Obama and the American Flag
By JAMES TARANTO
March 20, 2008
Last October the Associated Press reported that Barack Obama had made a decision not to sport an American flag pin on his lapel:
Asked about it Wednesday in an interview with KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Illinois senator said he stopped wearing the pin shortly after the attacks and instead hoped to show his patriotism by explaining his ideas to citizens.
"The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin," Obama said. "Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.
"I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest," he said in the interview. "Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism."
But did anyone notice that when Obama gave his "major speech on race" Tuesday--the one necessitated by the revelation that his "spiritual mentor" had, among other things, called on God to "damn America"--he did so amid a row of American flags? We checked the video and counted eight of them, of which four are visible in the photo nearby.
We didn't write about this back in October, because the whole kerfuffle was, at its root, silly. There are many ways of expressing patriotism, and if wearing a flag pin is not Obama's idiom, who cares? It was arrogant of him to imply that his own patriotism was more "true" than that of pin-wearers, but one could put this down to defensiveness at being asked a "gotcha" question.
But in light of his October comment, what are we to make of his extravagant use of the Stars and Stripes on Tuesday? If a flag pin on a lapel is "a substitute for true patriotism," is that not also true of eight flags on a stage as a backdrop to a political speech? Obama proclaimed himself too good for cheap symbolism, but resorted to it the first time he faced a real crisis. Is he really any different from the run-of-the-mill politician?
'A Typical White Person'
"Stick a fork in him, baby," writes blogress Taylor Marsh of Barack Obama. "If he makes it to the general election, he's done." Marsh, a liberal-left backer of Hillary Clinton, is referring to this comment Obama made on a Philadelphia radio station, explaining why he likened his grandmother to his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright:
"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it."
Marsh asks, "Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton said someone was a 'typical black person'?" Never mind if a Republican said such a thing.
The Obama-Wright imbroglio is laying bare the racial double standard in America. The New York Times's Nicholas Kristof hints at this but doesn't quite get the point:
To whites, for example, it has been shocking to hear Mr. Wright suggest that the AIDS virus was released as a deliberate government plot to kill black people.
That may be an absurd view in white circles, but a 1990 survey found that 30 percent of African-Americans believed this was at least plausible.
"That's a real standard belief," noted Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a political scientist at Princeton (and former member of Trinity church, when she lived in Chicago). "One of the things fascinating to me watching these responses to Jeremiah Wright is that white Americans find his beliefs so fringe or so extreme. When if you've spent time in black communities, they are not shared by everyone, but they are pretty common beliefs." . . .
Many African-Americans even believe that the crack cocaine epidemic was a deliberate conspiracy by the United States government to destroy black neighborhoods.
Much of the time, blacks have a pretty good sense of what whites think, but whites are oblivious to common black perspectives.
What's happening, I think, is that the Obama campaign has led many white Americans to listen in for the first time to some of the black conversation--and they are thunderstruck.
All of this demonstrates that a national dialogue on race is painful, awkward and essential. And that dialogue needs to focus not on clips from old sermons by Mr. Wright but on far more urgent challenges--for example, that about half of black males do not graduate from high school with their class.
What it really demonstrates is that whereas whites are expected to be respectful, sensitive and fair-minded when talking with or about blacks, there is little expectation that blacks will reciprocate--to the point that a black presidential candidate doesn't feel inhibited from making a statement about "a typical white person."
It is true that there was a time when white Americans had to be taught to treat black Americans with respect, and that is where our rules of racial etiquette came from. But "racial reconciliation," the need for which we've been hearing so much about, demands a new etiquette--one in which everyone, regardless of race, is expected to treat others with equal respect.
If Obama is as skilled a talker and conciliator as his supporters make him out to be, he could lead the way here. If he wants to become president, he would be well advised to do so. After all, he'll need white votes, and references to "a typical white person" are not likely to win them over.
