Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Barack Obama on race relations more than three years ago
All the discussion about Barack Obama and race relations suddenly reminded me of a post I wrote in November 2004. I had heard Don Imus (of all people) interview Obama just after his election to the Senate. This is what I wrote:
In any case, I picked up a couple of things from the interview. First, Sen-elect Obama came out strongly for charter schools, which is a huge issue for me and a thumb in the eye of the teachers unions. True, he did not support vouchers, but for a Democrat that is a third rail -- the equivalent of coming out in favor of partial-birth abortions for a Republican.
Second, Obama made a lot of thoughtful observations about progress in race relations in this country, and particularly said that he thought that "those who say there has been no progress" are not being helpful, because they destroy the hope that race relations can improve.
Third, he was funny when he might have been sanctimonious, which is a wonderful trait in a politician. Imus asked Obama about the racial questions swirling around the Monday Night Football kerfuffle, and whether the reaction of the public would have been the same had Halle Berry dropped her towel rather than Nicollette Sheriden. Going from memory here: Obama said the reaction would be different, but only because nobody could possibly object to seeing Halle Berry in a towel.
This guy is going places.
Somebody needs to ask Senator Obama whether the Rev. Wright is one of those who "destroys the hope" that race relations can improve.
And, by the way, there is no mention on his presidential campaign's web site of his strong support for charter schools, which are a big no-no for the unions that need public schools organized as bloated monopolies rather than in competition with one another.
What happened to that Barack Obama? The Democratic Party's lefter wing did him in.
UPDATE: Actually, on a closer read of Obama's speech, I've decided that part of this post is unfair. Obama did, in effect, say that Rev. Wright does destroy the hope that race relations can improve.
2 Comments:
By 
Escort81, at
Tue Mar 18, 11:51:00 PM:
It is interesting that it's possible for a Democratic politician to be pro-charter schools at the local level (and Obama was not a national politician until 2004), because they hear from their constituents who want such schools. Also, the local chapter of the teachers' union may not be that powerful (I don’t know about the union in Chicago). But a national politician cannot mess with the union – something like 1 in 5 of the delegates to the 2004 Democratic convention were unionized teachers – a third rail indeed.
As to whether “the Democratic Party's lefter wing did him in,” or whether Obama’s politics have always fit nicely with the “Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party” is a timely question. It is quite difficult to know the answer. To what extent has his faith and practice in a Liberation Theology church informed his politics (setting aside for the moment his Pastor’s troubling comments and apparent political beliefs, which I do not believe Obama largely shares)? My sense is that he would be the most progressive modern Democrat ever elected, should he win.
However, except for the ability to make war, which presumably a President Obama would be disinclined to do, I am not sure how powerful the office is anymore (at least in a primary sense, which is to say that the appointment of judges to another branch of government, especially to the SCOTUS, can have quite a lasting and powerful secondary effect), so I don’t think he can go all FDR on the country. Granted, that power would be greatly enhanced by his party having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a solid majority in the House. If that (President Obama + 60 Democrat Senators + Democratic House majority of perhaps 30) happens as a result of the 2008 elections, it would be a stunning rebuke of the Bush presidency and its effects on what had been a very closely divided country – it would be at least as historic as the 1994 midterm elections that swung 54 seats and gave the Republicans their first majority in the House in 40 years.
By 
, at
Wed Mar 19, 09:29:00 PM:
Bravo on the update, TH. Your fair-mindedness makes you one of the few conservative bloggers who makes an actual contribution to rational discourse.
-mattt
