the letter

I watched Barack Obama stutter, "uh," and "um" his way through an interminable press conference shown on Fox News. 

Obviously what I noticed first and foremost was his complete lack of articulation, elegant speech, lofty rhetoric, and poise that he started out with at the beginning of the primary season.  Had he given that speech at Toastmaster's, he'd have dipped significantly into his campaign contributions after donating $5 for every "uh". 

As for the content of his speech (and his character), two things jumped out at me - and for the record I'm paraphrasing him, not quoting him directly.  When he was asked whether his decision to attend Trinity 20 years ago was due to political calculation because it would net him many significant contacts and networking opportunities, he responded with how offended he was by that question.  He always seems more testy, thin-skinned and defensive to me in these types of situations than either Clinton or McCain.  A little later, he was asked whether he was leaving his church because it was so controversial and detrimental to his candidacy.  He definitely bristled at this idea and defended the church as having done great work in the community.  He described Trinity as a place where he'd come to Jesus and heard the loving word of God preached.  The only reason he was resigning was to protect the pastor and his flock from the hideous glare of the media circus.  He said he couldn't care less about people who think that Trinity is "controversial", that these people mean nothing to him.  When asked if faith based issues made running for office a great sacrifice for him, he said "I never saw this coming back in January". 

After the speech, Juan Williams commented that there were a lot of people in the Black community who saw Obama's denunciation of Reverend Wright and abandonment of Trinity as a slap in the face to "those who brung him" (my phrase, not Juan's).  Juan speculated that since Barack is the first viable black candidate for President, those same disgruntled constituents may just hold their nose and vote for him anyway in spite of the perception that he's broken ranks. 

I watched a terrific and terrifying little independent documentary a few weeks ago, Jack Baxter's Brother Minister: The Assassination of Malcolm X.  I really recommend anyone who's interested in understanding the dynamics of this election to watch this film, along with Spike Lee's movie "Malcolm X" and/or read (or re-read) Alex Haley's "The Autobiography of Malcolm X".  I was reminded of the significance of Malcolm in Obama's life by his own two books, but when I watched the movies I realized with some shock and awe that I was seeing weak copies of his pre-Mecca NOI rhetoric being performed by both Jeremiah Wright and Barack himself.  The cautionary tale here is that when Malcolm converted from the "false Islam" of NOI to embrace an Islam that preached universal truth and love for people of all races, he was assassinated by his former colleagues.  Jack Baxter, Christopher Hitchens and others believe that those colleagues are still very much in power today. 

My gut tells me that Barack Obama is a man walking a potentially dangerous and extremely high tightrope at the moment.  I hope that McCain wins this election, but I also hope that Barack can get back down with as much grace as when he first got up.