By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Every time a speaker mentioned Barack Obama's name the crowd of educators applauded at the National Association for Multicultural Education convention last week in New Orleans.
Their cheers embodied the great expectations people have for Obama's presidency. But my "show-me" Missouri roots cause me to be more cautious.
Speakers at the post-election Trotter Group of black columnists conference last week added to my concerns for the next four years.
Daryl Scott, chair of the Howard University History Department, told the gathering of journalists from throughout the country that Obama like recent Democratic presidential candidates did not run on helping the poor.
Obama's was a centrist theme of a rising tide lifting all boats. So government efforts to help the poor are off the table.
Edna Greene Medford, associate professor of history at Howard, said that for black people Obama "is a symbol." People voted for him knowing that. "While he's there he gives me hope," she said.
The question is whether hope alone is enough.
Greg Carr, assistant professor of African American studies at Howard, said, "What we are facing now is something we don't have a blueprint for."
The challenges include the United States being embroiled in two wars, a deteriorating economy, a collapsing infrastructure, growing unemployment, mounting poverty, global warming, a housing crisis, rising segregation and failing schools.
Medford compared Obama to President Abraham Lincoln, saying that to be an effective president, Obama will have to exhibit "extraordinary boldness."
Obama like Lincoln must prepare the public for what is to occur, and he cannot be afraid to take the lead.
Give Obama back his BlackBerry. For Obama, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" will have to become daily "Barack Blasts" in e-mail and text messages to all on what he will be doing to fix the mess that President Bush dropped the nation into.
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When will you view for the "whole community"
Loooie......Your headline presents Obama as a symbol....while he may be just that to you and many others, he is far more than that to the most of America. He is our president elect.
The Lincolnian analogy is presumptuosly wrapped in your typical racial cloak. So, for that matter, are all of your referenced quotations and organizations.....and no, hope alone is not enough.
You state that Obama's was a "centrist theme of a rising tide lifting all boats." Were that true he would never have secured the Democrat nomination in the first place. Hillary would have trounced him.
His entire 1 year plus primary campaign was based on being far to the left of the mainstream party regulars....a position which is reflective of his voting record and legislative agenda. Once the nomination was secured he lept to the center which allowed for his election.
Even then he would not have succeded were it not for the adoringly biased media and the glaringly inept McCain campaign.
Like you I am hopeful that he is successful. Unlike you, my measure meter will not have a racial component. I will measure based on how he handles the two wars, how attack free we remain in the homeland, how bi-partisan he is in his governance, and how he handles the "measurables"...unemployment, economic indicators, budgetary performance, and the subjective feeling that his presidency exhibits. No president in my life has started with as good a "feeling" as will Obama.
He certainly inherits a boatload of problems, very few of them of his own making....but many of his party's making. It is how he deals with his own party that many of those who voted for him will be measuring most critically.
How Obama got elected
This poll was not scientific (even though Zogby did it). The results are so overwhelming that scientific is irrelevant.
http://howobamagotelected.com/
It is NOT anti-Obama. It is anti-media, who fell down on their job. It's not about intellegience, but everything about dissemination of information.
kcgrh Is Right, Actually
Lincoln said,
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois" (September 18, 1858), pp. 145-146.
So, yes, that is somewhat laughable under the circumstances.
kcgrh
LOL =)
Gee, I can't wait for MY boat to float!
Lewis, where do you buy your pom-poms? A man who hasn't even served a full Senate term is now compared to Lincoln in an indirect reference by you?? Is this what passes for intellectual reflection in the crowd you hang out with, because if it does I have to laugh.
How is it that you stayed employed at the Star with the kind of tripe you regulary dish out? I honestly would like to know. Also, who believes you when you say you're more cautious in your assessment than these fruit loops? I say fruit loops because he hasn't DONE anything yet!
More Obama Adulation
Glory and praise to Obama. Another Lincoln; an FDR? Be careful how high you place this guy. When he inevitably falls from his pedestal, the harder it will be on all of you. Be prepared for another eight years -- of the Clinton administration.
So Lewis, are you thinking McCain?
I'll bet you are kicking yourself for voting for Obama. You are probably now thinking McCain was your man.
Seriously, you were so far in the tank for Obama, that you are now hedging your bets. It's called POSTURING!
"If he doesn't do as good as you wanted, you told us there might be problems".
And if that doesn't work, well, JUST BLAME BUSH!
Give Me a Minute Louie...
I have my finger in my throat gagging myself..
Do you seriously get paid real money to write this tripe????
Comparing Obama to Lincoln is laughable...