It Might Have Worked

Lack of accomplishment as an academic, then as a state senator and finally as a US senator might seem a bit of a hurdle to most of us if we were to contemplate running for president. But not for Obama and not for his handlers. Why? Because of what the campaign perceives to be a trump card - the application of race (or the preferred half for this purpose) to apply leverage. Sure enough, he’s hard at work: "...what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know." Or, "He’s young and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?" Or even in Berlin, where he tried to highlight that he was the first black American to address an audience there (forgetting Rice and Powell before him).

Obama’s strategy is straightforward - delegitimize any line of attack. That is, no charge against Obama can be made innocent of racial bias. That’s why his lack of qualification is not key, is not a major concern to his campaign. Don’t worry about the normal political back-and-forth; it’s illegitimate; the guy is above criticism.

How exactly did Obama plan to turn his blackness to advantage? From Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institute, "The answer is that one ‘bargains.’ Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in America, that enables them to put whites at their ease. Bargainers like Obama make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America’s history of racism on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer’s race against him. And whites love the bargain – and feel affection for the bargainer–because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. Unlike Jackson and Sharpton who intimidated and demanded, Obama instead flatters whites, grants them racial innocence and hopes to ascend on the back of their gratitude."

Sure enough, Obama’s policy positions are nothing but DNC boilerplate. He has not espoused one original or galvanizing political idea. He is unable to say what he means by "change" or "hope" or "the future," and failed to say how he would be "a unifier." He has a track record with a near vacuity of content, BUT, none of this matters! Because as Steele illustrates, "Race... lifts his political campaign to the level of allegory, making it the stuff of a far higher drama than budget deficits or education reform (or even national security we might add). His dark skin...frames the political contest as a morality play. Thus, for whites here is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shame of their forbearers."

Well, nice try Obama but quite likely your game is up. This strategy will fail on most Americans for the simple reason that it has been over played. As our own Vic Hansen observes, "The voter is now starting to hear serially from Obama about race; they were promised a racially transcendent candidate, but now Obama seems obsessed with identity, either accusing others of racism, or using heritage himself for political advantage. This is a tragic blunder."

Robert Craven