Killing her softly with his Song

[illinoisprogressive]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/09/07/obama/


Sept. 7, 2007 | STORM LAKE, Iowa -- Barack Obama has long been searching for a way to end his campaign appearances with a final burst of inspiration -- a magic incantation that will prompt voters to exit humming the title tune or, here in Iowa, to fill out caucus cards pledging their eternal troth. As a candidate who has elevated cool understatement to an art form, Obama is questing after something more enduring than heady cheers or a brief outpouring of partisan passions.

"He is allergic to cheap applause," said media consultant David Axelrod, Obama's closest advisor, during a Wednesday breakfast interview. "He thinks it doesn't get to the heart of the matter. You can fill up on applause lines, but 30 minutes later you're hungry again. With Barack, after he delivers a speech, you think about it."

But how do you win votes with the rhetoric of reflection as the Democratic race moves into post-Labor Day overdrive? Obama has proven to be the hottest political attraction in politics, aside from the Clintons reprising their two-for-the-price-of-one routine. Yet, after following Obama for two days in rural northern Iowa this week, I wonder whether the magnetic first-term Illinois senator and his unorthodox campaign can prevail in this tradition-minded state with its old-fashioned, you-must-show-up-to-participate caucus system.

In visual terms, the Obama rally Wednesday on the shore of sun-dappled Storm Lake was a political advance team's fantasy. (Axelrod had filmed an equally scenic campaign appearance Tuesday, against the backdrop of cornfields as high as an elephant's eye in Guthrie Center.) Speaking to a midday crowd of roughly 600 (Storm Lake's population: 10,000), Obama, dressed in tan slacks and a grey dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, managed to distill his different-drummer appeal to its essence.

"A lot of people ask me," he declared in a concluding riff, "why you instead of Hillary? Why you instead of John Edwards or other candidates?" He then briefly returned to the central image of his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention: a fragmented America of warring red states and blue states. "We can't govern because the country is divided," he said. "Nobody can govern."

Well, under this reckoning, maybe one 2008 candidate can govern -- a certain 46-year-old Illinois senator. Answering the why-me question, Obama declared, "What I have the track record of doing -- the experience that I bring to the table -- is putting people together: Republicans, independents and Democrats, to make sure we're actually delivering for the American people."

[Teaser]

1. Strummin my pain with his fingers

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