Joe Klein of all people
well, Barack's speech was yet another reminder that, every once in a while, a figure of almost unthinkably transcendent grace, authenticity, nuance and wisdom appears on our benighted political landscape. If you read back to contemporary accounts of Lincoln, FDR, RFK, MLK, Coltrane or the Beatles, many small-minded and parched pundits did not see this, making no distinction between a Chase and a Lincoln, or an RFK and a McCarthy...we see this today as well. However, as hoarily cliched as it is to say it, I was proud after his speech, proud that such an imperfect and often reprehensible experiment as our country could produce such a man. I guess I should not be that shocked - we also produced jazz, basketball, Sinatra and the lox shmear, so it happens.
Joe Klein of all people, someone I often think of as a mainstream hack, actually said it really well in old Luce's Time Magazine:
"Whether Obama survives now will depend on the most important and overlooked part of his speech—the final section, in which he challenged the public and, especially, the media to stow the sensationalism: "We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day ... and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words," he said. "But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election we'll be talking about some other distraction ... And nothing will change ... Or, at this moment in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.'"
And that is the existential challenge of 2008: whether we will have a big election or a small one. Will we have a serious conversation about the enormous problems confronting the country—the wars, the economic crisis, the looming environmental cataclysm—or will we allow the same old carnival of swift boats and sound bites? The answer depends on the candidates, of course, and on the media—where cynicism too often passes for insight. But most of all, it depends on you."
word...
Joe Klein of all people, someone I often think of as a mainstream hack, actually said it really well in old Luce's Time Magazine:
"Whether Obama survives now will depend on the most important and overlooked part of his speech—the final section, in which he challenged the public and, especially, the media to stow the sensationalism: "We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day ... and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words," he said. "But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election we'll be talking about some other distraction ... And nothing will change ... Or, at this moment in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.'"
And that is the existential challenge of 2008: whether we will have a big election or a small one. Will we have a serious conversation about the enormous problems confronting the country—the wars, the economic crisis, the looming environmental cataclysm—or will we allow the same old carnival of swift boats and sound bites? The answer depends on the candidates, of course, and on the media—where cynicism too often passes for insight. But most of all, it depends on you."
word...
posted by Michael Zilber at 12:21 AM
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