Mr. Cool's Intensity - a Post column on Obama

"Yes, we know what's coming. I'm not naive," Obama said in the North Carolina speech. "We've already seen it . . . pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy, in the hopes that the media will play along."

That's the message: Attack me; attack my pastor; attack my wife; bring it on. I'm ready.

The quote is from a piece entitled, as is this diary, Mr. Cool's Intensity by David Ignatius, whose Washington Post columns are often about international affairs.  The column is interesting in what it has to say about Obama.  I will explore it a bit, and per usual, offer a few thoughts of my own.
Ignatius begins by quoting the part of the NC victory speech in which Obama acknowledges his lack of perfection, something with which the columnist agrees, but then notes

But he has demonstrated the most mysterious and precious gift in politics, which is grace under pressure.

He didn't wear his patriotism on his lapel with an American flag pin; he didn't promptly disown his race-baiting former pastor, Jeremiah Wright; he didn't apologize for comments by his wife, Michelle, that many Americans found unpatriotic. You can say what you like about the substance of these positions, but the interesting fact is that Obama didn't flinch.

And Ignatius may be the first columnist, certainly the first I have seen, to grasp something quite important:

Many whites are furious that he didn't throw Wright overboard sooner, but blacks surely like him all the more for resisting the pressure. And there's an instinctive American fondness for people who don't rat out their friends, even when their friends are creeps. That's why a Wright-based strategy may backfire for the Republicans, just as it did for Hillary Clinton.

Ignatius reminds of us the choice Obama made after Harvard Law, but does so in the context of his work in Chicago, his ability to straddle divides

between black and white, between rich and poor, between Harvard and the streets. That's still the essence of his appeal: I am the person who can bring America together because I contain within myself all of its contradictions.

And Ignatius offers an interesting observation about the relationship with Jeremiah Wright, that Obama's concern was that the Reverend was too bourgeois, not radical enough:

Obama says that he told Wright at their first meeting that he worried "that the church is too upwardly mobile." He didn't want to be surrounded by "buppies" -- black urban professionals -- who had the lesser goal of making money.

Ignatius offers the observation of writer, literary and jazz critic Albert Murray from his book The Omni-Americans:  New Perspectives on Black Experience and American Culture that the African-American experience

pointed in every direction at once -- toward anger and healing, toward rage at America and a patriotism that has led blacks to serve in disproportionate numbers in the military, toward the paradox of hating America and being intensely loyal to it.

Perhaps that is part of the reason some have been so uncomfortable about Obama's candidacy.  He is a Black man who acknowledges the anger of many Blacks - the older people who lived through the struggle to overcome the blatant discrimination of previous periods as well as younger people who still experience elements of prejudice and fear, whether stopped for DWB, or being unable to get a taxicab, or seeing fear on the face of whites if they use Black English or perhaps surprise that they can speak perfectly proper Standard American English.  But he is not himself angry.  He understands but does not find it necessary to attack or denigrate those Whites still driven by fear and uncertainty about Blacks - remember the tale about his white grandmother for which some criticized him, but which helps us understand his own mentality.  

Obama approaches politics in a different fashion than most who write about it have previously experienced.  And his approach seems to be a near-perfect fit for an election cycle that itself is very different, that difference also confusing many who comment about politics in print or electronically.  

And for all his reiteration of the phrase from Dr. King of "the fierce urgency of now" he has displayed a remarkable sense of patience, not finding it necessary to take the approach used to such good effect by the 1992 Clinton campaign of striking back with a counterattack before a complete news cycle could pass.  Of course, since nowadays the news cycle is continuous, the willingness to step back and let the full force of the attacks and negative observations build has enabled him to use his "cool" as a form of Judo, or even better, Aikido. According to Wikipedia, Morihei Ueshiba developed Aikido as a synthesis of religous beliefs, philosophy and his martial arts studies into something one could label as the Way of the Harmonious Spirit:

Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury.

This WILL make many uncomfortable.  Those running against Obama may get frustrated that the kinds of attacks that worked in previous campaigns fail so miserably to diminish him.  Others who have been conditioned to believe that only a candidate who attacks back with equal or greater force can succeed are disoriented (in the media) because their predictions about what will happen turn out to be so inaccurate or scared (many lower information voters) who absent a traditional counterattack tend to buy in to the original attack upon Obama.  The column by Ignatius demonstrates that some high-profile media types are beginning to understand how different this candidacy is.  And is my expectation that as the campaign continues, as Obama consistently demonstrates what I would label as his political Aikido, more and more will overcome their own fear and disorientation and begin to attach their own aspirations to his candidacy.  

It was easiest to do for young people, who were not so set in their own political perceptions and reactions, and hence were ready recipients of his message and approach.  It also was somewhat easier for those who had NOT been active politically, and hence not as conditioned in their reactions.  His words cut through the normal political noise.  And those words are a necessary part of his ability to reach people.

It will be interesting to watch press reactions as it is now clear that Obama will be the nominee -  the fear of many - in the media, among professional politicians, in the chattering classes in general - that somehow the Clintons would find a way against all odds to still come back and "win" this thing is now rapidly dissolving, and people are beginning to recalibrate their observations and commentary.

Ignatius is a voice of some influence - he, like Gene Robinson, has served both as an Associate Editor of the Washington Post and an important columnist.  And he is not alone in attempting to offer an assessment of the Obama candidacy that goes beyond the traditional political evaluations to which we have been subjected for far too much of this campaign.   That does not mean that we have as yet seen as much of a change in political coverage as Obama has demonstrated in political campaigning, but any such change magnifies the effectiveness of Obama's approach.

And I thought some people who might not otherwise read Ignatius might benefit from today's column, hence this diary.

Peace.  

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