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The Audacity Of Hope, Indeed

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 13, 2008

Updated: 01/12/2008 08:55 pm

Many Iowans I've heard from over the last few months complained about the invasion of their state by presidential candidates and the news media covering them.

Never mind that the Iowa caucuses have an estimated economic impact of $90 million, they were tired of the political ads and endless telephone calls. So I figured they would be breathing a sigh of relief now that it's all over.

In light of Barack Obama's stunning in the Democratic caucuses, however, a few people I've heard from are upset that so many political pundits and syndicated columnists find it so remarkable that a black man could win in such an overwhelmingly white state.

"(Columnist) Leonard Pitts considers us spellbindingly progressive - cannot believe us whiteys picked Barack," wrote a former co-worker in an e-mail the other day.

Still, one has to wonder how he managed to pull it off.

More Purple Than Black

A standard line I heard from many black people had been that whites would tell pollsters that they liked Obama but probably vote white when the time came. That would make more sense if Iowa had a primary with voting booths, but the Democratic caucus requires voters to openly declare their support for a candidate in front of dozens of people (Republican caucuses involve secret ballots).

Also, caucuses provide an opportunity to persuade someone to come to one's side if their first-choice candidate did not meet the viability threshold.

The fact that Obama is unquestionably a liberal also makes his Iowa win remarkable. After the quixotic presidential campaigns by Jesse Jackson in the 1980s, it was said that only a black centrist candidate could win over enough of the white electorate to secure the nomination. The Illinois senator is obviously able to convince voters that his ideas are more pragmatic than ideological.

It also helps that Obama has eschewed negative campaigning and emphasizes hope and change. He also has refused to play the "black candidate" game, positioning himself as a candidate who happens to be black.

In fact, it could be that voters see him as, well, purple.

In 2004, as part of its "Who's Next 2005" series, Obama appeared on the cover of Newsweek with the headline "Seeing Purple." The article argued that the Democrats' freshest face had a new challenge: to help his political party relocate its moral core and nudge blue state/red state America towards purple.

Focusing On Commonality

What I like most about Obama is his thick skin. He has turned a deaf ear to those who question whether he is "black enough" because of his mixed-race heritage, and refuses to bite on many other race-baiting issues. He prefers to focus on what we have in common instead of what divided us as a nation.

"Too often our political discussions focus on the things that divide us, but there are a lot of things we all have in common as Americans," he said years ago on his Web site. "On issues of faith, race, foreign policy or the economy, if we start with recognizing what we have in common, we can arrive at a politics that isn't as partisan and a little more productive."

As the title of his book says, he has the audacity to hope for a better America, and he has many Americans believing it. Hey, it worked for a guy named Ronald Reagan.

Joseph H. Brown is a Tribune editorial writer.

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