The Democratic National Convention

August 29, 2008, Denver, Colorado



In Conclusion: It's About Us

"It's not about me, it's about you" is the statement that best encapsulates the underlying message of Barack Obama's acceptance speech as well as his presidential campaign.  He developed this idea at first last night to suggest that Americans are "stirring," that we are worried economically, frustrated by our foreign policy, and angered that our governing decisions seem to respond more to the specific interests of the few than to the general benefit of us all.  We stir as we watch competing interests restrict our government's ability to get things done.


Obama gave three examples to demonstrate how his call for change could be applied. He suggested that groups with diametrically opposed views can work constructively to find areas of overlapping interests.  In the context of the longstanding debate about abortion and a woman's right to choose, both pro-choice and pro-life proponents share the desire to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Within the context of the debate about gun control, there must be a way to restrict the availability of assault weapons without undermining our Constitutional right to bear arms.  And in the context of gay rights, our compassion must allow gay and lesbian life partners to be present in hospitals to provide emotional support at critical times.


The electorate stirs because we fail not only to take these small steps but because we also fail to tackle larger questions that affect all of us.  Social Security, universal health care, tax policies, educational reforms, and environmental concerns including climate change, oil drilling, and the reliance on foreign sources of oil are domestic policy topics that have been debated for years if not decades. The call for change suggests that it is time to take action and to make decisions.


In the weeks of the campaign that follow, there will be many opportunities for Barack Obama to more fully lay out what he will do in each of these areas.  We're a democracy, however, not an autocracy.  If elected president, Obama's success will hinge on whether he can influence and shape the actions and decisions of Congress.  This in turn is a function of whether Congress perceives that a president articulates concerns that are on the minds of a majority of Americans.


And because a president's influence depends upon his or her ability both to shape and reflect public opinion, Obama's acceptance speech needed to connect with individual voters as ordinary people and ordinary Americans.  If it did, and if he continues to strengthen his connection with individual voters over the final weeks of this campaign, he'll be elected.  Then we'll watch to see if he can translate that appeal to influence Congress.


In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick's experience has revealed just how difficult this is to accomplish.  Change may be desired, but implementing change is not easy. Doing so calls upon each of us to recast our own practices and to open our own minds to the concerns and needs of others.


Obama called for each of us to be our brother's keeper and our sister's keeper.  It's the reason why this election is about us and not about him.


          —Allen Larson


 

August 28, 2008, Denver, Colorado



Back to the Future


Barack Obama's message of hope and concern for the everyday problems that face ordinary Americans is a political prescription that worked well for Bill Clinton in the campaign season of 1992 and again in 1996. Keeping to one side the nationally draining impeachment proceedings that were the result of Clinton's personal actions, there are many similarities between this earlier era and the current election campaign.


Then, as now, ordinary people were concerned about their economic circumstances. Clinton campaign advisor James Carville focused the tactics of the campaign by reminding operatives, "It's the economy, stupid."  And it's the economy today that is again a major concern.


Then, as now, the inability of Washington's elected leaders to work together was a focus of the presidential campaign.  Clinton was a youthful governor of a small state, Arkansas, who promised to bring energy and new ideas to a federal governing process that many saw to have calcified.  Like Obama today, Clinton rested his campaign on the promise of hope.


Where the comparison of the two political eras has yet to be clearly outlined has to do with each candidate's ability to connect. Clinton conveyed the idea that he "felt your pain."  He highlighted the fact that he had grown up in modest financial circumstances as the son of a single parent.  He earned his educational achievements such as his Rhodes scholarship to Oxford.  He learned political lessons as a young attorney general who lost his first reelection campaign.


And it's these kinds of experiences in his own life that Barack Obama will recount tonight. The key to the success of his speech and to the campaign that follows will be whether in highlighting his past, Barack Obama will also be able to convince us that he understands our circumstances, different as they may be from his own. Bill Clinton proved to be a master of this. It remains unclear whether Obama's oratorical skills and personal story of earned achievement provide a backdrop to the question that lingers in voters' minds and that he must answer tonight: Does Barack Obama understand me.


          —Allen Larson


 

For earlier DNC posts, click here.