Month: January 2009

"A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it," – Frederick Douglass.

A reader writes:

I’m the black woman from Chicago who wrote a while ago about how I didn’t particularly care for Obama. I wanted to tell you a brief story about how I have had to re-adjust my world view.

I’m a design professional, married to a white man, living a thoroughly integrated life. My son is 13, and I often tell him stories of his grandparents, who came from the south in the 1930s during the great migration. My father went to college and law school, but in the 1950s there were no firms hiring black men. Period. Not being the entrepreneurial sort, he got a city job and lived his life. My mother was a stay at home mom, and identified as black, even though to see her one could just as easily said Scottish or Irish. My son is going through a battery of tests right now to enter high school, and has had to fill out applications. We finally had a talk and he said " Well Mom, what color should I be?"

I frankly told him I wasn’t sure.  He self-identifies as white, and looks it, but we all know that 50 years ago he would have had to say he was black, because no black woman could have a white kid, right?  The irony is that on these applications, it is to his advantage to be black, since they give no option for mixed race. Living in the city, he has a better chance of admission as a black kid than a white kid with the same scores. All the professional advice came back telling him to be black, just for the moment. His classmates were apparently jealous that he got to be black.

My son is amused by my reaction to Obama being elected, he teases me about being unwilling to believe it until it actually happens. I find myself at a pivotal moment between generations, and I guess the thrill and fascination I have is just to watch.  I can’t help looking back as well as look forward, in amazement.

My inaugural take on what this new president has shown about himself these past two years is here. Money quote:

If you close your eyes and imagine what this combination of fiscal and foreign policy realism portends, you will come to a pretty obvious conclusion. This Democratic liberal is actually, when it comes down to it, a man almost entirely within the mainstream spectrum of the European centre right. Imagine a Cameron-style Tory becoming president of the United States and try to come up with something he would do differently.

This blend of pragmatism and realism reminds me in the American context of Eisenhower more than any other recent president. Obama has the unerring instincts of a conciliator and a moderate Tory. But he has the rhetorical skills of a Kennedy or a Churchill. That’s a potent combination.

It may be, of course, that the relief at the end of the Bush era is colouring our hopes. It may also be that events conspire to derail the man, or that the habits of the past two decades in Washington will return with a vengeance and do to Obama what was done to Clinton, another centrist Democrat who came to office on a tide of goodwill. But I don’t think that, given the immense crises we all face, it is unreasonable to hope for more.

There is something about Obama’s willingness to give others credit, to approach so many issues with such dispassionate pragmatism, and to shift by symbols and speeches the mood and tenor of an entire country that gives one a modest form of optimism. Even now, as the outlook seems so dark, and as the inheritance seems so insuperable, three words linger in the mind.

Yes, he can.

And two words echo back at me.

Can we?

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty.)

 

David Remnick:

Soon after George W. Bush came to office, eight years ago, he told a confidant that “there’s no Nobel Peace Prize to be had” in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. He turned his attention instead to places farther east in the Middle East, with mostly horrific results. But, as Obama told his listeners at AIPAC last June, there remains the Talmudic imperative of tikkun olam, “the obligation to repair the world.” In four years, or eight, he may well have won no Nobel medal, made no final repair. But the obligation of constant engagement is deep; the cost of negligence is paid in blood. And, what is more, history has proved that the seemingly impossible can be achieved: the Irish and the English have all but resolved a conflict that began in the days of Oliver Cromwell, and on January 20th an African-American President will cross the color line and move into the White House––a house that slaves helped build.

Axelrod gives a preview of Obama’s speech:

One thing about Barack Obama, his themes have been consistent not just through this campaign, but through his public life. From his convention speech in 2004 through today. So I don’t think you’re going to be surprised by what you hear. I think he’s going to talk about where we are as a country, but also who we are as a people. And what responsibilities accrue to us as a result of that. And what we have to do to move forward. I’m not going to handicap whether it’s going to be a great speech, a good speech or — but I have confidence in the message that he wants to deliver and I don’t think you’ll be surprised by it.

It will be about the moment. What Obama understands – and it’s worth reiterating – is that his presidency is a unique combination of one man and one very specific moment in time. We are witnessing the collapse of an old ideological order, the end of the 1960s, and the implosion of conservatism as an intellectually coherent governing philosophy. Into this wasteland, created by some hideous combination of evil enemies abroad and clueless leaders at home, this man arrives. Without the events of 2003 – 2006, Obama would not be president. And after the Bush catastrophe, we are immensely lucky he is. Alone, he is impressive – and would have made a good president at any time in the next few decades. But now, in this moment, with this set of gargantuan problems, at a time when Americans need desperately to believe again in their country and their constitution and theor president … well.

I don’t really believe in any grand idea of providence, and don’t believe that America is somehow more blessed by the divine than any other (that notion is absurd to my Catholic mind). But this week is testing my agnosticism.

Two thirds of America is planning to watch the inauguration. I’ll be live-blogging all day.

Via Slog, the Inauguration Speech Generator. Paul Constant’s effort:

My fellow Americans, today is a Hopey day. You have shown the world that "hope" is not just another word for "Washington", and that "change" is not only something we can believe in again, but something we can actually Change.

Mike Allen reports:

Vans will be poised at the Capitol to take a few top aides of Barack Obama’s to their new offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. as soon as he is sworn in, transition aides told Politico.

About 20 senior officials have had their paperwork cleared to enter the White House complex on Tuesday. Some will attend a traditional lunch with the new president in the Capitol, then get to work while the inaugural parade is under way.

The quick start on Tuesday is indicative of the months of planning that Obama’s transition team has put into preparing for his opening days in office.

Nate Silver looks into the future:

My guess is that when Gallup comes out with its first post-inauguration approval ratings for Obama later this week, it will show him with about 76 percent approval, 11 percent disapproval and 13 percent uncertain, which would indeed be the best numbers on record for a newly-elected president. At the very least, Obama is virtually assured of starting out on better footing than his two immediate predecessors in the White House, as Bill Clinton had emerged victorious in a three-way race in which he got just 43 percent of the popular vote, and George W. Bush’s disputed victory in 2000 had come only after weeks of uncertainty and litigation.

Macroeconomic Advisers looks at Obama’s stimulus plan:

According to press reports, President-elect Obama is preparing a stimulus plan that, excluding interest on the additional government debt, will cost roughly $775 billion over two years and includes a mix of increases in direct federal spending, aid to the states, personal tax cuts, and business tax breaks.  One certainly can harbor reservations about such an aggressive set of initiatives.  Can government wisely spend so much money so fast? Do elements of the stimulus plan foster the achievement of sensible long-term objectives? Is the plan fiscally responsible?  Does it deliver the largest bang for the buck?

On balance, however, we find such a policy could deliver the results promised for it.

Most of elements of the plan under discussion would be temporary, thereby limiting the ongoing  cost of any the package. This strikes us as a reasonable balance between the needs for near-term stimulus, on the one hand, and long-term budget discipline, on the other.  Further-more, the induced rise in revenues will cover roughly 40% of the static cost of the plan over a five-year budget window. Our analysis suggests that implementation of the plan would reduce the peak unemployment rate by more than 11?2 percentage points, speed the economy’s return to full employment, and reduce the risks of deflation. The plan would generate more stimulus (and more induced revenues) if it was less weighted towards corporate tax breaks for past activity, but this may the price of building the broad coalition of political support necessary to see the plan become law.

(Sorry, no link. Report was via e-mail.)