He wants to be known as Hussein now?
The president joked at the Al Smith dinner about how both candidates had “unusual” middle names — Mitt and Hussein — noting mock-wistfully, or maybe really wistfully, “I wish I could use my middle name.”
The line summed up Obama’s incredible odyssey, how many barriers he had to leap over with no rich daddy, no daddy at all, to rise to the pinnacle. President Cool hates the fact that the uncool scion is making him descend from the lofty heights of governing and engage in crass politics.
Romney can only do offense, not defense.
Trouble is,
if you read Maraniss' book*, or even have read excerpts, you begin to wonder if obstacles were indeed "leaped", or if there was a team running out, deliberately removing the hurdles in his scholastic and career lane.
I'm just glad this go-around, Dowd referred to him as President Cool, without referencing Cool Hand Luke, as is her typical wont in these label-him-aloof character assessments.
Lucas Jackson had followers -- real followers, not movie-star conceit -- based on his acts, not because he courted them. He disdained adulation, lived by instinct. He amused himself perhaps, but never sought to lead the chain-gang. Said he never planned anything a day in his life...
By contrast,
Obama's entire career path was essentially laid out for him pre-law school: the roots in Chicago laying the credentialed foundation so he too could one day himself shine in a network -- a binder, if you will -- of up-and-coming African-American political leaders.
The "cool hand" reference referred to having nothing in hand: "Sometimes nothing's a pretty cool hand."
If Dowd believes Obama fits that mold, she falls victim to racist thinking: Obama led a relatively privileged young life, even before he was groomed for his leadership posts. Nttawwt.* He's not the first politician to come up like that, representing.
Perhaps it explains why the president is not exactly hurdling the obstacles before us now -- the country, not his campaign -- or is not capable of effectively reaching out to lead outside his circle of followers.
(I'd venture she's wrong about Romney not being able to step up and play defensively too when needed, but that's another story for another day.)
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*Not all single mother sob stories are created alike:
The security of his veteran grandfather was no doubt an advantage; the grandmother- banker charged with raising him to manhood surely advanced her career in the pre-binder working-women days.
She was responsible enough to send her grandson to a private prep school, where it sounds like he did not exactly have to work too hard to seize the opportunities that would eventually be offered up to him, as if he was plucked by the hand of chance for the role, from a binder of perfectly qualified non-applicants...
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