June 20, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Two Obamas
By DAVID BROOKS
The New York Times
God, Republicans are saps. They think that they’re running against some
academic liberal who wouldn’t wear flag pins on his lapel, whose wife
isn’t
proud of America and who went to some liberationist church where the
pastor
damned his own country. They think they’re running against some naïve
university-town dreamer, the second coming of Adlai Stevenson.
But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most
split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there
is
Dr. Barack, the high-minded, Niebuhr-quoting speechifier who spent this
past
winter thrilling the Scarlett Johansson set and feeling the fierce urgency
of now. But then on the other side, there’s Fast Eddie Obama, the
promise-breaking, tough-minded Chicago pol who’d throw you under the truck
for votes.
This guy is the whole Chicago package: an idealistic, lakefront liberal
fronting a sharp-elbowed machine operator. He’s the only politician of our
lifetime who is underestimated because he’s too intelligent. He speaks so
calmly and polysyllabically that people fail to appreciate the
Machiavellian
ambition inside.
But he’s been giving us an education, for anybody who cares to pay
attention. Just try to imagine Mister Rogers playing the agent Ari in
“Entourage” and it all falls into place.
Back when he was in the Illinois State Senate, Dr. Barack could have taken
positions on politically uncomfortable issues. But Fast Eddie Obama voted
“present” nearly 130 times. From time to time, he threw his voting power
under the truck.
Dr. Barack said he could no more disown the Rev. Jeremiah Wright than
disown
his own grandmother. Then the political costs of Rev. Wright escalated and
Fast Eddie Obama threw Wright under the truck.
Dr. Barack could have been a workhorse senator. But primary candidates
don’t
do tough votes, so Fast Eddie Obama threw the workhorse duties under the
truck.
Dr. Barack could have changed the way presidential campaigning works. John
McCain offered to have a series of extended town-hall meetings around the
country. But favored candidates don’t go in for unscripted free-range
conversations. Fast Eddie Obama threw the new-politics mantra under the
truck.
And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama
has
worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to
political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent
much
of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In
January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works.
In
February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed
to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said
he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest
Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a
longtime advocate of the public-financing system.
But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie
Obama threw public financing under the truck. In so doing, he probably
dealt
a death-blow to the cause of campaign-finance reform. And the only thing
that changed between Thursday and when he lauded the system is that
Obama’s
got more money now.
And Fast Eddie Obama didn’t just sell out the primary cause of his life.
He
did it with style. He did it with a video so risibly insincere that
somewhere down in the shadow world, Lee Atwater is gaping and applauding.
Obama blamed the (so far marginal) Republican 527s. He claimed that
private
donations are really public financing. He made a cut-throat political
calculation seem like Mother Teresa’s final steps to sainthood.
The media and the activists won’t care (they were only interested in
campaign-finance reform only when the Republicans had more money).
Meanwhile, Obama’s money is forever. He’s got an army of small donors and
a
phalanx of big money bundlers, including, according to The Wa****ngton
Post,
Kenneth Griffin of the Citadel Investment Group; Kirk Wager, a Florida
trial
lawyer; James Crown, a director of General Dynamics; and Neil Bluhm, a
hotel, office and casino developer.
I have to admit, I’m ambivalent watching all this. On the one hand, Obama
did sell out the primary cause of his professional life, all for a tiny
political advantage. If he’ll sell that out, what won’t he sell out? On
the
other hand, global affairs ain’t beanbag. If we’re going to have a
president
who is going to go toe to toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, maybe it
is
better that he should have a ruthlessly op****tunist Fast Eddie Obama
lurking
inside.
All I know for sure is that this guy is no liberal goo-goo. Republicans
keep
calling him naïve. But naïve is the last word I’d use to describe Barack
Obama. He’s the most effectively political creature we’ve seen in decades.
Even Bill Clinton wasn’t smart enough to succeed in politics by pretending
to renounce politics.
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