The Vent Pipe

The two front runners for the Democrat presidential nomination in ‘08 spent the weekend in Selma, Alabama this weekend. Vying for the “black vote,” the two campaigned throughout one of the foremost regions during the Civil Rights movement. The media coverage has been hot and heavy on this, and so I felt that I should say a few words…

First of all, I’d like to note the shift from “Northern Intellectual” to “down-home country girl that Senator Clinton underwent. Though perhaps not conveyed within her message, the delivery of that message clearly communicated this sort of shift. Take a listen:

“The Chosen One,” who, since elevating himself into the viable candidate realm has seen a surge in his support from the black community, underwent a similar change. From the very rigid, almost snooty sounding oratory of his past speaking engagements, including his 2004 address to the DNC, Obama shifted to a Southern ‘black-Baptist minister” sounding rhetoric of this weekend:

It almost makes me want to throw my hands in the air and shout hallelujah…

Don Surber, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers, compares quotes from the two candidates via the AP:

Let’s compare the quotes, courtesy of the Times and Nedra Pickler of AP:

Obama: “I’m here because somebody marched for our freedom. I’m here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Hillary: “After all the hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we’ve got to stay awake because we’ve got a march to continue. How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?”

Obama: “How can it be that our voting rates dropped down to 30, 40, 50 percent when people shed their blood to allow us to vote?”

Hillary: “Today, it is giving Senator Obama the chance to run for president. And by its logic and spirit, it is giving the same chance to Gov. Bill Richardson to run as a Hispanic. And, yes, it is giving me that chance.”

Obama: “If it hasn’t been for Selma, I wouldn’t be here. This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me if I’ve been to Selma before, I tell them I’m coming home.”

Hillary: “We’ve got to stay awake, we’ve got to stay awake because we have a march to finish, a march towards one America. Poverty and growing inequality matter. Health care matters! The people of the Gulf Coast matter! Our soldiers matter! Our future matters!”

Obama: “I know if cousin Pookie would vote, if brother Jethro would get off the couch and stop watching Sportscenter and go register some people and get them to the polls, we’d have a different kind of politics. Kick off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes!”

I’m sorry, but it really is no contest, based on those quotes. I’m sure Hillary was well received. But it was Obama’s day.

Certainly Hillary’s tactic of connecting the Civil Rights movement and the history of slavery in the United States to the Women’s Rights Movement is not unique. The two have historic links, and so her attempt to link the two as a means of linking herself and her ability to run was a smart, if not predictable, maneuver.

That said, Obama’s speech was certainly more rousing. As I noted above, it had that Southern-preacher feel. It made me want to shout out, even though I see him as full of, well, you know. He attempted to overcome the accusations that he’s “not-black-enough” (which, I think, would be more accurately assessed by saying he’s not “African-American enough” if by this we are trying to say that he didn’t live through the Civil Rights movement, that he doesn’t have a background cemented in slavery, etc. etc.) by totally reframing the debate. Let’s examine this further…

RealClearPolitics puts it this way:

Though of African descent via his Kenyan father, Obama is half white and is not descended of slaves. He doesn’t share that heritage, nor did he pay his dues in the civil rights movement.

But they continue:

Obama has made clear that he is a new generation of American black. He doesn’t have to genuflect to the civil rights period, nor is he tethered to a heritage that seems at times to hold others hostage.

It is precisely Obama’s ability to address America’s broader needs — black and white, red and blue — that makes him accessible and acceptable (and nonthreatening) to whites weary of the burden of the nation’s racist past.

He is, in other words, that next generation history has been waiting for.

It is precisely his ability to manipulate the debate that is seemingly responsible for Obama’s fast rise to political prominence. Whether he deserves it or not, Obama is the clear victor here. It is his ability to frame the debate which is allowing him to overcome Al Sharpton’s assessment that, “Just because you are our color doesn’t make you our kind.”

I’m often asked by my less-politically-inclined friends this hypothetical question who I think is going to take the Democrat primary (and then who would I vote for if forced to chose between Hillary/Obama). Up until this point, I was solid in my assessment that Hillary would, baring entry of some other candidate, easily cruise to a victory. Now, the Senator from New York seems to be in danger. If Hillary wants this nomination, she needs to find the same sort of fire that Obama seems to possess. That seems to be her only hope.

technorati tags: Clinton, Obama, 2008Election, RaceRelations, CivilRights