Prometheus 6

I haven't been very nice to Sen. Obama's campaign recently.

I haven't changed my mind about him. Still gets my vote. Still think you should vote for him. In fact, I haven't changed my position on him since he first came on the set.

As proof, I'm reposting a thing from July 2004 . It suffers terribly from linkrot, but it still gets the point across.

Barack Obama is all over the place, man. Folks are suggesting his "youthful good looks" may bring out the youth vote. The L.A. Times has this profile piece, complete with the cool "eyes on the future" pose picture:

That kind of iconography is a sign of direct support from the powers-that-be.

Much is being made of this "third Black Senator" thing, which is why I can't help but go back to the first article I read about Mr. Obama wherein it was said:

voters should not expect a fiery leader who pounds his fists, but rather, a measured collaborator similar to the late Paul Simon

That's an obvious reference to the militant Black leadership of yesteryear. And it's interesting the concern is strong enough to mention when you consider Illinois seems ready to send a second Black senator to Washington DC almost immediately after Ms. Mosely-Braun's tenure ended. Illinois seems determined to do a significant symbolic repudiation of anti-Black racism. Even conservatives are getting in on it; this from John Kass of the Chicago Tribune:

Republicans might suggest that's a tough argument--hiring Kerry to complete Bush's war policy--but what I like about Obama is his willingness to consider different angles out loud. Such as race.

It is one reason he was chosen to offer the keynote address, obvious to politicians and voters but difficult to acknowledge publicly. He acknowledged it himself, straightforwardly.

"You know, look, there's no doubt that part of the reason I was asked to speak is because I'm an African-American candidate," he said, picking at a salad.

He was asked: So how does Kerry connect with African-American voters?

"There's no doubt John Kerry has not captured the hearts of the black community the way [Bill] Clinton did," Obama said. "... His style is pretty buttoned down. He's not the guy who is going to play the saxophone on MTV."

Still, Obama said Kerry didn't have to stoke emotions to connect with black voters before November. "He'll make them feel he cares about them," Obama said. "The African-American community doesn't need a preacher. We see preachers every Sunday."

Again, Obama answered honestly. I'm not used to that from Chicago politicians. As he grows into the job of senator, he may change his style and stick to the script. But he's riding so high now that he doesn't have to.

For all the adulation and the rock-star status, Obama is levelheaded enough to know there will come a time when all his incredible political fortune will tempt others to try to knock him down. Some of those people may be young, ambitious Illinois Democrats, whom he has eclipsed.

"There will be some deflation, which is good. It's healthy," Obama said. "... I have to walk a careful balancing act, of not seeming ungrateful for all the hype around my election, which I think is a little over the top."

All glory is fleeting. But for now, there's Tuesday night, and the speech he'll give to the nation. Good luck, Senator.

To me, this is all good. I am simply concerned that the "third Black Senator" meme will set Black folks up for disappointment and Mr. Obama up for some frustration. You see, though he has a good legislative record, has done civil rights work and such, he has already said that being the only Black Senator will not mean he's The Race Guy. He's specifically including his Hawaiian upbringing in his resumé. If you consider his constituency, Mr. Obama will be…frankly, SHOULD be…about as much a "Black representative" as whats-his-face from Texas was.

Meanwhile, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times interviewed Jesse Jackson, Jr

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) told me he imagines Obama's first day as senator as something like this: a call from all 39 members of the Congressional Black Caucus to sponsor their bills in the Senate. Al Sharpton and Jackson's dad, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, will phone, as will NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and the chief of every other civil rights organization in the nation. Mayor Daley, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Gov. Blagojevich also will call on Obama.

…The other Democratic senators have the welcome mat out for Obama, and some, Jackson predicted, will soon be asking Obama to travel to their states if they need help shoring up the black vote.

There's kind of no such thing as not being The Race Guy. Not nowadays, not yet.

This is not a sell-out accusation or anything similar. It's a suggestion that we recognize reality. Mr. Obama will, at best, be as cablasian as Tiger Woods. Yet his being in the mix changes things somewhat because we're still such superficial children that image means a lot.

This means you do not want to screw this man's thing up. You may want to identify what in his admittedly turbulent past changed and talk THAT up. You can advocate for enhancing the odds of such changes with such a shining example of how well it turns out when one can beat the current odds.

Understand? Barack Obama will do politics, make both deals and appearances, and if he continues his current voting practices you can probably be satisfied…the worst that will happen is he'll do no harm. But he will not be a "Black representative" because that's not what got him to the party. He will inject a few new images into the brain soup of our culture though, and those images can be useful to Black partisans.