Newton, Traction, and "Normalcy"

Newton’s third law of motion is wonderfully simple and economic: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Politics is not that simple.

A story about neglecting veteran outpatients and some sloppy maintenance in a building appeared the front page of The Washington Post recently. It created more political reverberations that a bomb exploding in an echo chamber. The story resonates powerfully with many Americans—as well it should.

Political pros say the story has traction.

News of Congressional investigations about these matters almost certainly provoked the Bush Administration to try “to get out in front of the story.” The Bush Administration announced an investigation of its own. A few people were fired. President Bush and others made some high profile visits. These actions were taken to deflect the impact of the Congressional hearings that began on Monday.

Which Leads Us to Obama

The early stages of Senator Obama’s presidential campaign has many purposes. One is to introduce himself to most Americans. To suggest his campaign to introduce himself to America is working is to suggest that winter in the Northeast this year has been a little cold.

In some polls, he has closed to within eleven points of Senator Clinton. And, he has only just begun.

He is doing a particularly good job of winning over African American voters from the Senator from New York.

Obama’s actions have prompted Senator Clinton to formulate a variety of reactions. She decided that Senator Obama should not attract all the media attention devoted to a commemoration of one of the most important turning points in the American Civil Rights Movement—what is now called Bloody Sunday. Last week Senator Clinton announced that she would attend the festivities commemorating the event.

Then near the end of the week, former President Clinton noted that he too would attend the activities.

The annual celebration quickly turned into the political pit stop of the week.


Briefly

On Sunday, March 7, 1964, activists hoping to gain voting rights for African-Americans crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Their voting rights campaign had been going on for weeks. Morale was low. They had few successes.

Near the top of the Edmund Pettis Bridge protesters were confronted by a cadre of law enforcement officials. The protestors stopped to pray. Soon the law enforcement officers hurled tear gas into the group of protestors. Then the officers beat the protestors. Television cameras recorded the violent actions.

What had been a faltering and largely ineffective protest, got traction. Movement leaders then orchestrated a brilliant protest—a march to the state capital of Montgomery.

Eighteen months later President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.

Jockeying for Position

Last Sunday morning, Obama addressed a group at what was called a prayer breakfast. He noted that a relative his mothers had owned slaves. He said, "That's no surprise in America!"

The comment generated a great deal of applause.

Later that day Senator Obama was at Brown’s Chapel—where the march on Bloody Sunday started.

To me the speech seemed to be mostly a response to those who had argued that he was “not black enough,” that he was not of the generation of Civil Rights Activists. He spoke of the Moses generation—the activists during the Golden Age of the Civil Rights Movement. They laid the groundwork but did not see the promised land that equal opportunity provided. Obama asserted that he and others were part of the Joshua generation—those who would see the promised land. He talked about how the actions of the Moses generation affected his parents and others of their generation.

In terms of style, I thought he started very slowly, gained momentum at about the twenty minute mark and tossed a little of the magic dust he is now is so associated with. He read most of the end of his speech. He did not follow the Hollywood maxim of “have a big finish.”

While Senator Obama was speaking at Brown’s Chapel, a few blocks away, Senator Clinton was addressing a warm and responsive crowd at the First Baptist Church. Like Obama, she spoke of the Golden Age of the Civil Rights Movement with reverence. Repeatedly she referred to finishing the march.

To me the most interesting part of the day came later. After the march participants had taken their places, but before the commemorative march across the Pettus Bridge started, President Clinton joined the group.

No doubt you have seen a faint breeze swell into a gust of wind. It was a little like that. At first a few who saw him rushed to greet and touch the former President. He responded with excitement and brio. His responses encouraged more to rush toward him. Enthusiasm filled the air and rippled through the crowd. For a moment he was more than a man, more than a former president, he was a force a nature.

After the thousands who had assembled in Selma crossed the bridge, the former President was made a member of the hall of fame of the National Voting Rights Museum.

The Billboard

On the other side of the bridge is a billboard. It thanks visitors for supporting local Civil War tourist spots. The billboard features a large Confederate battle flag and a portrait of General Nathan Bedford Forrest. The general was the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

I looked at the billboard and said, “That’s no surprise in America.”

A black woman next to me replied, “You got that right.”


Television

In 1964, the film shot of the protestors being attacked had to travel along a long and windy road to be broadcast. It had to be transported, developed, and edited before it could be aired. The images did not reach Americans living on the East Coast until late in the evening. Students of irony usually are quick to mention that ABC interrupted the movie Judgement at Nurenburg to show film clips of the events that later came to be known as Bloody Sunday.

News travels faster now.

About an hour after the event ended last Sunday, I turned on the television in a hotel room. As is often the case, the event played differently on television than it had in “real life.” The report on the Selma events showed Obama flying high and looking as if he was a veteran preacher come civil rights activist.

Senator Clinton looked great in a pale green pantsuit. But even with all the coaching she has been given and the months of experience she has garnered of late, she was a little shrill and very pedestrian.

In that charmingly sterile environment that seems unique to hotels and the parties I threw when I tried to become a more well rounded geek, I studied the speeches the two senators had given that morning. In terms of content, both deserved good marks. They praised the history of the civil rights movement and credited it with their and their country’s future—not a particularly difficult call. But I had to give Obama more than a slight edge. He dug deeper and rose higher.

On style points, Former President Clinton had the best moment of the day. But that did not make it to any of the television news reports I was able to see. So in the only game that really counts, Senator Obama won the day because stylistically he soared so much higher than Senator Clinton.

Senator Clinton’s response to Senator Obama’s surge in popularity—her appearance in Selma—certainly served to blunt Obama’s impact on the day. But her reaction to Obama’s success of late, also served to escalate the importance of the events that took place on Sunday in Selma. She did well, but Obama won the day—most would say by quite a bit.


Normalcy?

Senator Obama has flubbed a bit of late. His image has been tarnished. He made a comment about lives being wasted in Iraq. Some suggest he fumbled the follow-up to remarks a celebrity fundraiser made. Nonetheless, the Obama machine continues to roll along.

It is still very early in a long campaign. It is foolish to make too much of one day or one speech. But right now Senator Obama is playing offense and has momentum on his side. Senator Clinton is forced to play a good bit of defense. More importantly, the dynamics of the campaign probably will force her to do more events where she may be easily compared to Obama. Given his natural gifts and her stubborn shortcomings, Obama seems likely to be the perpetual winner of the oh-so important style contest.

For the short term it is obvious that Senator Obama has enough traction to run up an ice covered hill in his socks.

Congress is now getting very much involved with the veteran out-patient scandal. This issue, important though it is, may soon transition into the status of “politics as usually.”

Already this is a very unusual election campaign. For the first time in decades an elder-in-waiting from a current administration is not plotting to succeed his current boss. There are more A-list candidates in both parties than we often see in three or four presidential election cycles. The campaign will easily be the longest in US history. The campaign is sure to shatter all records for money raised. And this doesn’t even begin to address the issues: a very unpopular war, a massive deficit, a growing desire to address global warming—when it’s easier for most Americans to get their arms around a gas guzzler than to understand the complexities of the problem. And there is still host of problems swirling around Social Security, a health care crises that won’t go away, and a long and often loud parade of other issues.

Normalcy does not appear to be an option.

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Too Serious A Matter provides intelligent, provocative, and often funny commentary about the often convoluted intersections of politics, strategy, and history. The title of the blog comes from De Gaulle’s comment, “I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”