11
Dec 09The King Obama show.
After Barack Obama’s Nobel acceptance speech, Ezra Klein pointed out that Obama has some pretty severe limits on his actions:
Obama is arguing that he’s not a symbol or an inspiration so much as he is an employee, and his position comes with a certain set of responsibilities, and certain suite of strictures, and he means to live within those confines. He’s not a King or a Gandhi because that’s not, well, his job. The vision that people have of him — the vision that got him the Nobel peace prize — is not an understanding of the role he currently occupies, and means to continue occupying.
It’s rare, I imagine, for someone to accept the Nobel Peace Prize by explaining that they have no intention of following in the footsteps of King and Gandhi. But that was Obama’s argument yesterday. It wasn’t an argument with King or Gandhi so much as with the expectations and hopes his global, and many of his domestic, supporters have for him.
Bolding mine. This isn’t a new thing by any means, but it’s always disappointing to see politicians treated largely as ciphers–for instance, Obama campaigned on escalating the Afghan war, but now a large number of his supporters are acting as if he’s betrayed them by following through.
Tangentially, that “King or Gandhi” line reminded me that I really like most of King Khan’s output, and the King Khan & BBQ Show’s Invisible Girl is pretty darn good.
December 11th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Obama campaigned on escalating the Afghan war, but now a large number of his supporters are acting as if he’s betrayed them by following through.
This, i hate the most. He made no secret of his intentions to continue the war, and regardless of whether or not you agree with it–he’s keeping his campaign promise.
King Khan & BBQ were featured in Cincinnati’s music paper this week. Great shit.