The Obama Sock Puppet

Of course on its face comparing Black people to primates is offensive. But also on its face, the sock monkey is cute and I want to own one too, so there! Some folks might collect buttons, t-shirts, or posters, but I want the sock puppet and the Hillary nutcracker too! Does this make me racist AND sexist? Have I so bought into four centuries of Black degradation that I would gleefully support the latest example of oppression?

No, not at all. I simply view it as a manifestation of Obamamania in the most exciting election of my lifetime. I don't like the idea of someone getting rich off the idea if the sock monkey really takes off especially if Black folks give it an OK. But I think that whining about such things sounds weak, like all those Hillary supporters who complained about the nutcrackers being sold in airports. Yes, it was sexist and practically given a pass in a way that the Obama/Curious George t-shirt was not. Yes, no white male candidate had to endure something equally offensive. But as Peggy Noonan wrote so eloquently, women like Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, and Margaret Thatcher knew they were up against the patriarchy yet never complained about sexism: "It is blame-gaming, whining, a way of not taking responsibility, of not seeing your flaws and addressing them. You want to say, 'Girl, butch up, you are playing in the leagues, they get bruised in the leagues, they break each other's bones, they like to hit you low and hear the crack, it's like that for the boys and for the girls.'"

So I agree with Jimi Izrael, whom I've been listening to every Friday for months on NPR's Tell Me More. Let's disarm the racists by showing that their objectification of Obama holds no power over us. We define who we are in this day and age. This is 2008, not 1908 and a Black man is at the brink of becoming president! And just ask Barack Obama himself. He's not about to be swift-boated let alone allow some dumb puppet to derail him from his bigger mission. So why don't we measure our collective racial outrage against an event like Hurricane Katrina, for example. In terms of racism and demanding a response, the sock puppet doesn't move the needle even one millimeter.

What a Difference a Month Makes!

Or a day or a week or an hour in this highly charged campaign! In reading my last post a MONTH AGO, I can't believe how much things have changed and how happy I am right now vs. then! Our man did it! He beat the Clinton machine! Something Republicans couldn't do even when he was impeached! The magnitude of this accomplishment is staggering. No wonder Hillary couldn't concede. She's in shock that she was beaten by such an upstart! The rest of us are as euphoric as Oprah! Even the conservatives are giddy that the democrats have finally voted to impeach the Clintons. And principled conservatives like George Will studiously backed Obama's decision to make his vice-presidential selection his own:

"Obama's choice of a running mate will be the first important decision he makes with the whole country watching, so it will be a momentous act of self-definition. If he chooses her, it will be an act of self-diminishment, especially now that some of her acolytes are aggressively suggesting that some unwritten rule of American politics stipulates that anyone who finishes a strong second in the nomination contest is entitled to second place on the ticket."

And her surrogates like Lanny Davis circulating a petition to make her the VP and Bob Johnson pressuring the Congressional Black Caucus to do the same! Another case of the "audacity of audacity" as Gail Collins put it. Thank God Charlie Rangel, Ed Rendell, and some others said, "Enough!" In the end, the superdelegates acted superbly. These people know that what is good for the party is not necessarily what's good for Mrs. (or Mr.) Clinton.

But as usual Peggy Noonan said it best: "They threw off the idea of inevitability. Mrs. Clinton didn't lose because she had no money or organization, she didn't lose because she had no fame or name, she didn't lose because her policies were unusual or dramatically unpopular within her party. She lost because enough Democrats looked at her and thought: I don't like that, I don't like the way she does it, I'm not going there. Most candidates lose over things, not over their essential nature. But that is what happened here. For all her accomplishments and success, it was her sketchy character that in the end did her in.

But the voters had to make the decision. So, to the Democrats: A nod. A bow. Well done.

May this mark the beginning of the remoralization of a great party."

I already know that Obama's success may have the power to change the course of our nation. Even if he doesn't become president, he has shown us that it is possible for America to live up to its creed. Millions will mobilize for his campaign and for their own future campaigns. Hillary's supporters will doubtless do the same. Hope is alive! Do we now all get what Michele Obama meant? Many may oppose Obama for president, but most can't help but feel something major has happened in our land. We have held up a mirror to ourselves and there may be a few wrinkles or graying hairs out of place, but I think we look pretty good today. We can certainly be proud that in this era, our democracy is atop the list of Japan and the western nations where we usually find ourselves lacking. To the good ol' U.S. of A!

Thank You, Peggy Noonan!

If I could have a roundtable of my favorite editorial page writers, Peggy Noonan would be first on my list (followed by Eugene Robinson, Maureen Dowd, E.J. Dionne, David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Gail Collins, Bob Herbert, Howard Kurtz, Richard Cohen, Frank Rich, and Charles Krauthammer in case you were going to ask). In an earlier blog post, I pointed out that she gets it with feeling tired of the Clintons. Today she showed that she gets it with Reverend Wright in a way I haven't yet read, and I honestly felt like crying at the end. Really! It must be that I'm feeling disillusioned with Barack Obama. I've been supporting and defending and explaining him so ardently because I want him to win. But lately I've seen evidence that he's got the smarts, but not the guts to take it all the way. His opponents are defining him before he's had a chance to define himself and I start to worry, maybe he can't win. Am I buying into the Clintonistas' argument?

And then, Hillary Clinton goes one on one with Bill O'Reilly, knocking it out of the park, garnering favorable press, and making Fox News look like the only network worth watching. They talked politics just like we all do, in raised voices cutting each other off mid-sentence. It was refreshing to see a debate executed in the informal style we all use when arguing with friends, family, and co-workers. O'Reilly was rude to her as he usually is with guests he doesn't agree with, labelling her a socialist and interrupting her before she could finish an explanation, but she parried right back and showed her mastery of the issues right there in the lion's den. Obama is going on Meet the Press this Sunday to show his mettle with Tim Russert, but does anyone really think that he could go one on one with O'Reilly and break even? He couldn't even handle some tough questions at the very staid ABC debate or push back against the moderators to get them to change the page.

And this whole Reverend Wright thing! After reading in the New York Times about how this whole horrible misunderstanding may have come about between Obama and Wright, my heart was breaking. But then along came Peggy to explain it all. It's just so wonderful to read something so artfully expressed that I wished I'd written it myself. And while one might expect Reagan's speech writer to be shocked at Rev. Wright's rantings, she's just not. Yes, some of his ideas are anti-American, but what of it...seriously? What a breath of fresh air! She put his lunacy into context without apologizing, just identifying it for what it is and then dismissing it because his most repellant ideas are of marginal consequence even if you believe as he does. She doesn't blame Obama either, and I daresay I detect a whiff of support. She seems to have taken over the Maureen Dowd role in coaching along the neophyte in how he's perceived and what he's got to do to win. Thank you again!