"Not Yet" - A Cartoon

I waited a week, for tempers to cool.  I also read and re-read Obama's speech, trying to figure out what bugged me so much.  When I first heard it,  I was completely cynical about it.  I have no doubt that comes from my point of view as a Clinton supporter.  I even started to write a diary giving it a word-by-word autopsy.  But you know what?  It was a good speech. He said wonderful things.  What I first heard as "it's really okay, because I'm mostly white" was NOT what was said.  He talked about his mother's family, not to make himself more acceptable, but to draw important comparisons.  BUT, and yes, this is a big "but," WHY did he make the speech?  And this is where he loses me.

I wrote a diary last week called "I Have a Dream" or "Checkers".  My problem, you see, is not the speech itself.  My problem is why it was given.  Barack Obama has had the spotlight for years now, from the moment he finished giving the keynote address in 2004.  But from then to merely two weeks ago, he has run as the "post-racial" candidate.  It is an interesting concept, it sounded great to whites who are "tired of hearing about race," and to blacks, who "want to get past race."  But it is not reality. We are not in "post-racial America."  Race continues to infect everything we touch, from who gets a job to which nations we save from genocide.  Obama, though, would not touch it.  His reasons had nothing to do with a "post-racial America," for such a creature did not exist.  He would not touch it because he did not want to be "the black candidate" for President.  That's it.  That was his reason.  Plain and simple.

When given a chance to lead for the sake of others, he stayed in the middle of the parade.  Sure, he played the trombone, or even the big bass drum in the band, but what we really needed was somebody willing to pick up the baton.

When the Jena 6 were jailed for the crime of fighting back while black, Obama was not out front. He was not the man with the baton.  He had to be shamed by Jesse Jackson into saying more than African Americans have come "90 percent of the way" in the struggle for justice.  He played it safe, trying to be the "post-racial" candidate in a racial society.  If he really wanted change, he did not want it then, and that was the time to lead.

Obama, in his speech, also spoke of the other side of the racial divide, about white people's fears and concerns.  I am a white person, and that sounded like pandering to me, but perhaps it was something that needed to be addressed.  If it did, why wasn't it addressed until his campaign was in trouble. Why did he not climb the podium and make his clarion call in the midst of the Duke rape case, an absurd travesty fueled by the very same racial divide?  Could anybody believe we were in "post-racial America," or that anybody could really be the "post-racial candidate," in the midst of that mess?  Did he take up the baton and lead?  No.  Sure, he played in the band, maybe a quiet piccolo in the form of a constituent letter, but that was all.

What bothered me about Obama's speech was not Obama.  It was the myth of Obama. The myth is that he is different, that he is not just the "post-racial" candidate, but also the "post-partisan," perhaps even the "post-political," candidate.  He is not.  His speech was political survivorship at its very best.  It was "Checkers," not "I Have a Dream."  

Many argued to me, "yes, he needed to make a speech, but not THAT speech."  The real heroism, they say, was in what he said, and in what he didn't say.  "He could have thrown Wright under the bus," they say.  No, he could not.  His speech was as careful a triangulation, as careful a balancing of the needs of his African American constituency, which would NOT have accepted such an act, against the desires and fears of white Americans.  He did it well, like the brilliant politician that he is.  However, if Obama is seen as merely a great politician, rather than something more, his myth is shattered.  The strongest thing he has going for him is the idea that Clinton is the consumate "politician," while he "transcends politics."  

When it was time to lead, Barack Obama said "Not Yet."  When it was his own campaign on the line, and only then, Barack Obama said "Now."  

P.S. Whether you like the message or not, you've got to admit, pretty good 'toon of Obama.