Obama's folly of youth shouldn't hinder rise
Obama's folly of youth shouldn't hinder rise
By DeWayne Wickham 8 minutes ago
I knew it would come to this.
ADVERTISEMENT The widespread adulation that Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) received with the release last year of his second book, The Audacity of Hope, pushed the junior U.S. senator from Illinois to begin making soundings about a run for the presidency in 2008.
And the initial response was downright giddy.
During visits to Iowa and New Hampshire - early testing grounds for presidential hopefuls - women swooned over Obama, and men rushed to be photographed with the man NBC News' Meredith Vieira called a political "rock star." Seasoned journalists gushingly spoke of Obama as a new force in U.S. politics who has chased everyone except New York Sen. Hillary Clinton from the field of viable contenders for the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination.
But Obama's meteoric rise felt the pull of a political black hole last week when The Washington Post reported that in an earlier book, he had admitted to using illegal drugs while in high school and college.
A window on youth
"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. … I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory," Obama wrote about the reasons for his youthful experimentation with marijuana and cocaine.
Far from being a prelude to his flirtation with presidential politics, this admission came before Obama entered political life. It was a catharsis - the kind of revelation about a troubled time that can produce emotional freedom and moral rejuvenation.
But in the world of politics, such honesty often runs afoul of the holier-than-thou crowd. I suspect, it's why Bill Clinton, when confronted on the issue, admitted having smoked marijuana but tried to mitigate this offense by saying he never inhaled. And I think it explains why George W. Bush deflected questions about his suspected drug use by quipping: "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."
'The club of disaffection'
Like many other young people of his generation, Obama experimented with illegal drugs. That's nothing to be proud of - and what he wrote in his first book, Dreams from My Father, doesn't come across that way. But it is a window into the thinking of a young man who, like his country, struggles with the issue of race and identity.
"Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection," Obama wrote of that period in his life. "And if the high didn't solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism."
Fortunately for Obama, he escaped that reckless period with no apparent, lasting damage. And fortunately for the rest of us, many Americans are willing to excuse such bad behavior by public officials when it happened in the distant past - and the person in question has moved on to a better life.
I don't know if Obama is of presidential timber. I don't know if he possesses the deep intellect, courage and character that this nation so badly needs in its chief executive. I don't know if he is as studious as he is bright; or if he is as feeling as he is outspoken about the problems of this nation's old and poor.
But what I do know is this: Given the candor and honesty with which he revealed his youthful drug use, and the fact that he did so long before mounting the national political stage, Barack Obama deserves to be judged on his public service, not some old demons.
He deserves to be given a chance to show us the kind of man he has become - and the kind of president he could be.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070109/cm_usatoday/obamasfollyofyouthshouldnthinderrise
By DeWayne Wickham 8 minutes ago
I knew it would come to this.
ADVERTISEMENT The widespread adulation that Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) received with the release last year of his second book, The Audacity of Hope, pushed the junior U.S. senator from Illinois to begin making soundings about a run for the presidency in 2008.
And the initial response was downright giddy.
During visits to Iowa and New Hampshire - early testing grounds for presidential hopefuls - women swooned over Obama, and men rushed to be photographed with the man NBC News' Meredith Vieira called a political "rock star." Seasoned journalists gushingly spoke of Obama as a new force in U.S. politics who has chased everyone except New York Sen. Hillary Clinton from the field of viable contenders for the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nomination.
But Obama's meteoric rise felt the pull of a political black hole last week when The Washington Post reported that in an earlier book, he had admitted to using illegal drugs while in high school and college.
A window on youth
"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was. … I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory," Obama wrote about the reasons for his youthful experimentation with marijuana and cocaine.
Far from being a prelude to his flirtation with presidential politics, this admission came before Obama entered political life. It was a catharsis - the kind of revelation about a troubled time that can produce emotional freedom and moral rejuvenation.
But in the world of politics, such honesty often runs afoul of the holier-than-thou crowd. I suspect, it's why Bill Clinton, when confronted on the issue, admitted having smoked marijuana but tried to mitigate this offense by saying he never inhaled. And I think it explains why George W. Bush deflected questions about his suspected drug use by quipping: "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."
'The club of disaffection'
Like many other young people of his generation, Obama experimented with illegal drugs. That's nothing to be proud of - and what he wrote in his first book, Dreams from My Father, doesn't come across that way. But it is a window into the thinking of a young man who, like his country, struggles with the issue of race and identity.
"Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection," Obama wrote of that period in his life. "And if the high didn't solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism."
Fortunately for Obama, he escaped that reckless period with no apparent, lasting damage. And fortunately for the rest of us, many Americans are willing to excuse such bad behavior by public officials when it happened in the distant past - and the person in question has moved on to a better life.
I don't know if Obama is of presidential timber. I don't know if he possesses the deep intellect, courage and character that this nation so badly needs in its chief executive. I don't know if he is as studious as he is bright; or if he is as feeling as he is outspoken about the problems of this nation's old and poor.
But what I do know is this: Given the candor and honesty with which he revealed his youthful drug use, and the fact that he did so long before mounting the national political stage, Barack Obama deserves to be judged on his public service, not some old demons.
He deserves to be given a chance to show us the kind of man he has become - and the kind of president he could be.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20070109/cm_usatoday/obamasfollyofyouthshouldnthinderrise
posted by presgore19 at 4:02 AM
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