Obama Hearts The Wire

January 7, 2008 in Obama

Okay, now I’m really smitten. Commenter Ben Alpers notes that, when asked about his favorite television show, Barack Obama responded: The Wire. Ben found this nugget on Amanda Marcotte’s site, by the way. And Marcotte, in turn, found the information at Lawyers, Guns and Money. Now let’s all play telephone.

Well, we all know how this site feels about The Wire, the best show ever. But Ben worries that Obama’s answer might be more dog-whistle politics, a way to reach progressives who remain unconvinced by Obama’s candidacy.

I’m more hopeful — almost certainly because I’m more hopeful about Obama generally than is Ben. I prefer to see the answer as a case where a former community organizer, a man keenly aware of urban America’s problems, is pointing to the best depiction those issues have ever received on television. And maybe the best depiction urban life has ever received in popular culture. Period. (What do I mean by “best”? Truest, most accurate, most sympathetic while still unflnching.)

Right after the Iowa caucuses, I got into a quick back-and-forth with “Petey,” a frequest commenter on a number of popular political blogs, about Obama’s win. Petey is THE Edwards partisan, in case you’re unfamiliar with his work. And more power to him. On this occasion, though, he was tired and a bit down. It was 4 am, after all, and his man hadn’t won Iowa. But Petey was still spinning. He allowed that Obama had done very well with young people but pointed out that he had done very poorly with older voters. And that would be a problem in a general election. I noted that Obama had cleaned up in urban areas of Iowa (not entirely an oxymoron) and that held real promise for the general. My point then was and now is: we haven’t had a presidential candidate who explicitly represents urban America in, well, someone help me here, I don’t even know how long. And urban America needs representation. Especially as America becomes increasingly urban.

In short, if Obama’s answer is a dog-whistle, he got this hound’s attention.

29 comments

January 7, 2008 at 1:33 pm

more about the wire. by surya yalamanchili’s weblog

[…] Anyway, Obama was asked what his favorite show was. Answer? You guessed it. The Wire. […]

January 7, 2008 at 2:09 pm

urbino

we haven’t had a presidential candidate who explicitly represents urban America in, well, someone help me here

Depends on how “serious” a candidate you have in mind. Al Sharpton was an explicitly urban Dem candidate just last time around.

January 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm

ari

Hm, I should have said: We haven’t had a president. But the fact that we’re talking about Sharpton’s candidacy strikes me as telling.

January 7, 2008 at 2:17 pm

urbino

Oh, if it’s a president, then it has to be Kennedy, doesn’t it?

As for Sharpton’s candidacy, I was talking about it because you were asking about the most recent example. The one before him was probably Bill Bradley in 2000. I don’t know that he was “explicitly” urban, but he was/is certainly perceived as an urbanite.

January 7, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Ben Alpers

I may be more skeptical than Ari, but I posted it because Obama’s answer gives me at least a little…dare I say it…hope.

January 7, 2008 at 2:32 pm

ari

The Man from Hope. Oh wait. And Kennedy is right, Urbino. At least I guess so. But I don’t know enough about his campaign strategy — other than the Cold War stuff — to say for sure. The best I can do, after talking to a colleague, is Nixon’s ’68 campaign, which was decidedly anti-city: more police to keep urbanites (read: students and African-Americans) from setting things on fire.

January 7, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Ben Alpers

There have, however, been two “explicitly” urban VP nominees in the last thirty years, both on losing tickets: Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Jack Kemp in 1996. VP nominees rarely move any votes and I think it’s safe to say that neither of these two did much get “urbanites” (whether we use that term euphemistically or literally) to vote for their ticket in any greater numbers than they otherwise would have.

January 7, 2008 at 2:43 pm

urbino

Yeah, I don’t know how urban-oriented Kennedy’s campaign was, either. I was talking more about public perception than campaign strategy or rhetoric.

IIRC, Jack Kemp ran some fairly urban-oriented campaigns for the GOP nomination, back in the day.

