July 30, 2008
Obama As Machiavelli
TheLittlestGator from Group News Blog wrote me this afternoon after consuming the latest NYT Obama background piece — Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Apart (link).
She was taken by how much the text/photo combo relayed two media memes I outlined at NetrootsNation, including: 1.) Obama as Machiavellian mastermind, and 2.) Obama as unknown figure, who is not who he says he is. (… And, you can toss in an additional frame that is growing by the day, which I would characterize as: 3.) Obama, the ultimate climber.)
Although I’ve posted this photo before, it acquires a unique new angle in the present context. TLG’s main point regarding the visual (provided by the Obama campaign, by the way) involves Professor Obama’s supposedly projective and confessional lecture topic: “RELATIONSHIPS BUILT ON SELF INTEREST.” Of course, notice how the arrow — passing from the corporations, through the dollar sign — can be seen to be pointing out the future candidate himself.
TLG also pulls out key sections of the article emphasizing Obama’s supposed “unknowableness” (and calculation):
While students appreciated Mr. Obama’s evenhandedness, colleagues sometimes wanted him to take a stand. When two fellow faculty members asked him to support a controversial antigang measure, allowing the Chicago police to disperse and eventually arrest loiterers who had no clear reason to gather, Mr. Obama discussed the issue with unusual thoughtfulness, they say, but gave little sign of who should prevail — the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the measure, or the community groups that supported it out of concern about crime. “He just observed it with a kind of interest,” said Daniel Kahan, now a professor at Yale. Nor could his views be gleaned from scholarship; Mr. Obama has never published any. He was too busy, but also, Mr. Epstein believes, he was unwilling to put his name to anything that could haunt him politically, as Ms. Guinier’s writings had hurt her. “He figured out, you lay low,” Mr. Epstein said.
The Chicago law faculty is full of intellectually fiery friendships that burn across ideological lines. Three times a week, professors do combat over lunch at a special round table in the university’s faculty club, and they share and defend their research in workshop discussions. Mr. Obama rarely attended, even when he was in town. “I’m not sure he was close to anyone,” Mr. Hutchinson said, except for a few liberal constitutional law professors, like Cass Sunstein, now an occasional adviser to his campaign.
Because he never fully engaged, Mr. Obama “doesn’t have the slightest sense of where folks like me are coming from,” Mr. Epstein said. “He was a successful teacher and an absentee tenant on the other issues.”
Perhaps these hit pieces would make things a lot clearer if they simply referred to Obama as “Niccolo.” Lest any of you are feeling complacent, by the way, don’t think any of these characterizations are going to go poof! if Obama wins the White House. This is permanent architecture.
(image: The Obama Campaign)
9 Comments Leave a comment
black dog barking said:
… Mr. Obama discussed the issue with unusual thoughtfulness, they say, but gave little sign of who should prevail…
They say it like it’s a bad thing. By postponing judgment Prof Obama leaves in place the mechanisms of observation and the possibility of update. Far too many of us make a judgment, Thing A is Good, and thereafter suspend all observation of the underlying substance of our now “known” “truth”. While there’s nothing quite like a sharp adversarial debate in the faculty lounge the outcomes are easily gamed by rhetorical facility and trickery. Our adversarial legal system works only when strict rules of evidence limit the course of rhetoric.
As for Relationships Built on Self Interest our economy would be a lot better off if the parties of interest recognized the interconnection required for successful and sustainable commerce. Can’t imagine what it would be like to have a President that understands the necessary role of cooperation in progress.
Anti Obama.net said:
Seems to me Obama is Machiavelli in at least this way: he’s willing to do anything (his means) to get elected (his end).
donna said:
Trolls are just so cute, huh? Too bad they never say anything useful.
Anyway, the NYT bias is pretty clear, as with most of the media. And it is not liberal. Too bad their profits are going down the tubes, huh? You think they would show a bit more interest in who is funding those relationships based on self interest. Hint: It is not their readers, it is their advertisers. They might want to look at what those advertisers think when their readership goes down because of stuff like this.
I’ve told the L.A. Times and the SD Union Tribune exactly why I canceled my subscriptions in the past. They apparently didn’t care.
Perhaps the BAG ought to offer a consulting service to the media on why many of us no longer bother to read their tripe or view their photo essays….
ratfood said:
Donna, I for one still find newspapers useful. They provide my pet bird with a place to submit his editorial opinions, which are every bit as insightful as those that typically emerge from the beltway crowd.
prince said:
Nobody’s going to do this to him.
Aiken Blue said:
Obama is a mastermind becaue he takes time to study the situation and find a solution. He’s thoughtful. McCain, on the other hand, rushes along headlong. Obama will make a great president and a good leader. We need somebody who inspires. Please support Obama, visit WHYOBAMA08.ORG!
Victoria said:
Sorry – this is about the text: As a former adjunct prof, I read the Times article with particular interest because I recognized the terrain and felt I could read between the lines, but I’m sure it read differently to others. For instance, that he didn’t publish… That’s primarily for tenure and he was never interested in tenure. So? This article leaves out what another made clear: True, he didn’t engage in regular (tenure track) faculty exercises, but he was there at eight in the morning for coffee with students, which drew fairly large numbers. He was doing two other jobs at the same time he was teaching! So how could he join in many things? That he taught around what personally interested him is probably part of what made his courses so interesting. – I read the article and thought, “This is a centered, grounded person who knows how to stay on course. Admirable. I wish I had been more adept at that when I was teaching.”
But yes, it’s getting played in words and images that all go back to Uppity.
ernie nazario said:
“— the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the measure, or the community groups that supported it out of concern about crime.” There is no mention of why the ACLU is opposing the measure. It seems clear that the writer is trying to suggest that Obama is not supporting anti-crime efforts.
campbell said:
You nailed it Victoria — teaching for Obama was not a full-time career and I admire him for fitting it into his schedule at all. Really regret the tone of this article which doesn’t seem to take any of that into account.