What He Said

Being able to pack an observation of this quality into such a small amount of words is why Chris Hayes gets to blog for The Nation, and I don’t.

A presidential campaign is theater, and the conventions of that theater is that you suspend disbelief, stick to the script and don’t break the fourth wall. But in discussing the role that race plays in his [Obama's] candidacy, it was almost as if in the second act an actor just stopped reciting his lines, walked to the stage’s edge and talked to the audience about his life. The subversive nature of this rejection of convention is part of what made the speech so gripping to me, and so powerful. It was risky, and made him vulnerable, but his very ability to note the stage and lights that surrounded him, the rituals of the theatre, the clips playing on the news and the exit poll archeology that searches for racial divides, imbued him with wisdom. It made him seem as if he truly has perspective on the surreal craziness that is a presidential campaign. And it displayed to me what is his most appealing character trait: an ability to step outside of one’s own vantage point while remaining moored to a set of certain core principles.

~ by Jeff on March 19, 2008.