Obama is not Masked: He is the Mask

Since Election Day, the nation has been absorbed with two concerns: first, reaction to the election of Barack Obama, and then, speculation on how he will govern. Now that reality has set in, everyone is trying to figure out if the man who was elected by the people is the same man who will govern the country. In other words, was Obama for real, or was he wearing a mask? Obama was real enough, but he may have been the mask others were wearing.

Everyone agrees Obama’s election was historic. It goes without saying that the election of the first African-American president would be an important event in history. But, while Obama’s African-American identity was a component of public discourse about the campaign during the campaign, particularly in reference to voter demographics and opinion poll results, race and civil rights were not per se platform issues of the campaign.  

The media, though, used those issues to frame most of their depictions of a jubilant electorate in morning after coverage. Obama’s win was a triumph of civil rights, they suggested, by their collective choices of coverage, more so than a triumph of a skilled, charismatic black man who was right on the economy, the war, and health care.  

It’s almost as if McCain himself had set the stage with his election night concession speech: “This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight,” he told his supporters. True, Obama’s election was a milestone for African-Americans, but it was also a benchmark for all Americans and for our democracy. Even First Lady Laura Bush could express pride in the presence of a black man in the White House.  

In short, mixed race election night crowds in Chicago’s Grant Park and predominantly black gatherings on the streets of Harlem outside the Apollo Theater together tell the American tale of Obama’s victory.  

At this juncture, insights about how Obama will govern have been divined from his personnel decisions. Let’s take a look. His campaign was run by chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and national campaign manager David Plouffe. They’ll follow Obama into the White House as political advisors.
Other campaign staffers were drawn from Obama’s own 2004 Senate campaign, and from the ranks of those with close ties to former Democratic leaders Gephardt, Daschel, and Gore, and former Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry. 

Heading Obama’s transition team is John Podesta, who was President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001, and who, in the final hours of Clinton’s presidency, worked with him on a series of controversial pardons. Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-5th district) will be Obama’s White House chief of staff. Emanuel is a product of Chicago’s Democratic machine, and a close friend of Axelrod. Known for playing hard ball, and getting things done, he was senior political adviser to Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998.

As of this post, Hillary Clinton is under consideration for Secretary of State, as is Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Hillary is an interesting case study in opposition. She was the front runner, presumptive, even inevitable, Democratic nominee from the get-go. Her campaign was run by a number of seasoned Clintonian operatives from the 1990s and a group of women from Hillaryland, the designation for her domain as First Lady. Patti Solis Doyle, and then Maggie Williams, was her campaign manager. Mark Penn was her political strategist. Harold Ickes was senior advisor and her “Karl Rove.”

According to Joshua Green in The Atlantic, the front runner failed to achieve the nomination because of her failure at decision making and executive functioning, which were, ironically, the strengths touted in her campaign. It appears that her staff was busy fighting with each other, presumably because they thought victory was inevitable, and their main concern was not winning the nomination but being in line for rewards.  

It appears that Obama’s winning team chose him as much as he chose them. Somehow, aggressive guys who had worked fro Bill Clinton, like Axelrod and Emanuel, aligned themselves with Obama and not Hillary, the other Clinton. Perhaps they saw in Obama the authentic, human face of change-- hope and change—and put it on themselves, as their mask. Obama became the go between, between the American electorate and a re-constituted, powerful Democratic machine, an alternative to both the Clintons and to the Republicans.