It is highly possible that Barack Obama's victory in Iowa could reignite the kind of American optimism that filled the air during John Kennedy's campaign in 1960. Many thought that Kennedy embodied the youthful vigor of the nation and could convince Americans that they were capable of doing anything. In other words, "The difficult can be done right away, but the impossible will take a little while longer."
Obama's victory was a reiteration of the grandest goals of the civil-rights movement, which simply come down to the content of one's character rather than the color of one's skin.
He is not running as a "black" candidate, even though The New York Times writer assigned to cover him wrote that very thing in his opening paragraph on Obama's triumph in Iowa.
Obama is running as an American candidate, and it is high time for that to be the primary identity of a presidential hopeful. After all, no one other than Obama is constantly discussed in ethnic terms. No one thought to write of Mike Huckabee that, once again, there was an upset by a white candidate who was seeking to continue the tradition of white men in the Oval Office.
This doesn't mean that Obama does not know what he is, and it doesn't mean that he is trying to "make white people comfortable" as black national airheads would say simply because -- like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and many educated black people -- he can speak the English language correctly and doesn't present himself as a perpetually alienated person in the face of "white values." What has touched people and spoken to them with such power is his call for common goals and voting with one's mind rather than one's eyes. That is fully an American ideal.
In his Iowa victory speech, he showed that he is clearly aware of the fact that the American epic is inclusive. Without a bit of sentimentality, Obama made it clear that everything in the high points of our history was upheld by fierce hope that met strong opposition and did not give in.
With these simple but powerful words, Obama rewrote the meaning of our moment:
"Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire; what led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation; what led young men and women to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause.
"Hope is what led me here today -- with a father from Kenya, a mother from Kansas and a story that could only happen in the United States of America. It is the bedrock of this nation: the belief that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us; by all those men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is; who have the courage to remake the world as it should be."
Some familiar faces of the civil-rights establishment actually did Obama a big favor by supporting Hillary Clinton; their decision made more clear the nature of his independence.
America has been waiting a long time for this, for a person who is from a so-called minority group but speaks for everyone and makes everyone feel that, as Billie Holiday once said, "We are all in the same storm."
There is a clear chance now for Obama to become president, which would shove a well-needed rag in the cynical mouths of those who would count this country out. His victory would also give many at the bottom the necessary proof they may need to believe they can rise far from where they are. What he can do for the country at large is bring a belief that we can actually handle our many problems and do more than cover them over with empty rhetoric. My money is on him and on what he means to all of us.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/346866_crouchonline11.html
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