When What You See Ain’t Always What You Get
By LisaB on June 12, 2008 at 2:28 PM in Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Black nationalism, Current Affairs
Why is “character” an issue in a presidential campaign? Why aren’t we talking about “the issues,” the “more important issues” or the “things Americans REALLY care about?”
That’s a dodge. Character is important, particularly when the resume is thin. As any psychology major will tell you, “the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” So, character, as shorthand for looking at a candidate’s pattern of behavior, is simply due diligence when a list of accomplishments isn’t helpful. Someone can fake a political position, but only someone with a psychopathology can even temporarily fake character.
Read the rest ->
When people perceive someone is hiding aspects of his character, such as past behavior or decision-making processes or long standing habits or relationships, it’s a problem. And the most problematic are those revelations of character that stand in contrast to stated beliefs. So, “family values” Republicans are hurt more by sex scandals, for example, than non “family values” politicians.
Many people feel Barack Obama’s speeches and presentations of himself on the campaign trail differ distinctly from what we see in his past behavior. We don’t see his words as congruent with his activities. Frankly, we think he’s being deceptive in any number of ways and at very fundamental levels.
An interesting article in the Washington Post about the Johnson vetting controversy addresses this as well.
The most dangerous stories for any candidate are those that raise questions about the core of his (or her) campaign narrative. One needs only to look back to the 2004 presidential race for evidence of this trend. John Kerry won the Democratic nomination for a variety of reasons, but the biggest of those was that his military record of service in Vietnam was seen as a shield against Republican attacks on patriotism, national security and foreign policy.
Enter the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with their methods, effectively raised questions about the validity of Kerry’s service and, in doing so, sparked broader questions about whether the Massachusetts senator was who he said he was.
For Obama, any questions in voters’ minds about whether he truly is a change agent or is legitimately committed to breaking the alleged stranglehold lobbyists and other power brokers have over the political system is potentially disastrous. Because of the peril involved, it’s not terribly surprising that Obama moved quickly to “fix the glitch” once he realized questions about Johnson weren’t going away.
I would only note that even more “dangerous stories for any candidate are those that raise questions about the core of the” candidate himself. And that’s a problem with Obama. He seems internally incongruent, or, more to the point, his words don’t match up with his actions.
Politicians are, as a group, often less congruent than most people. That’s because they will say whatever the voters want to hear. Believe it or not, we all understand that and, typically, are not surprised when politicians don’t follow through or have fudged about small things. We do get angry and sometimes we’re just resigned. But we understand the bargain when it comes to political promises or positions. However, we’re less forgiving when someone has a “secret identity.” Senator McCain is familiar. He’s cranky; he has a temper; he can swivel on an issue with the best of them. But he is pretty much true to his character. Pretty much what you see is what you get. In terms of who he is anyway. Whether you like that or not is up to you.
Obama is another story. Many talk about his aloofness, his remoteness, his separateness from all the rest of us. This is simply code for: “we don’t know who this guy is.” Doesn’t that really mean “he could be anybody?”
Shelby Steele, in several books about race in America, describes AA “bargainers” and “challengers.” Bargainers are those AAs who interact with the majority culture from a standpoint of “I’ll assume you are not racist if you don’t hold my race against me.” Challengers, on the other hand, approach the majority culture from a standpoint of “you are not off the hook until you prove you are not a racist.”
(This is quite an oversimplification of Steele’s work. To understand, you should really read one of his books, including A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win).
Within the AA community, Obama presents as a challenger. He goes to a church based on Black Liberation Theology, associates with Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger and other challengers and writes moving books about his search for racial identity as an AA where he also says:
“Any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning.”
During the campaign however, Obama presents himself as a bargainer – offering himself up as a “post-racial” candidate able to bridge divides and speak to all people. His campaign is based on this premise. With so few years behind him in terms of political service and even fewer in terms of national service, Obama is asking us to vote for him based on our perceptions of his future behavior and ability to bring people together.
Some of us simply don’t buy it. Obama’s church, his long-term relationships with Wright, Pfleger, Ayers, Rezko and the very words of his autobiography show many of us that he really is a challenger. And like any good scandal, the problem is not really in being a challenger after all. It is in the cover-up. It is presenting himself as a bargainer when everything in his past shows a different kind of person. That is a fundamental disconnect. People who believe Obama is a bargainer may see his past and feel he has lied about who he really is. People who support Obama as a challenger may feel betrayed by his creation of a bargaining persona.
Or maybe not. Some people will choose to ignore the disconnect and some may choose to take Obama’s changes as necessary to run for president of a multicultural society.
Steele believes Obama will not be elected because, at some point, his mask will be removed and we’ll see who Obama really is. Maybe we’ve already seen it. Folk wisdom, not requiring a college degree, says “when somebody shows you who they really are, believe them.” Some of us believe Obama has shown us who he is. Some people don’t believe their “lyin’ eyes.”
by Ronald Scott
* More novels by 
* 
(
)
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
Pingback: Shelby Steele on race and Obama as President : NO QUARTER