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Mar
20
From the Cleveland Jewish News that comes out tomorrow:
Jill Miller Zimon, an attorney and political blogger in Pepper Pike who describes herself as “not a big fan” of Clinton or Obama, didn’t think Obama approached the rhetorical power of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But she did praise the “speech’s content and the difficulty of the material” he addressed. In directly raising questions of race, Obama “demonstrated enormous leadership.”
While Obama’s speech “universalized important aspects of his life experiences,” Zimon believes some people will be critical that Obama didn’t distance himself from Wright completely. “In that way, it’s a lose/lose situation for Obama. Here is a man [Rev. Wright] who has done so much for him, and now Obama is expected to go on record” renouncing the pastor who married him and his wife and baptized his children.”
My other specific words were that I thought it is simply icky that we are in such a place, politics and expectations-wise, that he had to do that – to condemn this person. This isn’t to say that he shouldn’t condemn Wright, but it is to say that it outed his cognitive dissonance, publicly.
Who in their right mind really enjoys doing that, whether they are forced to or decide to on their own?
That’s how I saw it, anyway.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:26 pm March 20th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Culture, Elections, Media, Ohio, Politics, Religion, Social Issues, WH2008
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11 Responses to “WLST on the record in Cleveland Jewish News re: thoughts on Obama race speech”
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Now I’m starting to get depressed. Seriously depressed. Let’s just stick like glue to this issue until the Pennsylvania primary and then we can help assure that Hillary wins. Let’s not get to issues again….ever. Let’s pick it apart for a few more weeks. Apparently the television era has jaded us so much that our delivery of an honest, clear message and the courage of a candidate’s convictions are not enough. Seriously, depressed here……
Obama and Clinton both spoke to war vets on MTV today, I liked him, but he seems weary already. I actually love her; she spoke to specifics, very knowledgeable.
African Americans vote African American typically, I hate to say that because I hate to make generalities. Obama won urban Ohio, he has the African American votes he needs to speak to a wider audience, he attempted to but in part he failed to. If he was to say ultimately we all dictate our own destiny and the only way to address racism is the pursuit of individual excellence. Short and sweet, long an detailed comes back to haunt you.
He spoke very much as an esoteric and may lose some with that; in fact, he is beginning to look a bit egocentric to me. I still see risk in him he is not entirely pragmatic. I heard him say “typical white person today”, I thought are you giving up? He was addressing the comment he made in his speech about his grandmother using the N words. He said I used that to describe a typical white persons reaction. Was he assuming everyone heard his speech; the interview made him looks bad. I was offended that they took those words out of the content of the speech and about fell over at the way he addressed it. I typically seek out the speech to check the content this time there was no need, I had already heard the speech, I understood his message but also heard the way he addressed it out of content. Obama is good man but throw him a hard curve and it will hit him in the head and just about knock him out.
If he becomes president, the sound bite “typical white persons reaction” would be played over and over, presidents need to be careful these days, ever thing they say is recorded.
Kool! so you like McCain Jill?
King, it’s hard for me to imagine any scenario under which I would ever vote for John McCain. But feel free to conjure up one.
There seems to be a consensus among many bloggers and commentators that the biggest mistake Obama made was to speak to the American people as if they were intelligent adults, therefore the intent of the speech sailed above too many people’s heads. If this is true, we’re doomed as a nation. I listened to the entire speech live and the reaction afterward and I felt that his brave and honest attempt to address the race issue may have been our last best chance to have this discussion publicly. But the reactions in the aftermath of the speech have dismayed me. The hyenas of the right continue to tear at him saying he threw his grandmother under the bus. My father was one of the biggest racists I ever knew but he was still my father, despite all his faults. I could understand why he felt the way he did despite my revulsion of his baser instincts.
But in our kill or be killed political culture in this country, we can’t have an honest discussion about these issues. In that way, if this kills Obama, I guess we get the leaders we truly deserve.
