How Barack Obama became a skilled politician

He made all the right choices.  Smart and right.  The article in Sunday's New York Times lays out the paths Obama chose after law school.  It becomes clear right away that he was a natural politician, but one blessed with good judgment and people skills. 

He ran for Congress; he led a successful voter registration drive; he was invited to join the University of Chicago Law School.  He was picked up by a civil rights law firm whose partners and associates gave him entree into the world of Democratic activists and access to people who became some of his most important supporters.

“It was the ultimate good-guy network,” Don Rose, a longtime Democratic political consultant, said of the law firm, and the choice sent a signal that Mr. Obama was “allying himself with the independents, which is what you have to be if you’re going to be elected from the Hyde Park area.”

Inevitably, of course, the same network of people also had members like Weathermen Ayers and Dohrn, both of whom also taught at the University of Chicago, and, of course, Louis Farrakhan.

The Times article goes on to describe his first -- failed -- attempt to represent the district in Congress and his increasingly centrist (or perhaps independent) positions.  He stood against the Iraq invasion at a peace rally in Federal Plaza where he spoke.   But his unwillingness to condemn all war was not entirely popular.

The speech, friends say, was vintage Obama, a bold but nuanced message that has become the touchstone of his presidential campaign: While he said the Iraq war would lead to “an occupation of undetermined length with undetermined costs and undetermined consequences,” he was also careful to emphasize there were times when military intervention was necessary. “He has made it a mission to use language so it doesn’t alienate or castigate people with other points of view,” explained [one] friend ...

Having tried to play it down the middle on the Palestine-Israel issue, he's now carefully leaning towards Israel and losing some support because of it.  One Middle East scholar who expected more of Obama has been critical.

“I’m unhappy about the positions he’s taken, but I can’t say I’m terribly disappointed.” He added: “People think he’s a saint. He’s not. He’s a politician.”

Many of us would rather Obama's position were less favorable to Israel.  But most of us know that's political suicide in the US.  Better to avoid confrontation now.  Better to wait until one's political position is strong enough to take a more principled stand.  But it will be one of the test issues in this campaign and, if he wins the presidency, in his prospects for a two-term presidency.

Comments

[JW]

I appreciate what you mean by political suicide, but think you overstate the case. It's been a long time since Israel has been perceived as the David surrounded in a sea of Goliaths. Like the scholar, Obama's position doesn't surprise me. He's not simply a politician, but one with a excellent shot at the presidency. But he could do this nation and the world a lot of good were he to appoint Jimmy Carter his Secretary of State. and I think Americans by-and-large would support that move. At the very least, Carter's confirmation hearing would be superb political theatre.