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Al Franken Speaks   Arms Dealer to the World
Sep 27 2007 9:45AM EDT

Obama and Last Night's Democratic Debate

Did you watch the Democratic debate last night? I think it was the 300th. Guess I agree with much of what The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder said. He thought that the night was kind of about Edwards getting up in Hillary's face with Obama being cool and detached. I think in the long run, though, that still may serve Obama well. (I offer my usual caveat that my wife works for Hillary.)

I'm reluctant to inject race into this, but I think it's harder for an African-American presidential to get hot and angry at a debate like that than it is for a caucasian one. It's not a fair standard but I think an audience of voters--even liberal democratic ones--is going to get to some degree put on edge by a black man who seems angry. That's not right and I'm not condoning that but I do think at some level that's a reality just as I think there's a double standard for female candidates about, say, crying. It's one thing if George W. Bush tears up, which he does often. But should Hillary cry as often--and I guess we saw it at various 9/11 events and funerals and such--it would be judged by a different measure than if, say Chris Dodd welled up. So I think Obama's detached coolness--Ambinder nicely called it "serenity" which by all accounts, is an authentic measure of the man actually serves him well even though the punditocracy last night--I watched the post-game show on MSNBC--was all over the Illinois Senator for being too lackadaisical. Maybe he could have been more pointed--he could have twisted the knife on health care a bit more deftly-- but I think he was true to he is and that also happens to be comforting for white primary voters. Pundits who think Obama should get steaming mad are basically asking him to be inauthentic AND missing a larger undercurrent about race in America, I think anyway. Maybe I'm wrong.

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