Obama in Iowa

The day before the Iowa caucuses, Michael Moore wrote an article in which he asked, “Do you feel the same as me? That the Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and that none of them are the 'slam dunk' we wish they were?”(1) Well, Michael, no! I do not feel that way! The Democratic field is remarkably strong this year, and promises to make history. We are likely to have either the first black president or the first woman president. The fact that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have viable shots at the White House is something that Democrats should be proud of—not because they are from traditionally underrepresented groups, but because they are both unquestionably qualified regardless of race or gender.

Furthermore, the regressive Republican wedge issues that have worked so well in the past seem to be falling flat now. The American people are fatigued from decades of Republican divisiveness. They are ready for a change. They are more than ready—they are demanding it.

The results of the Iowa caucuses were a surprise for both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Clinton’s campaign of “inevitability” did not work, and she will be scrambling to find a new strategy going forward. Edwards should only see this as a positive. He looked like a third-place candidate, but he beat Clinton. People find his “Two Americas” speech stirring, but it wasn’t quite stirring enough to beat Barack Obama’s message of hope.

Obama held the greatest appeal for voters looking for change. Hillary Clinton should find the spirit of change very familiar. In 1992, Bill Clinton ran on “change” versus George H.W. Bush’s “experience”, and won. In 2008, Obama’s “change” has a head start on Hillary’s “experience.” Though they were newcomers in the 1990s, the Clintons now represent the old guard in the Democratic Party. They are very intelligent, very knowledgeable, and also very manipulative. They depend on old Democratic alliances and the old tried-and-true campaigning methods.

Barack Obama represents the Young Turks in the party. George Lakoff reprinted Obama’s speech at pastor Rick Warren’s church(2) in the Rockridge Institute’s book Thinking Points. The speech is a prime example of good framing in political communication. George Lakoff is an underutilized commodity by the old guard Democrats. The Young Turks are not satisfied with the old alliances, and believe they can expand the base by framing progressive arguments for a broader appeal. They are not moving to the right, they are trying to move more people from the right toward them.

After eight years of George W. Bush being a divider, not a uniter, nobody wants another divider. Obama is not a wish-washy centrist that the Republicans will, according to Michael Moore, “eat … for breakfast.”(3) His message has been a progressive one, which is why so many young people find him so inspiring. Unlike John Edwards, Obama does want to be a coalition-builder, but with the purpose of advancing a progressive agenda. What Edwards fails to grasp, or at least fails talk about, is that he would have to build some Obama-like coalitions in order to implement his policies. I believe Hillary does understand that, but I am doubtful about her ability to build coalitions even if she wants to. She has not proved adept at it in the past.

The remaining Democratic hopefuls would like to paint Obama as the Rudy(4) of the 2008 campaign: all heart, no muscle. Hillary is running on her experience because she hopes it will appeal to pragmatic voters. The reality is, Obama is the pragmatic choice. A candidate that cannot build coalitions will not be able to implement his or her agenda. Hillary failed to get health care reform passed in 1993-1994 because she was unable to get the right people on board. The insurance lobby fired all their guns at her, and they won. Now, with health care becoming a crisis, a coalition-builder is precisely what is needed. Otherwise, we will fail to provide universal health care, and push the problem on to a future generation.

Since the efforts to brand Obama as soft have not worked, old guard Democrats have turned to electability. Barack Obama, in case you haven’t heard, is black. Who would vote against him because he’s black? Certainly not me! And of course not you! But you know all those closet racists out there will doom his candidacy. Michael Moore says “Obama lets us feel better about ourselves -- and as we look out the window at the guy snowplowing his driveway across the street, we want to believe he's changed, too. But are we dreaming?”(5) This, I hope, is a joke. My neighbor may be a racist, therefore I shouldn’t vote for an African-American candidate?

We all suspected that the Republicans would use Obama's race against him, but who would have expected Democrats to beat them to it? Moore's appeal to the "guy snowplowing his driveway across the street" advocates bending our political will to the latent racism of our neighbors.

Tucker Carlson has tried playing the race card, digging out an old document from Obama’s church.(6) The Trinity United Church of Christ published a short manifesto called the “Black Values System.”(7) Carlson claims that the Black Values System sounds “separatist.”(8) I have read the Black Values System, and I find it no more inflammatory than Bill Clinton’s speech in Memphis in 1993.(9) Is it OK for a white guy to tell a black church that they need to stand up for their own community, reject anti-intellectualism, and support families, but not OK for a black church to say the same thing? This is a bad tactic for the Republicans. If Obama gets the Democratic nomination, his people will be looking for any signs of Republicans mentioning race. If they play that game, we win.

People are not voting for a black president, they are voting for a good president. Iowans, in a state without a large African-American population, felt that Barack Obama could get the job done. Fears of the racist neighbor “snowplowing his driveway” are unfounded. It will be interesting to see if New Hampshire, a state that should theoretically favor Hillary Clinton, will follow suit. If so, next November we may be celebrating the election of a good president who is also black. And yes, we can celebrate making history, too.

© 2008 Bryan Lower

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