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Richard Cohen's columns have appeared on the op-ed page of The Washington Post since 1984. He joined The Post in 1968 after attending the Columbia ...
Read more about Richard Cohen.
Richard Cohen's columns have appeared on the op-ed page of The Washington Post since 1984. He joined The Post in 1968 after attending the Columbia ...
Read more about Richard Cohen.
Does Anyone Know Barack Obama?
Richard Cohen
If, as the saying goes, the perfect is the enemy of the good, then
Barack Obama is his own worst enemy. That becomes clear in the
upcoming HBO documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack
Obama," which is the product of many months of behind-the-scenes
access to Obama during the presidential campaign. It reveals -- you
will be surprised to learn -- that Barack Obama is pretty close to the
most perfect person you will never get to know.
This is what he does not do in the course of the primary and general election campaigns: He does not lose his temper. He does not curse. He does not follow a pretty woman with his eyes or sneak a smoke. He does not dress sloppily. He is always calm and always good-natured and gets emotional only once -- the day his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, the woman who in effect raised him, died in Hawaii. At a campaign event in North Carolina he expressed his love and gratitude. He cried and, watching, I did, too.
I cried also at the very end of the documentary when African-Americans at one of the final campaign events cried at the imminence or the reality of his victory. But election night in this documentary is anti-climactic -- a contained, pallid fizz of emotion. Usually, a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures, mainly of Obama's closest aides, have nothing to say. If these aides have a sense of history, they were keeping it to themselves.
What's striking about this inside look at Obama is how being inside gets you nowhere. It is virtually the same as being outside. What's also striking about this movie is its lack of arc. Obama is always golden, always going to win and always does. His issue, if it can be called that, is himself. He is something new, something young, something biracial and something black, but he is not something from a political or ideological constituency. He is adored by his fans -- the directors, Amy Rice and Alicia Sams, included -- not for something he's done, but rather for something he is. So far, that has been a weakness in Obama's presidency.
Obama's lack of a bonded -- as opposed to an associative -- constituency is costing him. The political left is carping because it cannot be sure he is one of them. The right carps also but it alone knows that Obama is not one of them. He doesn't go way back with the unions -- he doesn't go way back with anything -- and the Jews are having second thoughts.
In a conventional movie, the hero has to change. Something has to happen -- the moment when character is revealed. Maybe he loses the girl and has to get her back. In politics, something similar is supposed to happen. You've got to have your PT 109, your Sunrise at Campobello, your walk on the beach with Billy Graham, your combat epiphany in Vietnam, your impoverished childhood, your peanut-farming family, your mission work abroad, your haberdashery that goes bankrupt.
Obama has those moments -- abandoned by his father, biracial in a world that prefers things neat, raised in Indonesia -- but they are not cited as life-changing events. None of them, at any rate, are given much importance in the documentary. Even the bitter primary fight with Hillary Clinton -- all that ugly stuff about race and Bill Clinton, of all people, being accused of playing the race card -- could have been happening to someone else. Obama observes his own life. He's not a participant. He calls Hillary to congratulate her on some insignificant win. "Bye bye," he says without bitterness as he snaps his phone shut. He could have been talking to anyone.
Does any of this matter, or is it merely interesting -- themes for a columnist ducking Afghanistan for yet another week? I am not sure. If Obama ends the deepest recession since the Great Depression, if he enacts health care reform, if he succeeds in Afghanistan, then his presidency will have been remarkable, maybe even great -- the triumph of intellect. The man will be his own movement.
But if he fails in all or most of that, it will be because it is not enough to be the smartest person in the room. Warmth and commitment matter, too -- a driving sense of conviction, the fulsome embrace of causes and not just issues. That is not something Obama has yet shown. See the movie.