I truly find this criticism of Obama using the words “typical white person” disingenuous. He stated she felt fear when passing a black man walking down the street. Is this not typical?
He also said she expressed racial stereotypes on a few occasions. A rarity in the white community?
If people would quit wasting so much time looking for the political correctness of certain phrasing and beging to look at the truth in the meaning of the words, we would all be better off.
By the way nice article Jill.
Well – let’s think about it this way for a minute:
People have said that Clinton isn’t the RIGHT woman. I tend to agree.
I think Obama is more “the right” first black or biracial or whatever people want to use to describe his blended background than Clinton is the right first woman – by a long shot. In many ways, he’s the perfect first such person and represents us well in so many ways.
But again – being first isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Think about how many times other barriers had to be broken, and the toll it took on the individuals and everyone else, in order to break that barrier to the point where the end result was gained – the sportsworld is probably a very good example of this. But academia, the tech field and so on.
It’s like being the break water wall – it gets battered and it has built to take it – Hurricane Category 1 or Category 5.
Then what do you do?
You need support – a lot of support. You also need a break.
But when the wind beating at you isn’t as whimsical as the patterns circling the globe but rather planning and strategizing opponents, you won’t get that break and you are going to need even more support.
In elections, that support comes in the form of money and people and votes.
I wondered earlier this morning why people want Edwards and others to just please endorse someone. Readers know that I refused to be beaten back by that call – I wanted to protect my right to change my mind and so on.
And even this morning I was about to post something about why why why do people keep pressing others to make endorsements.
But now I see why, at least one reason why: because when someone is feeling the blows harder and harder, they need that support more and more.
It is absolutely unacceptable to me to think that neither Clinton nor Obama will win the general. But without support, it’s not going to happen.
As for the cerebral nature of Obama’s speech – it had to be that way. That is him, anything less would not sound genuine. I agree that it’s of a higher level than some people can grasp – but the nature of the issue is that way too. His making it universal with example after example simplifies it, but if people aren’t ready to hear it, they will get defensive immediately. That’s the danger of any kind of intervention technique and that’s exactly what he was employing in the issue of race.
I think we’ll be looking back at his speech for years, maybe decades, but any immediate impact? If immediate means between now and November, I am afraid that might not be possible. We’ll see – it goes back to support – if support comes in behind him, could work sooner rather than later.
How’s that sound?
I think the speech would have been more meaningful if he had made it a priority earlier (instead of merely vague platitudes about bringing us together) and not just when his back was against the wall to explain himself out of a politically sticky situation.
Yes, there were many well-written and well-spoken words, although it raised more questions than it answered about Barack Obama, and I’m having trouble with the apparent contradiction that all these people must be excused for being stuck in their 1960′s mindsets when we are supposedly in a post-racial, post-partisan era. So which is it?
Susan, you make good points.
As for why some people are stuck in the 60s mindset and yet others feel we’re supposedly in a post-racial era, I was just describing it this morning like this: it’s like we’re stuck in the midst of a beam me up scene: not entirely visible or present in any particular place but rather in the middle of our particles being broken down and in need of being re-constituted, or whatever the Star Trekkie word is.
A pretty uncomfy place to be no matter how you word it.
Jill, I understand what you’re trying to say. And I think it would be a lot easier on all of us in this transition phase if we could be more tolerant of ambiguity (admit that things are in flux and we’re not sure where we’re headed) instead of breaking down into factions fighting each other over who has the right answers. But that goes against human nature, I suppose.
I think I was madder at myself because I can’t stay away from this issue lol. Okay, I think we are not stuck in a sixties mindset, but instead are stuck in our current day mindset about race. In reality, and after much thought, it’s much better to be dealing with this issue than hiding it away. I think Jill you may have been saying all those trekkie parts were current mindset? I got a bit lost but that’s how I interpreted it. PS: I found hamantashen on the West side, after much looking!