septbride2002
"TO MILE 9!!!"
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2003
- Messages
- 5,472
Rolling Stone
Barack Obama
The new senator from Illinois came out of nowhere and established himself as the future of the Democratic Party. Now he has to actually do something
In a year of crushing disappointment for the Democratic Party, one bona fide superstar emerged, the freshly elected Illinois senator Barack Obama, who jumped from the obscurity of the Illinois state senate to the national stage. Though still untested, Obama seems to have it all: the looks, the passion, the natural ability to connect. And then there's the fascinating provenance: a black father from Kenya, a white mother from Kansas. The forty-three-year old has ruled out running for the presidency next time, leaving party leaders with not much else to do but sit around asking each other how much longer until 2012.
You are often referred to as the rising star of the Democratic Party, in large part because you've proved your appeal to voters on both sides of the party line. Describe your ability to reach a broad base of voters.
I shared a million voters with George Bush. Those voters think that George Bush's agenda was superior to John Kerry's agenda but nevertheless were willing to vote for me. It was astonishing.
What did those people see in you?
I'm comfortable in my own skin. People get a sense of authenticity from me that cuts across ideological lines. I reject the slash-and-burn, scorched-earth politics that has become the custom in Washington. I stick to my principles without resorting to cheap political tricks. Voters appreciate those things, whether they are Republican or Democrat.
Are you worried that you've rocketed to fame almost overnight and yet your career in Washington hasn't even started?
Are you saying I'm set for a fall?
No, but you must wonder if you've peaked too early. The media like to burn through their heroes quickly.
I don't mean to insult you, but the media can only drag you down if you take it seriously.
What advice do you have for people who feel hopeless after the Kerry loss?
Get over it. Go to the movies, go to the park, go on a date -- get some perspective. Losing an election is not a tragedy. Tra-gedies are my mom getting cancer at fifty-three and dying in six months. Politics in this country has always gone through cycles. There is a constant battle between inclusiveness and exclusiveness, between xenophobia and a more expansive view of what our role in the world is, between a generosity of spirit and a narrow self-interest. Dr. King had a wonderful saying: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." If you look at the trajectory of America, it's bent toward justice. But it's not perfectly consistent.
You're very levelheaded about all this. Don't you ever get pissed about the Bush administration's policies?
I think there are times when it angers me, but I don't think of George Bush as the devil incarnate. He sincerely believes in what he's doing and it's good for the country, but clearly the strategy and approach they are taking don't take the facts into account.
We are going to lose some battles, but the most important thing is not to get disheartened. Now more than ever people have to feel a sense of determination.
Are you thinking about Obama '08?
It is not going to happen. I don't intend to run for president in the next election.
Is the country going to get increasingly polarized in the next four years?
I think people are overstating the differences in the country. There is a faction on the right that is very absolutist and there's a portion of the left that is the same way, demonizing the other side. And then there are eighty percent of people in the middle.
Why did the Democrats lose?
The Democratic Party has not told a good story. What we have are a series of policy prescriptions to solve particular issues. We have our environmental position and our labor position and our health-care position, but we don't have a narrative. And the Republicans do.
Doesn't your party have more serious work to do than learning how to tell a story?
Coming up with a narrative is not just PR, it's hard intellectual and spiritual work. The biggest challenge for us is to figure out, what do we believe? All too often we defend the status quo against what we consider to be the assaults of the Republicans. Our labor agenda is to protect labor laws that were written in 1937. Our environmental agenda is to protect thirty-year-old laws. Our education agenda is to protect schools that were built to train our children for an industrial America, without addressing how to redesign these schools for postindustrial America.
Who are your heroes?
My heroes are people who engaged in transformative politics, who changed how people thought about their lives and the scope of their concern -- Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King. People who struggled not only with right vs. wrong but right vs. right. They struggled with values that are difficult and contradictory.
What transformative changes are required right now?
The challenge that we face now in some ways is even more complicated: How do we integrate a world economically, culturally, politically, while still valuing life on a human scale? Just in economic terms, for example, how do you have global free trade that doesn't lead to wages all settling at the lowest common denominator? How do you create a global economy in which you have a few gazillionaires and everybody else on the wage scale of China and Bangladesh?
What would most surprise people to learn about you?
Probably that I'm a failed jock. I love basketball, but my love for the game always exceeded my talents. I was pretty good but never really good. Also, I'm a reformed smoker; I think that surprises people. I quit, but then during the campaign when you're in a car driving through cornfields, occasionally I bum a cigarette or two. But I did all my drinking in high school and college. I was a wild man. I did drugs and drank and partied. But I got all my ya-yas out.
AMANDA GRISCOM LITTLE
______________________________________________________
I thought this was a great article! As a resident of St. Louis, MO we actually had a lot of news coverage on Obama's election since we also do news for parts of central Illinois. I think he is going to become a fine leader.
