When It Comes to Obama, Is It Jackie Robinson or Sally Fields?
By Larry Johnson on November 7, 2008 at 4:55 PM in Barack Obama, Campaign promises, Campaigns & Campaign Financing, Crown family, Current Affairs, Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Oprah, Penny Pritzker, Rahm Emanuel
I wanted to wait for a few days before commenting on the import of the election of Barack Obama. As longtime readers of NoQuarter know firsthand, Barack’s skin color has been completely irrelevant to the question of his qualification to be President.
He is a quintessential enigma wrapped in a conundrum (i.e., an inscrutable mystery having only a conjectural answer). He is an old style Chicago politician, complete with all of the corruption and unsavory relationships, but has a soothing voice and easy manner. He got away with a mythological presentation of his family history in part because the media was unwilling to ask him why he was known as Barry Soetoro until he was about 18 years old. He has still not explained his trip as a young man to Indonesia and Pakistan.
We know nothing about his academic achievements in college. If you have an honest, objective bone in your body you will admit that if he had high SAT or ACT scores we would have heard about it. His college performance as an undergraduate was mediocre and he certainly earned no accolades for getting a high GPA. Otherwise, we would have heard about it. I graduated Cum Laude and was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Missouri. We know nothing about Obama’s record at Columbia University or Occidental College.
We do have a clear record of his clever politicking but meager accomplishments since 1995.
Barack is a savvy, tough politician. He figured out a way to shove an established politician, Alice Palmer out of the way. And he won election to the Senate of the United States. However, he was at best an undistinguished legislator and only got his name on a slew of bills in his last two years in the Illinois state legislature thanks to Emil Jones. Barack avoided many tough votes, often choosing to vote “present,” but did not champion any major legislation. He continued this record in the U.S. Senate. He did not chair any hearings and undertook no significant legislative initiatives.
Barack did prove to be adept at raising money. This was achieved, as we will discover in the coming year, through the efforts of two prominent Chicago families–Lester Crown and Penny Pritzker–who also bankrolled Rahm Emanuel.
In fact, I believe that Rahm Emanuel may have been the one to introduce Obama to the Crown and Pritzker network. It is a point worth pursuing. Barack also put together a very sophisticated, nationwide campaign organization that made phone calls to prospective voters and knocked on doors.
We have discussed in detail on this site the fraudulent fundraising that was part of his campaign. At the end of the day, Barack reneged on his promise to rely on public funding and outspent the McCain folks by at least a factor of 8. Let’s give Barack credit–he played hardball and won. He’s not the first politician to use political and financial shenanigans to beat an opponent–just ask Barry Goldwater and George McGovern about Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon).
I have watched and listened with a mixture of amazement and sadness at the celebrations of African Americans over Barack’s triumph. Let’s be clear. Barack is no Jackie Robinson (Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson). Back in the day when African Americans were banned from competing on an equal basis, there was no doubt that Jackie Robinson and host of other black baseball players deserved to play in the Major Leagues. The breaking of that color barrier was long overdue.
But Barack Obama has never, until now, had any significant experience managing a government enterprise. If he had been white, with his record and associations, he would never have been elected and certainly would not have ousted Hillary Clinton. So let’s admit that he is an Affirmative Action choice by a majority of Americans.
I welcome sending a clear signal to every person who is a minority in this country that they are accepted and loved. The legacy of racism in our country has left ugly wounds that unfortunately are still festering. It is odd that so many African Americans continue to insist there is blatant racism in the face of the commercial and professional achievements of black entertainers, athletes, and businessmen and women. America today is not the America of 1946 that still allowed segregation and kept talented individuals like Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson and Larry Doby from having the opportunity to compete.
The nice thing about the full integration of professional sports is that we no longer worry or think about a players color when discussing their performance. As a Washington Redskins fan I think cornerback Carlos Rogers is a bust. The man, who has dropped more sure-fire interceptions than any cornerback I can remember, could not catch the clap in a Thailand whorehouse. Shawn Springs, however, is a stud who delivers. When Washington played Pittsburgh last Monday Springs was out with an injury, which gave Rogers the chance to play. My point in this is to illustrate that in talking about the performance of these two men we don’t worry about their color. It is what they do on the field during a game that counts.
In watching Jesse Jackson, Juan Williams, and Oprah Winfrey weep over the news that Barack had won, I could only think of Sally Fields. Remember when she won the Academy Award for her work in Places in the Heart? She tearfully accepted the Oscar with this unforgettable line:
“The first time I didn’t feel it but this time I feel it and I can’t deny the fact you like me. Right now, you like me!”
So, America now has officially told black people, “we like you, we really, really like you.” Got it? From that standpoint I am happy that Obama’s election will inspire and reassure African Americans that they are accepted. Barack’s election does not completely erase the scars of segregation and Jim Crow, but it is a welcome step.
It is now Barack’s Martin Luther King moment. We are not going to judge you by the color of your skin but by the content of your character. We are going to judge you on what you do. So how is that going?
Barack’s selection of Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff is alarming and troubling. It is a sign that he is catering to the Lester Crown family and his national finance chair, Penny Pritzker. He selected a man who served on the board of Fannie Mae when deliberate lies about the company’s performance were reported to shareholders. He selected a man who was a strong supporter of the October 2002 resolution to go to war in Iraq. The fact that Emanuel is closely tied to his money people tells me that this is more of the old style politics that rewards those who pay the most.
On the plus side, Barack has selected some solid people to advise him on what to do about the intelligence community. He and his advisors are showing good judgment on that front. I look forward to getting back to an intelligence community that is allowed to be a truth teller without being subjected to political pressure.
I do not hate Barack Obama. While I think he is unqualified to be a good President I stand ready to be proven wrong. Which reminds me of Robert Gates. I opposed Robert Gates as the replacement for Don Rumsfeld. Gates’ record at the CIA was not distinguished. He played politics with intelligence and pandered to the Reagan White House.
But let’s give Bob Gates his due. He has been an outstanding Secretary of Defense and has restored sanity and integrity to that entity. I was wrong about Bob Gates. I hope I am wrong about Barack Obama. If I am, then America will be better off.
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