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Richard Cohen's e-mail address is cohenr@washpost.com
Copyright 2009 Washington Post Writers Group
This news arrived on: 10/20/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-29-2009 22:26
JCE wrote:
I think that ssss, like so many Americans, don't want to be raped, but really don't care if it happens to someone who isn't their friends or family. And they can read, but they have such selective sight, and hearing, and will only hear what they want to hear. There is so much going on around them that they don't even notice. If it was the proverbial snake, there would be a lot of snake bites happening. They honestly don't know, and honestly believe the lies. And are truly confused and hurt when others don't, when others have more awareness, and more understanding. Some of them will never understand. Sadly, they teach to think like they do, or not to think at all. The thing is, as long as they are in denial, they can come up with excuses not to take action, to be responsible for their own actions. They can just blame everyone else, especially the other party. But when people come out of denial, and get into the truth, they realize that reality calls for them to think and act differently, more responsible, more mature, and less childish. More cooperative, more passionate, more like religion calls for, that is mostly being ignored. But they need people like Rush, and the guys on Fox, to make them feel alive, like they are onto the truth, some excitement, some thrill, so justification, and the idea that they are normal, and others are like them. Because when that illusion begins to fall apart, it makes them crazy. They attack, and they fight. And some wise up. That explains why so many conservatives and republicans are leaving that party, and its affiliation. They are seeing the big picture, reality.
10-28-2009 18:54
The Professor wrote:
ssssssss
Evidently you can't read or approve of rape. THE CONTRACT OF THE OVERSEAS CONTRACTOR HAD A SPECIFIC PROVISION THAT PROTECTED AGAINST ANY CLAIM AND THE ACT WAS COMMITTED IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. AND I SUPPOSE YOU ALSO APPROVE OF LOCKING THE VICTIM IN A CONTAINER WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER AND CONFINING HER ON BASE--WHAT LAW COVERS THAT AND WHO WOULD ENFORCE IT??? ALSO SUPPOSE YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE OTHER TIMES THINGS LIKE THAT OCCURRED AND NOTHING WAS DONE ABOUT THEM.
I PROMISE YOU THAT "Al Joker" WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST AS CONCERNED. IT TAKES THE RIGHT WING WHO PREACH JESUS AND PRACTICE TORTURE TO THINK WHAT HAPPENED WAS "OK".
I PROMISE YOU THAT "Al Joker" WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST AS CONCERNED. IT TAKES THE RIGHT WING WHO PREACH JESUS AND PRACTICE TORTURE TO THINK WHAT HAPPENED WAS "OK".
10-28-2009 18:40
The Professor wrote:
Why we need health care
Thanks for the list of the scum that voted in favor of rape. Have seen headlines in the papers of many of their states and they took a beating.
But, if you want a couple of stories on another subject. (Was chief counsel for a health company for 15 years) and we had a provision that prevented us from canceling a single policy unless the entire "class" of policies in the state were canceled. A short time ago a boy in NY had a serious condition that could cause a million dollars to treat. To avoid their liability the CEO DID cancel ALL of the policies in the state, leaving hundreds (thousands?) of families without insurance. And a Mich. man, age 38, with a wife with cancer was laid off and lost his insurance. Of course that was a pre-exising condition so NO insurance. He enlisted in the Army for 4 yrs. as the only way to save his wife (and that has happened many times). So his wife and teen age daughter who need him at home won't have him there for four years. DO WE NEED A HEALTH INSURANCE BILL?? If you're happy with the GOP and health industry in fighting it, then you were born to late to be a concentration guard.
But, if you want a couple of stories on another subject. (Was chief counsel for a health company for 15 years) and we had a provision that prevented us from canceling a single policy unless the entire "class" of policies in the state were canceled. A short time ago a boy in NY had a serious condition that could cause a million dollars to treat. To avoid their liability the CEO DID cancel ALL of the policies in the state, leaving hundreds (thousands?) of families without insurance. And a Mich. man, age 38, with a wife with cancer was laid off and lost his insurance. Of course that was a pre-exising condition so NO insurance. He enlisted in the Army for 4 yrs. as the only way to save his wife (and that has happened many times). So his wife and teen age daughter who need him at home won't have him there for four years. DO WE NEED A HEALTH INSURANCE BILL?? If you're happy with the GOP and health industry in fighting it, then you were born to late to be a concentration guard.
10-24-2009 21:14
JCE wrote:
One? There are more. You want more? Pay attention to the news.
10-24-2009 09:23
sssssss wrote:
OH Jce, one instance and you jump on it. If that was a dem sponsered company Al Joker would not have ever brought such a bill. Its all a political game with the dems, thats why no one signed on. We have laws to deal with rape and people or companies that cover it up. We dont need show boating by some senator. hey how about Al Joker and O make a decision on Afganistan instead of trying to bring down Haliburtan.
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