~Amanda
Barack Obama
The new senator from Illinois came out of nowhere and established himself as the future of the Democratic Party. Now he has to actually do something
In a year of crushing disappointment for the Democratic Party, one bona fide superstar emerged, the freshly elected Illinois senator Barack Obama, who jumped from the obscurity of the Illinois state senate to the national stage. Though still untested, Obama seems to have it all: the looks, the passion, the natural ability to connect. And then there's the fascinating provenance: a black father from Kenya, a white mother from Kansas. The forty-three-year old has ruled out running for the presidency next time, leaving party leaders with not much else to do but sit around asking each other how much longer until 2012.
You are often referred to as the rising star of the Democratic Party, in large part because you've proved your appeal to voters on both sides of the party line. Describe your ability to reach a broad base of voters.
I shared a million voters with George Bush. Those voters think that George Bush's agenda was superior to John Kerry's agenda but nevertheless were willing to vote for me. It was astonishing.
What did those people see in you?
I'm comfortable in my own skin. People get a sense of authenticity from me that cuts across ideological lines. I reject the slash-and-burn, scorched-earth politics that has become the custom in Washington. I stick to my principles without resorting to cheap political tricks. Voters appreciate those things, whether they are Republican or Democrat.
Are you worried that you've rocketed to fame almost overnight and yet your career in Washington hasn't even started?
Are you saying I'm set for a fall?
No, but you must wonder if you've peaked too early. The media like to burn through their heroes quickly.
I don't mean to insult you, but the media can only drag you down if you take it seriously.
What advice do you have for people who feel hopeless after the Kerry loss?
Get over it. Go to the movies, go to the park, go on a date -- get some perspective. Losing an election is not a tragedy. Tra-gedies are my mom getting cancer at fifty-three and dying in six months. Politics in this country has always gone through cycles. There is a constant battle between inclusiveness and exclusiveness, between xenophobia and a more expansive view of what our role in the world is, between a generosity of spirit and a narrow self-interest. Dr. King had a wonderful saying: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." If you look at the trajectory of America, it's bent toward justice. But it's not perfectly consistent.
You're very levelheaded about all this. Don't you ever get pissed about the Bush administration's policies?
I think there are times when it angers me, but I don't think of George Bush as the devil incarnate. He sincerely believes in what he's doing and it's good for the country, but clearly the strategy and approach they are taking don't take the facts into account.
We are going to lose some battles, but the most important thing is not to get disheartened. Now more than ever people have to feel a sense of determination.
Are you thinking about Obama '08?
It is not going to happen. I don't intend to run for president in the next election.
Is the country going to get increasingly polarized in the next four years?
I think people are overstating the differences in the country. There is a faction on the right that is very absolutist and there's a portion of the left that is the same way, demonizing the other side. And then there are eighty percent of people in the middle.
Why did the Democrats lose?
The Democratic Party has not told a good story. What we have are a series of policy prescriptions to solve particular issues. We have our environmental position and our labor position and our health-care position, but we don't have a narrative. And the Republicans do.
Doesn't your party have more serious work to do than learning how to tell a story?
Coming up with a narrative is not just PR, it's hard intellectual and spiritual work. The biggest challenge for us is to figure out, what do we believe? All too often we defend the status quo against what we consider to be the assaults of the Republicans. Our labor agenda is to protect labor laws that were written in 1937. Our environmental agenda is to protect thirty-year-old laws. Our education agenda is to protect schools that were built to train our children for an industrial America, without addressing how to redesign these schools for postindustrial America.
Who are your heroes?
My heroes are people who engaged in transformative politics, who changed how people thought about their lives and the scope of their concern -- Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King. People who struggled not only with right vs. wrong but right vs. right. They struggled with values that are difficult and contradictory.
What transformative changes are required right now?
The challenge that we face now in some ways is even more complicated: How do we integrate a world economically, culturally, politically, while still valuing life on a human scale? Just in economic terms, for example, how do you have global free trade that doesn't lead to wages all settling at the lowest common denominator? How do you create a global economy in which you have a few gazillionaires and everybody else on the wage scale of China and Bangladesh?
What would most surprise people to learn about you?
Probably that I'm a failed jock. I love basketball, but my love for the game always exceeded my talents. I was pretty good but never really good. Also, I'm a reformed smoker; I think that surprises people. I quit, but then during the campaign when you're in a car driving through cornfields, occasionally I bum a cigarette or two. But I did all my drinking in high school and college. I was a wild man. I did drugs and drank and partied. But I got all my ya-yas out.
AMANDA GRISCOM LITTLE
______________________________________________________
I thought this was a great article! As a resident of St. Louis, MO we actually had a lot of news coverage on Obama's election since we also do news for parts of central Illinois. I think he is going to become a fine leader.
~Amanda
