Megan McArdle on the election:
Even if you don't like Barack Obama, I think you should be happy that the country has, with really very little fuss, nominated a black man with a very good shot at the presidency.Regardless of what you think about Obama, this is indeed a wonderful thing. Ezra Klein has more thoughts on this:
Towards the end of the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Dr. John Wane Prentice, played by Sydney Poitier, sits down with his fiance's white father, played by Spencer Tracy. "Have you given any thought to the problems your children will have?" Tracy asks. "Yes, and they'll have some...[But] Joey feels that all of our children will be President of the United States," replies Poitier. "How do you feel about that?" asks Tracy, looking skeptically at the black man in front of him. "I'd settle for Secretary of State," Poitier laughs.
Written in the late-1960s, the exchange was, indeed, laughable. The Civil Rights Act had been passed three years prior. Two years before, the Watts riots had broken out, killing 35. Martin Luther King Jr. would be assassinated a year later. But here we are, almost exactly 40 years after theatergoers heard that exchange. The last two Secretaries of State were African-American and, as of tonight, the next president may well be a black man. John Prentice's children would probably still be in their late-30s. They could still grow up to be cabinet officials or even presidents, but they would not necessarily be trailblazers.
This is a tremendous change that all Americans of all races should celebrate. As Ezra points out, this isn't just a Democratic change or a Republican change, it's an American change that we should all be proud of.
2 comments:
I don't know. I'm pretty much not proud of this one. And the reason I'm not proud of this is because a lot of me, dare I say it, thinks that the only real reason Barack Obama has won this nomination is because he is black. I'm not racist. But honestly, what does the man have going for him? He has done NOTHING. We have a situation where he has spent a total of 4 years on the national scene. He has no major legislative accomplishments. He has no proof for the words that come out of his mouth.
This makes me pretty sad actually. I think our country is so enamored with electing a black president who can talk a lot about "change" that we have forgoten what it means to have a qualified leader in the Oval Office. The hardest thing about this, for me, as a minority, is thinking that people are so SHOCKED that a black man can be smart and charismatic and a good speaker (all these thing Barack Obama is) that they are willing to put aside the necessary qualifying standards for president.
Honestly, he doesn't deserve to be where he is.
Barack Obama is easily the most talented politician of an entire generation.
If one takes time to actually read his policy positions and his speeches, not to mention his books, one realizes that he is a brilliant mind.
His communication skills are not to be belittled; one of the most important jobs of a president is to communicate to then nation.
Indeed, all great presidents have been great communicators. There is a reason for that.
At this point in time it would be nice to have a president who could inspire the people; we've lacked that for way too long.
As for his experience; his record in the Senate is one of great accomplishment for the amount of time spent there, and in fact is more substantive than Hillary Clinton's.
And there is no correlation between formal experience and presidential performance. Some of our greatest presidents had little formal experience; some of our worst had much.
Obama is like a prodigy; Mozart didn't have as much experience as Salieri, yet was far greater.
Electing Obama would do wonders in terms of restoring America's relationship and image with the rest of the world.
Quite frankly, it is astonishingly ignorant for anyone to imply that Obama's race made it so easy for him to get to this point.
I would dare anyone to start out in life with Obama's story and see how far they would get.
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