More on Obamamania

Liza Sabater

Everybody is gushing over Obama but there are two very distinct posts out there worth the reading, from top to bottom :

From the best example of an Obamamania of almost biblical proportions : Afro-Netizen >> Entry #6 from Boston: 'Brother Senator', "How Does It Feel?"

Upon recognizing my voice, Brother Senator (as I will call him henceforth) turned a bit to make eye contact with me and give me that easy, familiar smile. He stopped a moment, looked at me intently through the dark richness of the music-filled room as though the sway of the people encircling him was a mere summer breeze, and simply said: "It's good." Not a rote: "It's all good," but more like good in the sense of goodness.

Goodness, no doubt, radiating from the collective surge of pride toward a man who made the more jaded and disaffected among us Blackfolk feel a sense of hope, optimism, and dare I say belonging to a political party still a shadow of its former self since the tragic rise of the New Democrat. Not ironically, Brother Senator became the embodiment and most compelling messenger of what Howard Dean's "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" rhetoric sought to reveal without the need to say so explicitly. The poignant authenticity of his personal narrative transcended what other speakers had to spell out with expressly ideological language.

To a sobering, and let's hope not premonitory, reality check : danieldrezner.com :: Daniel W. Drezner :: Not to rain on Barack Obama's parade, but....

Ford, Ford... that name rings a faint bell -- how is the 2000 keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention doing? Like Obama, Ford was the recipient of a media blitz for being an attractive minority face for the Democrats (side note: I'm getting really sick of hearing the word "articulate" used constantly whenever an African-American politician speaks in a tone that sounds more responsible than Al Sharpton). Since that speech, he was anointed as a future leader of the Democratic Party.

So where's Harold Ford Jr. on the DNC speaker schedule this year? He's not talking during prime time.

Ah, here he is -- he's got the 4:20 PM slot today. Hell, Dennis Kucinich has a better time slot.

My point is that Democrats have a recent tendency at conventions to promote a young African American politician as the Next Great Black Hope. It makes for some great TV footage -- and then these politicians recede into the background.

Also worthy of note is the comments section of TalkLeft: Open Thread: Who Had the Best Speech Tonight?