Forget the Cover — Read the Story

Posted: August 6th, 2008 | Filed under: Culture, Personalities, Politics, Ruminations | 2 Comments »

And now for the rest of the story.

Of the brouhahas thus far in Election 2008 — there will be more — few have been as intense as the firestorm over the cover of the July 21 issue of The New Yorker magazine. Unless you’ve been hibernating in the Black Forest, on vacation to Vista Palms Glen Shores, Alabama or have set a permanent firewall against all matters political, you know the situation.

Barack Obama is on the cover, fist-bumping his spouse Michelle in the Oval Office. He’s dressed like Osama (whose photo hangs over the fireplace). She’s incarnated as Angela Davis circa the 60’s, complete with full sista ‘fro and rifle across her back held in place by a bullet strap. The exclamation point in Barry Blitt’s satirical rendering — titled “The Politics of Fear” — is the stars & stripes aflame in the fireplace.

Despite my preternatural astuteness, I missed the irony. When I first saw the magazine, I immediately stopped all activities to fire off an email advising the editors of the ‘zine to “be ashamed, very very ashamed.” And then, after pondering my vapid knee-jerk reaction, owned my stupidity but contemplated the larger meaning of that whole affair in a piece posted here, “Whither Political Irony.”

Well, what was missing in that whole national pas de deux des politicos was discussion of Ryan Lizza’s extensive examination of the whys and wherefores of Obama’s rise to prominence in Chicago, which article appears between the covers of that infamous issue. It’s title is “Making It.” Read it here.

While there is no smoking gun, no tales of the candidate in flagrante delicto with a comely sheep who happened to be a campaign volunteer, no youtube of the candidate and Barney Frank playing tongue hockey and no photos of Obama trekking across Afghanistan with an Al Qaeda sticker on his backpack, the Democratic campaign muckety mucks must be glad so few actually read the article.

The revelations, such as they may be, will probably be disturbing to the “flowers in their hair” crowd. Truth is that it’s unflattering only in that it shows Obama as the focused, dedicated political animal reasoned observers have known him to be all along. The guy wants to get elected, to move up the governmental food chain, and knows how to proceed with his well-devised plans to do so. He’s got the rhetoric. Which appears to represent his legitimate feelings. He’s also into the nuts and bolts. He knows how to git ‘er done.

Lizza’s well-written, well-documented essay underscores how Obama’s seemingly trenchant idealism is directed by ward-healing pragmatism. The fellow can coddle the kingmakers. And he has.

It’s a most interesting read. I recommend you check it out. Frankly I find it not all that disturbing though I trust it will provide Swift Boatian fodder in enemy hands.

Evidence of how pragmatism batters idealism in the political arena are legion. How the Nixon machine plundered George McGovern’s dunderheaded campaign in ’72 comes immediately to mind. Bill Clinton’s famous War Room is another example.

So it came as little surprise to acute observers in the blogosphere when the operatives working for underdog Obama sliced and diced Hillary’s campaign like another head of cabbage. Add mayo and you got some slaw.

One must ask if there are any political ramifications? Other than to ponder what effect the possession of such acumen will bode for Obama in his quest for the presidency.

As an Obama supporter — the bumper sticker was affixed this very day — I pray that the pragmatic qualities that should allow for electoral victory translate to governance. Good organization. Clarity about issues. Intelligent support operatives. Inquisitiveness. Aggressiveness. Elucidation. Compassion. Strength.

Few can argue that those are traits sorely needed to re-secure U.S. prominence on the international stage. And to grapple with the piles of detritus sure to be left behind by the incompetent scalawags now in power.

But first there’s the matter of Barack Obama overcoming an impediment to election unique in the annals of American presidential politics. More to come on that in a later article. Stay tuned.

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