A Political Dynasty at Risk

It was great to see Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama today.  After the last few weeks of mudslinging and broken promises from the Clintons, and a week before "Super Duper Tuesday," this endorsement has exquisite timing.

Let's review:

• Bill Clinton obnoxiously opined that Obama's principled and consistent rejection of the Iraq imbroglio was a "fairy tale."
• Mr. Clinton associated Obama with Jesse Jackson in the wake of Obama's major win in South Carolina. This was clearly an attempt to taint Obama by association with the divisive Jackson, and not just an offhand comment (as the spinmeisters would have it). But while Jackson ran on the civil rights past, Obama hopes to build a better America for the future.
• Mrs. Clinton is furiously trying to secure Florida's delegates, even though all the major Democratic candidates pledged not to campaign in Florida because the state Democratic party held its primary earlier than the national party allowed. Of course Florida's delegates should be counted; the national party should get a grip. But fair is fair--everyone agreed not to campaign, even Hillary Clinton.

The root problem here is the Clintonian sense of entitlement. It's just like the Bush sense of entitlement, only with another party.  Obama is waging a historic campaign against such entrenched interests, and he may well lose.  But I'm delighted to be along for the ride, and I sure do hope he wins.

Comments

[Wevbo]

I agree with all of your analysis here. I would also add that I feel strongly that Bill Clinton's behavior is not Presidential. I am a pretty big fan of Bill Clinton's Presidency, but I feel that he is bound by the office to keep above the fray during election cycles (at least in public). You have to go back to Hoover's offhand comments about the private lives of Eleanor and FDR to find such blatant pandering and uncivil behavior from a former President during an election cycle.

[Chris]

Yes, Bill Clinton was obnoxious. Yes, the Clintons have a sense of entitlement. But what exactly does Obama have? The endorsements of people with even an even larger sense of entitlement - Teddy Kennedy, well known womanizer and alcholic, from a wealthy family that made its money on booze running and that has been trying to perpetuate a political dynasty for a century, and Oprah Winfrey, the queen of self relevation and pop psychology. Am I the only one who is cynical about the fact that Obama is running as the GREAT HOPE of African American, despite the fact that his mother is/was white and he was raised by HER parents. Furthermore, unlike the majority of African Americans, his black father is NOT the descendant of black slaves from West Africa, but hails from Kenya, that bastion of democracy, where postelection turmoil is settled with machetes.
I think Obama's oratory skills, peppered with references to 60s movements, have completely blindsided people to reality: he is an inexperienced young senator who has never really had to prove himself in the big league.

[Wevbo]

A young, inexperienced politician with at best urban and a little statewide experience, and a taste of national legislative experience, insisting he can assume the mantle of the Presidency? Sounds like Lincoln. Theodore Roosevelt. Harry Truman. To name three of the Presidents who consistently make the shortlist of Great American Presidents.

Some Presidents who proved themselves in the "big league" and went on to be mediocre or terrible Presidents: Hoover, Taft, Nixon, Johnson, Harding, Pierce. Clinton?

I admire Obama as a candidate--admire him as I have connected to no other President or Presidential candidate in my lifetime--because I believe that, as President, he will empower a coalition of young Americans to pursue a broad agenda of social change and policy innovation. For Hilary, such idealism is "a fairy tale," and for the Republicans it's anathema to their style of governing.

Policy-wise, Obama is as thoughtful and nuanced on the debate platform as any of his rivals. Look to his team of advisors, and how could he not be? But Obama also possesses the "vision thing" and rhetoric required of a President to inspire Americans to accomplish great things. They are not a predictor of a great Presidency, but are certainly its prerequisite. I want to work for the man, and I love America whenever I think of him representing it.