that everyone cannot identify with her, however every child, black white or brown can identify with Obama.
The future is ours to take and decide what direction we so choose to follow. Young people wake up and follow your dream, a dream for a better future, if the old fargies fail to see vision then I guarantee you it will be their loss.
Where there is no vision the people perish.
These are the days when young men will dream dreams and old men will see visions.
As young people we must refuse to carry the burden and anxiety that is attributed to racism a legacy from our forefathers. Let it go my people and you will experience tremendous growth.
Posted By: steve02001 @ 04/23/2008 6:31:34 PM
Comment: The facts are difficult things to ignore, but the Clintonistas and the Republicans keep on trying:
FACT 1: the math is simple, Clinton has to win by huge margins in ALL remaining primaries to pass Obama in the pledged delegates and popular vote, something she cannot do (example North Carolina and Oregon);
FACT 2: FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN DO NOT COUNT!!! it's the ultimate in Clinton arrogance for her to claim she won those states when the rest of the Democratic field followed the rules and did not run;
FACT 3: the GOP wants Clinton to keep on fighting and eventually win. Why? because the bloodier the battle the more negative sound bites they can get against each Dem candidate for the fall. Also Clinton as the Dem candidate is the only thing that would energize the Republican base and get them out to vote (it certainly is not their candidate); that's why Rush Limbaugh is urging his listeners to switch and vote for Clinton in the primaries (those right-wing Conservatives just can't help using Nixonian tactics, it's in their genes);
FACT 4: The polls show that the Pastor Wright issue and "bitter" comments did not hurt Obama.
FACT 5: Clinton is running out of money; yes she got a good bump from her latest win, but that will not be enough for her to cover Indiana, North Carolina and Oregon, all which she has to win, and which she cannot cover because of not enough money; Obama has $40 million and counting, to cover all 3 comfortably (and yes the money did matter in Penn., it cut Clinton's lead from 20 points, to a final margin of 9.2, that is a significant gain);
FACT 6: The mismanaged wars in Iraq/Afghanistan, the bad Economy, Bush's 28% approval rate, the Republican governing incompetence of the last 8 years, McCain's age, continuing gaffes and uninspiring personality, NO WAY, NO HOW, ARE THE REPUBLICANS GOING TO WIN IN 2008, you can take that to the bank. Americans were suckered in the last 2 elections, they have had enough, they want HOPE, they want COMPETENCE, they want CHANGE, they want OBAMA!