Obama: Tactician and Gambler

It is said that any decent chess player knows the basic principles of the game, but that the true hallmark of a master lies in knowing when to violate those principles. It is also said that a good poker player can calculate odds, but a great poker player knows when to truly gamble.

Should he not become President, Senator Barack Obama may want to look into chess or poker.

Conventional political wisdom would argue that, in his discourse on race earlier this month, Obama’s Job #1 was to get as far away as possible from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in word and deed. Obama, according to this convention, would “reject and denounce” Wright in his entirety – and many believe that he should even leave Trinity United Church of Christ, his church home of 20 years.

This would certainly have been the politically expedient solution. It would likely not alienate a significant portion of his electoral base, and it would go a ways toward placating the working-class white vote that most pollsters say is vital to being elected.

This would also have taken some of the bite out of the Republican attack machine, which is certainly drooling at a chance to roll out Swift Boat ads on Obama’s race, religion and alleged lack of patriotism.

Any good political advisor would certainly advocate this approach to dealing with the Wright controversy. Since no Presidential candidate gets as far as Senators Obama, Clinton or McCain without good advisors, it’s safe to say that Obama probably heard this approach a number of times in the days and hours leading up to Wednesday’s speech.

However, there’s a larger principle than electability or delegates at stake here. Obama’s mastery of the American political chessboard was put squarely to the test by this furor. This was the closest any of the candidates will come to a “red phone” moment before Inauguration Day.

Obama chose not to do the expedient thing. Instead, he denounced Wright’s comments – for all the right reasons. As Obama explained clearly, people who believe what Wright believes see America as having made no progress since the Amistad pulled into port. Though the progress has been slow, painful and all too often deadly, we are certainly racially better off as a nation than we were when the first slaves were unloaded on our shores.

Only in today’s America could people like Condoleezza Rice, Norman Mineta and Alberto Gonzales have played such important roles in our government. Only in today’s America could Nancy Pelosi be two heartbeats away from the Presidency. Only in today’s America could we have two African-American governors serving at the same time. Only in today’s America could Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

At the same time, he chose to approach the Wright question simultaneously from a personal angle. It is in this response that Obama’s true character has been shown. Rather than take a machete to his ties to Wright, he instead stood by him personally, acknowledging the good that Wright has done for his family, in his community and in his service to America as a US Marine. He also acknowledged that Wright, far from being a loony modern-day black militant as some news outlets and commentators would have you believe, has treated people of all races in his church with respect and care. There are many anecdotal stories to support this. (Check the Chicago Tribune for examples, or go to YouTube and look up “Jane Fisler-Hoffman”.)

Many of us have friends from far-flung places. I have the good fortune to have friends from all over the world, and all over the United States. I have friends who argue passionately in favor of pro-life, laissez-faire federal government, reparations, racial segregation, Zionist conspiracy and superiority of the male gender. I personally disagree with all of these positions. However, those friends have also been there for me when I really needed them. They cheered my successes, commiserated on my failures, and always told me what they thought I needed to hear out of genuine love and concern. Will I vote the same way as they do? Not on your life. But I’d never, ever give up their friendship. If the friends, mentors and loves of your life all think the exact same way you do, then there’s probably only one of you doing any real thinking at all.

One of the biggest criticisms of Obama’s speech is that he didn’t directly address the AIDS and 9/11 comments that Wright made. Of course, virtually no news outlet has played, say, the 10 seconds before and the 10 seconds after those comments. Now, I believe that asking God to damn America is wrong. However, Wright was talking about God damning America because it doesn’t treat its citizens like human beings. These two statements are obviously VERY different.

Does anyone deny that America has a history of this behavior? Ignoring all the usual examples of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation, take a look at the Tuskegee syphilis study – a Mengele-like disgrace devised, run and concealed by the US Public Health Service. President Clinton actually formally apologized for the government’s sacrifice of hundreds of black men solely to study long-term effects of the disease. Show of hands from anyone 50 or older: Would you have believed this back in 1972, when the study ended? So it’s not like there isn’t a pattern that supports Wright’s claim of an AIDS cover-up. It is outrageous. It is reprehensible. It is something I wouldn’t cite as true without firm evidence. But it wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has happened in America. Even the wildest conspiracy theories have at their core some ugly truth.

And if you study the Bible at all, you know God is a vengeful God, who will strike out at those who destroy and poison even the least of His children. When you look at Wright’s comments in that context, it makes him look angry, not un-American.

Obama also chose to acknowledge the realities that underlie and define the racial chasms in America. He addressed the real feelings of African-Americans, and placed them in their historical context. He also addressed the real feelings of middle- and lower-middle-class white Americans, and how the worst of those feelings and fears can be manipulated into hatred. After this speech, no one should doubt the maxim that racists aren’t born; they’re made.

Ironically, Obama did show influences of Jeremiah Wright in his comments about racial resentments harbored by working-class whites. Wright has long been an advocate of self-help for African-Americans. (This is a part of black liberation theology, which is a founding cornerstone of Trinity UCC.) By acknowledging that there is a real point in the anger some whites feel toward blacks, Obama also underlines the need for African-Americans to take full responsibility for their lives. Those who really want to paint Obama as “Wright Lite” probably missed this link entirely.

Anyone who argues that this speech was solely based on callous calculation needs a refresher course in political math. Sure, Obama is taking a big gamble by betting that America is so ready for change that our citizens will begin to consider the racial questions his candidacy has raised. However, what he’s gambling with are his Presidential aspirations – and quite possibly his political future in its entirety. As any top poker player will tell you, going all-in with stakes that big is a mathematical, intuitive and emotional calculation. Crunching the numbers alone doesn’t make you risk your adult life’s work on directly confronting such an explosive topic.

Adversity does not build character. Adversity reveals character. When a much easier and safer path was available, Barack Obama chose the political road less traveled. Will this result in his inauguration ten months hence? No one knows. However, in discarding the tried-and-true principle of only talking about race in glowing Kumbaya-type terms, Obama forcefully demonstrated not only the depth of his own American understanding, but also the forthrightness, analytical ability and loyalty that all Americans should want and demand from their leaders.