Obama and the Duck
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Congress, IllinoisOne of my favorite books to read my children is Duck for President. It’s about a duck who holds an election to replace the farmer. Then he runs for governor. Then he runs for president. He wins easily, but, at each stop, he is dissatisfied and immediately begins his next campaign.
As I was mulling over the idea of voting for Barack Obama, that children’s book came to mind. Obama is Duck. Each stop on his political career has just been a stepping stone for a higher office. And that, I realized, is one of the things that has made judging the man a difficult task.
When I look at Obama’s record, I don’t always know why he made the choices he made. How do you separate his political calculations from his personal convictions? Did he vote “present†so often in the Illinois Senate because he lacked conviction, because that’s how the Illinois Senate works or because he knew it was smart politics not to have a record on certain issues? In the U.S. Senate, is he really its most liberal member or did he simply make a series of calculated votes designed to win the admiration of the Democratic base? And now, has his campaign been a reflection of his priorities or a reflection of what he believes it will take to win?
It’s not that I’m concerned Obama has some secret agenda or is dangerously inexperienced. I just have trouble judging him because his political record is difficult to interpret. The question for a skeptic like me is: where does the calculation end and the conviction begin? This is a question to be asked about all politicians, but it’s especially appropriate to ask about those who’ve amassed slim public records during a fast ascendancy.
I would have liked to see Obama finish out a term in the Senate so that we could better judge his political priorities and instincts. The longer someone serves, the more sense you get as to what’s important to them and what isn’t. Without that record, we are left judging Obama primarily on what he says, on his “life story†and on what he’s written in his two memoirs. That may be enough to take the measure of the man, but boy do I wish he had paused more during his quest for higher and higher office.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Congress, Illinois. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Alan, I think this is a good post that describes why so my people (my parents, for example) are concerned about Obama’s experience and positions. A PBS documentary that aired last week that illustrated Obama’s ascent this way, too.
It doesn’t scare me away, but I think you handled the topic fairly and convincingly.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Do any of those answers make him a satisfactory candidate to you?
Again, you need to pick one because he is either one or the other. Do either of those choices make you comfortable?
You are thinking too much. Vote for Obama because it feels right. You know it. Listen to him speak, look at his charm. Just repeat to your self Hope and Change and Hopenchange. Economy Bad War Bad Republicans Bad Obama Change Obama Good. Thats all you need to know.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Jimmy — I’ve read that most Illinois Senators amass a fair number of “present” votes while in office, although Obama’s was a tick or two higher than the norm. If he was just playing politics the way it is played in his home state, I can’t fault him much. All politicians have to do that.
As for calculation, again, all politicans do that. In fact, one reason that McCain is behind is because he’s calculated so poorly. The question isn’t IF Obama has calculated, but how much. I understand the dance. Run towards the wings in the primary, run to the center in the general. McCain did that too but, with McCain, I have a lot more history to know when he’s just being a typical pandering politician and when he actually means what he says.
Strangely, that’s the bedtime story my wife most prefers to tell our children.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:54 am
It is the way the Illinois Senate works. You can read more about it in a couple of place, ie Eric Zorn’s 9/9/2008 column in the Chicago Tribune. Here is a partial excerpt: “Because bills need “yes” votes to pass, “present” translates to “a soft no,” as Deputy Republican Senate Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont put it.
“One use for it is when you favor an idea, but you think the bill has a fatal flaw of some sort,” she said. “Another is when you have a conflict of interest. And another is when you want to play both sides of the fence . . . or to avoid casting a vote that your next opponent will try to take out of context.”
Across the aisle, Sen. John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, defined “present” as “no with an explanation.”
Cullerton said another use of the seemingly squirrelly vote is to “signify displeasure with the process, but not the concept.” He added that you’d be hard-pressed to find members of the General Assembly—including key allies of John McCain—who don’t use it from time to time for various reasons.
Illinois legislators have been casting “present” votes since at least 1931, according to the House clerk’s office. But the idea hasn’t swept the nation.
”
There are many other references with this info available online.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
Today I was reading a story in Smithsonian Magazine about the campaign and election of another Illinois Senator, one Abraham Lincoln.
On election day in 1860, Lincoln confided to a caller at his home, that he would have preferred a full term in the Senate, “where there was more chance to make reputation and less danger of losing it-than four years in the presidency.
I thing one term of John McCain, giving Obama time to “ripen” would be something that this country could not afford.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:20 am
Nice post Alan. I don’t know if you recall but I often though it humorous how many were asking, “but is he tough enough for the general election against McCain?” I took what you said above as a calculating politician, and didn’t have too many thoughts about his toughness. Whether this is a good or a bad thing I don’t know, but it could be important in his abilities to handle diplomatic relations which seem to be a series of strategic calculations. We do seem to have to speculate what convictions lie behind his intellect, but I’d suspect it has to do with success, and leaving behind a lasting legacy more than anything.