The Onion Imitates the Onion
• "President Bush announced today that he will sign a bill providing an additional $2.8 billion for private organizations that emphasize the importance of hoping for change. 'This bill acknowledges the immeasurable role of hope in envisioning a better world for everyone,' Bush said during a press conference. 'Starting today, I ask all Americans to hope together as one nation that the difficult problems that grip our nation will go away someday.' "--Onion, Nov. 23, 2005
• "According to witnesses, a loud black man approached a crowd of some 4,000 strangers in downtown Chicago Tuesday and made repeated demands for change. 'The time for change is now,' said the black guy, yelling at everyone within earshot for 20 straight minutes, practically begging America for change. 'The need for change is stronger and more urgent than ever before. And only you—the people standing here today, and indeed all the people of this great nation—only you can deliver this change.' "--Onion, March 19, 2008
Accountability Journalism
Our item yesterday on the Associated Press's pro- and anti-Obama editorializing brought this response from Paul Colford, the AP's director of media relations:
AP Online Political Editor Ron Fournier writes a column, found on Yahoo News and many other sites.
You may have overlooked this tagline, attached to the column you singled out today and all of his others:
"EDITOR'S NOTE: Ron Fournier has covered politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years. On Deadline is an occasional column."
Fournier wrote the anti-Obama editorial. One AP scribe who doesn't write a column, as far as we know, is Ben Feller, author of a dispatch yesterday on a speech by President Bush:
President Bush defiantly defended the Iraq war Wednesday as U.S. troops began a sixth year of combat in the long and costly conflict that has dominated his presidency. Bush conceded the war has been harder and more expensive than anticipated but insisted it has all been necessary to keep Americans safe. . . .
Bush, in a speech at the Pentagon, offered some of his boldest assessments of progress and said the war's legacy is absolute: "The world is better, and the United States of America is safer."
A war-weary country isn't nearly so convinced.
Anyone have the war-weary country's phone number? We'd like to do our own interview with it.
Tell Us About Your Divorce!
This "reader inquiry" is running on the Web site of Minneapolis's Star-Tribune (we figure it's good form to redact the reporter's phone number and email address):
Are you a woman in the military whose marriage has ended?
We'd like to talk to you for a possible story.
Please call reporter Pam Louwagie at 612-XXX-XXXX or e-mail XXX@startribune.com
Please leave your name and a telephone number where you can be reached.
Just reporting the news, we're sure; there's no agenda here.
The Other 5 Million Forgot
• "10 Million Baby Boomers Face Alzheimer's, Report Predicts"--headline, HealthDay, March 18
• "More Than 5 Million Americans Have Alzheimer's: Report"--headline, Reuters, March 18
And the International House of Pancakes Doesn't Serve Just Breakfast
"Dershowitz: 'Int'l Court Doesn't Give Just Rulings' "--headline, Jerusalem Post, March 19
Good News for Male Students
"Mankiller Cancels BSU Lecture Due to Illness"--headline, Idaho Statesman, March 19
That Way, Their Collar Buttons Won't Show
"As U.S. Border Fence Rises, a Tribe Tightens Ties"--headline, Reuters, March 20
News You Can Use
"Body Piercing: Don't Get Stuck With a Toxic Stud"--headline, U.S. News & World Report, March 17
Bottom Stories of the Day
• "County Residents Are Staying Put"--headline, San Diego Union-Tribune, March 20
• "Grocery Prices Hold Steady in Alabama"--headline, Birmingham Business Journal, March 19
• "Poll: Bush's Popularity Hits New Low"--headline, CNN.com, March 19
• "Canada Gears Up for Olympic Soccer Qualifier Against U.S."--headline, CBC.ca, March 20
Spring Is Here, Blame Global Warming
Winter is over, spring has arrived, and the Associated Press is alarmed:
Pollen is bursting. Critters are stirring. Buds are swelling. Biologists are worrying.
"The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast," Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.
Blame global warming.
The fingerprints of man-made climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year's authoritative report by the Nobel Prize-winning international climate scientists. More than 30 scientists told The Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state.
What's happening is so noticeable that scientists can track it from space. Satellites measuring when land turns green found that spring "green-up" is arriving eight hours earlier every year on average since 1982 north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Seems to us that worrying about this is awfully shortsighted. After all, if the "green-up" is coming eight hours earlier each year, everything will be back to normal in 3078.
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