Is Obama Ready?

A popular topic of conversation this year has been whether America is ready for Barack Obama as our next president.  It began as a philosophical debate amongst political junkies but, as his campaign gained momentum, it quickly became the subject du jour at water coolers and bus stops around the country.  Every amateur pundit has an opinion on whether Obama is truly a post-racial candidate, if voters tell the truth in exit polls, and if Alabama, Pennsylvania has evolved far enough to step into the booth and cast a vote for a black man.  These are all fair questions and perfectly germane to the contest at hand.  

But I'm not sure they are the most important question.  What we really need to know is, is Barack Obama ready to be President of the United States?  More specifically, is he ready to do what it takes to be elected president?

He has much of the process down pat.  His campaign speeches are marvelous flights of oratory, reducing students and disaffected independents to a weak-kneed euphoria as they queue up to add their name to his mailing list, thereby making themselves available for thrice-weekly requests for online campaign donations.  His website is state-of-the-art, pleasing to the eye and easily navigable;  a Mac to Hillary's PC.  It has grown into the biggest cash cow political fund-raising has ever seen.  He moves through crowds with the easy grace of an athlete, making eye contact, reaching out, shaking hands -- connecting.  His wife is now on point after a bit of a rough start.  She's not a natural politician and it shows, but she has learned on the job and is now a definite asset out on the trail.  

These are all crucial to a successful campaign.  But they're all above-the-fray kinds of achievements.  Obama brought the big brain and charisma with him when he entered the race.  With Axelrod supplying the message and Plouffe the strategy, his macro-success could, on some level, be predicted.  He is, after all, a singularly talented political animal.

But one begins to wonder if he is really willing to roll his sleeves up and get dirty.  To do the things necessary to get people on the upper-east side of Manhattan and Jupiter, Florida and Muncie, Indiana and South-Central Los Angeles and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico to all vote for the same candidate.  Being smart and principled isn't enough.  Having a vision of ending the divisive politics we've become accustomed to isn't enough.  Energizing an entire generation of new voters won't get it done either.

No, voters demand more.  They want their backs scratched.  They want their palms greased.  A little pander goes a long way.  Clinton understands it.  So does McCain.  The vacation from gasoline taxes they're promoting is a farce.  When all is said and done, it will have saved the average consumer a half tank of gas over the summer, while costing the highway trust fund about $9 billion and the construction industry some 300,000 jobs.  

Doesn't matter.  It's about telling the people in front of you what they want to hear, then hopping on a plane and flying somewhere else to tell those people the something different that they want to hear.  Workers in Texas feel differently about NAFTA than unemployed workers in Ohio.  That's not a problem for Hillary.  Maverick Candidate John McCain is against torture and the Bush tax cuts.  Until he becomes Nominee John McCain and needs his party's right wing.  Then he favors making the Bush cuts permanent and exempting the CIA from the Army's Field Manual guidelines for the questioning of detainees.  Not a problem.

It's not just a question of policies.  Obama seems uncomfortable acting as someone he's not.  He comes across as elitist to some because he refuses to dumb down his game.  He's naturally eloquent, he's dragging around an Ivy League education, he's written two best-sellers and he's a United States senator.  Clinton has the same resume -- well, the eloquence might be a stretch -- but she's perfectly willing to play the part of good ol' boy across small-town America.  She's out there eatin' the corn dogs, drinkin' the whiskey and promising them that good times are right around the corner.  Have you seen Obama's face when he's offered yet another chocolate donut at some factory in Pennsylvania?  His expression reminds me of the look on George Bush's face  every time he gets stuck entertaining some indigenous African tribe and they invite him to join them in their ancient fertility dance.  I'll bet Obama hasn't eaten a chocolate donut since he quit smoking dope back in college.  You watch him scrimmaging with the University of North Carolina basketball team and it looks like he could run full-court for an hour.  Hillary, on the other hand, appears to have added about thirty pounds to the seat of her pants.  (I'm no fashion bug but somebody needs to tell her, less with the pink and orange pantsuits, more with something in a slimming black.  Maybe a nice Anne Taylor jacket and skirt.)  

Why Americans have come to require a president they'd feel comfortable having a beer with is beyond me.  Or one that can pick up a 7-10 split down at the local bowling alley.  It wasn't always this way.  FDR was born into one of the richest families in New York, grew up riding, shooting and playing polo and lived in luxury while attending Harvard.  JFK grew up in mansions along the Hudson River and Hyannisport, attended The Choate School and sailed on the SS Normandie to study at the London School of Economics.  No one seemed to hold their upbringings against them.  Me, I like a president with a sense of style.  And smart.  Really smart.  The more books he's read and tests he's aced, the better.  As Jon Stewart puts it, "the job you're applying for, if it goes well?  They might carve your head into a mountain!"

Look, I don't want to sound elitist and out-of-touch and patronizing.  But expecting a presidential candidate to be able to blend in at a tractor pull is f*@king stupid.  No regular guy or gal is wired to run for president.  Do you think Billy Bob, Jr. would be comfortable hosting a state dinner for the Sarkozy's?  Then why should the next president have to fit in at the 4-H club?  

Obama is struggling in the red states because, as much as anything else, he is different.  Not just different from Reagan democrats, but different from most presidential politicians.  He's young.  He's black.  He's basically liberal but seems non-partisan by nature.  He's unwilling to deny who he is and where he came from.  It's one of the reasons he has had such difficulty divorcing himself from Jeremiah Wright.  Trinity United and Wright obviously played a major role in molding the man Obama is today and he has been loath to cast them aside.  His former pastor had to take his show on the road, attacking Obama before the national press as just another hypocritical politician before Obama said, "enough."  And even then, although his anger and disappointment were palpable at his press conference, his basic decency and capacity for forgiveness remained evident.  He still would not say the break was irrevocable.  Just that the relationship had changed.  He did not denounce the man, finally, but his propositions, his statements.  He left open the possibility, somewhere down the line, of reconciliation.

He's a complex man.  America doesn't appreciate complexity in their presidential campaigns.  We want our candidate to pull up a stool, grab a beer and say, "Hey, buddy, I'm just like you.  Tell me your problems and I'll fix them."  

Well, Obama's not just like us.  He could pretend that he is, but it wouldn't make it so.  He's different.  That's why I'm voting for him.