“I
guess a community organizer is sort of like a small-town mayor, except that you
have actual responsibilities.”
“And actual accomplishments,” Barack Obama might have
added, had he actually uttered that first sentence on Tuesday night. But being a more charitable sort than
you or I would have been under similar circumstances, he somehow resisted the
urge to have a last laugh on those who had spent months mocking that particular
line of work.
Barack
Obama was in the No-Gloat Zone.
For
his very first speech as president-elect -- in his hometown of Chicago, with
the country watching and the rest of the world riveted -- Obama crafted a
message with much of the scope and power of an inaugural address.
The
closest he ever came to payback was that subtle shout-out to those who, he
said, make and remake this nation “the only way it’s been done in America for
221 years -- block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.”
Do
you need a better definition of “community organizing”?
Instead
of words he didn’t say, what stood
out were a few that he did. They came right after the part of his speech where he
vowed to stand against the “partisanship and pettiness and immaturity” that
have “poisoned our politics for so long.”
Right after the part where he quoted Lincoln assuring the fevered
partisans of an even more divided time that “We are not enemies, but friends,”
and that “though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of
affection.”
That’s
when he said it:
“And
to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your
vote tonight, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your
president, too.”
“To
those Americans whose support I have yet to earn...”
Not,
you’ll notice, “To those Americans who didn’t vote for me...”
“To
those Americans whose support I have yet to earn...”
The
failure, Obama clearly suggested, was his, not theirs. He had had to “earn” their support --
not expect it, not assume it. And
he had come up short.
He
would still listen to these people, he promised them, though they had voted for
someone else or hadn’t voted at all.
He would still depend on them; without them, success would be more
difficult. And he would still
labor for them as their president -- as everyone’s president.
But
he recognized his unfinished business:
He hadn’t done whatever it was he needed to do to merit their blessing.
Yet.
“To
those Americans whose support I have yet to earn...”
If
we know anything about Barack Obama, we know that he chooses his words with
uncommon care. For that speech, in
that moment, he would have insisted on the greatest precision -- every word in
its place for a reason
Were
these humble words? Perhaps. Faced with all the challenges that
confront him, who wouldn’t be humble?
But
these were also the words of a determined man. A confident man.
“To
those Americans whose support I have yet to earn...”
Watch
that space.
# # #
Rick Horowitz is a syndicated columnist. You can write to him at rickhoro@execpc.com.
Comments