I wonder if the realization from Congressional Democrats that he might have been “calculatingly” liberal will tarnish his working relationship with them if he happens to become president.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 am
I find it hard to believe that Obama is more liberal than Bernie Sanders (a former Socialist) or Barbara Boxer, Russ Feingold, etc.
I would need to see the criteria used.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Whereas, with McCain, he’s served for a mighty long time and his campaign this time has gone against nearly everything he believed in previously. Now, how do we judge that? Will 1998 John McCain be president, or will 2008 John McCain? (I’d think 2008; he has to pander to the GOP’s massive far-right constituency)
I think your points on Obama are totally valid, Alan, but I think it’s very hard to judge McCain as well, due to his shift to the right and his tendency for Rovian-campaigning, which he condemned in 2000.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I want a president who is sharp and knows how to play the game, who knows how to beat the best and overcome vast obstacles. Let Obama be calculating, at least we know that if it is only calculation that he is a genius, and without the character flaws of Clinton, sounds like an excellent President.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Also who knows, he just may feel he is destined for the job, for greatness, ambition isn’t a bad trait in and of itself
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:43 pm
.
Harshly.
Although, I would argue that, policy-wise, he’s actually pretty similar to where he was in 2000. It’s the attitude that’s seemed very different this time.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Yeesh, so cynical.
I mean, for me, it was easy to pick between the candidates because Obama’s political beliefs are much closer to my own than McCain’s. However, if I were in the middle politically, I do not think the issue you raise would matter so much to me. Perhaps Obama is a “duck” as you put it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe he has strong convictions and he wants to promote them on a national scale. There’s a difference between being ambitious and power hungry. I would hesitate to call Obama the latter.
October 22nd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
So, once the Duck wins for President, what does he do??? Please don’t leave us in suspense! (After all, if this is the model for our next President….)
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Alan,
Are yoiu starting to see the light? Well, one point about McCain you said isn’t true – he HAS changed policy on many things, some for good reasons, some not so good. Depends on your perspective, I suppose. I just read a quote taken from a speech he gave in 2000 when he stated his opposition to the Bush tax cut proposal. Not only did he change his position on the Bush tax cuts, back then, it sounded a lot more like Obama’s tax position, about making it easier on the poor and middle classes.
Another example that comes to mind is drilling for oil closer to the coast and in pristine parts of Alaska. Didn’t he oppose this type of drilling for oil when it placed the economy of the States in jeopardy?
Of course when you mention how his attitude during the campaign has changed, I would ask; isn’t that due to the changes he made in who ran his campaign? It was his stated policy to run a different kind of campaign than that which destroyed his previous run for president. Then he turned around and hired so many of the same people that ran the smear campaign against him. That’s self defeating.
There’s also the easing of the tensions with the Religious Right that he once criticized for being “agents of intolorence”, but now he embraces them for supporting him. Then there’s the Sarah Palin pick that makes one wonder what he was thinking. I’m sure there’s more I could come up with but Leapsecond summed it up for me and you get the point.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
If your an ambitious politician you take the opportunities to advance when they appear. people have attacked obama because they said he had races that were too easy, like against alan keys. This never made sense to me. If you are confident in your abilities and you want to take the next step why would you wait around passing up the best opportunity to win as you perceive it? If someone wants to have the biggest impact they can on the policy of our country president is the place to be.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
On policy he is not the same McCain. Now he panders to the religious right and promises that their taste in judges will rule his selections. He criticized the Bush tax cuts when proposed and has now not only sworn fealty to them but is promising to try and outdo them. Maybe he hasn’t changed on the Iraq war, but that shows such bad judgment that I’m not sure it’s a point in his favor. The only worse decision he’s made is choosing Palin as his VP.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Re: McCain and policy: On taxes, he’s never been for higher taxes. He opposed the Bush cut because it was fiscally irresponsible, but he opposes getting rid of the cut because it would be an effective tax increase. I think that makes sense. And, on drilling, circumstances changed and he changed with them. That’s acceptable — even Obama is open to more drilling. But y’all are right that he’s made some unfavorable policy changes. The “gas tax holiday” crap was a position I can’t imagine him taking in 2000. And he’s more pro hard-core conservative judges now, but I think that’s more pandering than reality. I would expect Anthony Kennedy style judges from him, but I could be wrong.
@BenG: see the light? Man, I live in the light. I’m just trying to share a little with the rest of y’all. ;-)
@wj: Duck goes back to the farm and writes his memoir. So, I guess we should expect Obama to quit and go back to community organizing, huh?