The Appeal of Obama

My seven year old son is a budding Presidential scholar and until recently was a strident Obama fan. Not unlike most adults who support the Senator, my son struggled to explain his affinity. When speaking to a group of young professionals about the 2008 elections, I admitted it is difficult for one to dislike Obama: he looks presidential, he walks presidential, he has a presidential posture, he’s articulate, inspiring, has a wholesome family and he’s black. Almost immediately someone from the audience quipped, “and for all those reasons, I like him.” You no doubt have seen the various videos circulating on the internet in which Barack supporters, both paid surrogates and people attending his rallies were unable to provide substantive reasons for their support. (those videos can be viewed HERE and HERE). Hillary Clinton, his chief opponent, has suggested that Obama has not been forthright about his plans for America and that his experience is less then admirable. Barack has argued that opponents who raise these considerations are implying “that the people who have been voting for [him] or involved in [his] campaign are somehow delusional.”

Perhaps not. It occurred to me that his supporters may simply lack the words to explain what seems to me a vexing cry for Presidential statesmanship. I am beginning to believe that the ground swell of excitement surrounding Obama springs forth out of American dissatisfaction with the paucity of statesmanship in Washington. Our country has not been well represented at the Presidential level for nearly twenty years to date. Two scandalous Bill Clinton terms were followed by eight years in which there was truly a dearth of refined gracefulness in the White House, the likes of which has left many Americans avid for respectability. Hmmm…sixteen years of the Beverly Hillbillies: the requisite consequence of electing two men from Arkansas and Texas respectively. Many Americans seem determined to elect someone to the presidency who possesses a quality that is actually worthy of the presidency.

A decision that has to date trumped concerns about his ambiguous past, his apparent liberal worldview and his dubious associations. I am not as concerned about the executive experience of a man who is a double ivy leaguer and who has run a pretty efficient national campaign. However, unlike a native-reared new face, Americans have the challenge of contextualizing Obama in a narrow space of time. We do not have the luxury of visiting his home town, running down his classmates, nor do most Americans have a point of reference for life in Indonesia. That is to ask, how has his cultural, religious and geographic context framed his principles, his temperament and his judgment? His associations seem not unlike the questionable associations of other politicians. However, Obama’s relatively new relationship with the American public intensifies concerns as we scramble to contextualize him. But it is his liberal worldview that most concerns me: his conviction that our health care system requires a government take over; his insistence, during an ongoing war, on announcing our immediately retreat upon his presidency and the 286 billion dollar invoice he plans to send the American people to fund his entitlement programs.

I opened this article by admitting that Obama is likable because he looks presidential, he walks presidential, he has a presidential posture, he’s articulate, inspiring, has a wholesome family and he’s black. I don’t mind a presidential black man, but I’m not voting for a presidential black man, just because he’s a presidential black man. It is imperative we not elevate the aesthetic above the reasonable in our attempt to restore elegance, class, and statesmanship to the presidency.

- C. Jerome Ruth