In short, I don’t know that there’s necessarily been a shortage of urban candidates in presidential races, despite the perception of some urbanites. (Yglesias has complained about this, too, I think.) Urban candidates just haven’t done very well in a long time.

[This is usually where discussions of and complaints about senate seat — and therefore electoral college delegate — allocations enter the conversation.]

January 7, 2008 at 2:47 pm

ari

It’s also probably worth noting that if we’re going to call Obama a candidate particularly focused on urban issues, we’re inferring such a thing from his dog-whistle more than his stump speeches. Not to mention the way such a characterization is open to all kids of racial stereotyping. Still, the central point — that having a president who understands and cares about urban America would be a good thing — stands. Though perhaps such a claim could be made about Bill Clinton, under whose leadership the urban renaissance took place. That I think that was more a matter of happenstance than targeted policies is maybe not the point. Anyway, we’re supposed to be talking about The Wire.

Also I have to write something for On This Day in History. And the pickings are slim, people, slim. I’m not sure what to do. Maybe I’ll make something up.

January 7, 2008 at 2:57 pm

urbino

You could always write something extraordinary, thereby making history. We wouldn’t mind.

such a characterization is open to all kids of racial stereotyping

Absolutely. Still, I think characterizing Obama that way isn’t entirely an inference from the hypothetical dog whistle. He is from Chicago, after all, and spent his college years in Boston. He is an urban man — an urban intellectual, even — and that is immediately clear regardless of race or whether he uses urban themes in his campaign. That’s what I meant about JFK and even Bill Bradley. It’s distinctly different from GWB (or even his father, to a lesser degree) or Bill Clinton, despite the latter’s intellectual bona fides, or Reagan or Carter, etc.

January 7, 2008 at 3:04 pm

Ben Alpers

Also I have to write something for On This Day in History. And the pickings are slim, people, slim. I’m not sure what to do. Maybe I’ll make something up.

According to Wikipedia your options include:

1608: Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.

1924: George Gershwin completes “Rhapsody in Blue”

1927: First Transatlantic telephone call (NY to London) and Harlem Globetrotters play their first game.

1953: President Truman announces the creation of the H-bomb.

1959: US recognizes government of Fidel Castro.

1980: President Carter authorizes the Chrysler bailout.

1999: The impeachment of Bill Clinton begins.

That seems like plenty of material to me.

If nothing else, you could do a creative dual post in honor of the birthdays of Orval Faubus (1910) and Butterfly McQueen (1911).

January 7, 2008 at 3:32 pm

ari

Huh, I didn’t know about Jamestown or the Chrysler bailout. Maybe I can work with one of those. The others aren’t much help. Gershwin is a mystery to me. The telephone seems a stretch (couldn’t resist). And the H-bomb post I’ve started and stopped three times because I’m really writing about the A-bomb. Also, I’ve done something on impeachment already, I think. Maybe I’ll recycle that one. Actually, I might have something to say about that. Thanks.

January 7, 2008 at 3:35 pm

ari

Yes, impeachment it is. I’ll have something up later.

January 7, 2008 at 3:41 pm

ari

And I’ve avoided the birthday thing. It’s a slippery slope. Plus, it flirts with biography, which I view as a pernicious form of historical teleology.

That said, I also started and stopped writing a post about Zora Neale Hurston, who was born on this day in 1891. I wanted to write about Alice Walker’s Ms. Article, “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston.” But I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Which is weird. And going to library would totally blow my blogging time allowance for the week. That would be bad. So then I was going to link to the Library of Congress’s American Memory site on Hurston. But it’s not great today: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/today.html.

In the end, I thank you for impeachment. That should work.

January 7, 2008 at 4:22 pm

genesiawilliams

is pointing to the best depiction those issues have ever received on television. And maybe the best depiction urban life has ever received in popular culture. Period. (What do I mean by “best”? Truest, most accurate, most sympathetic while still unflnching.)
……………………………

I heart The Wire, I have seen every episode of seasons 1-4.

It is the realest show I have ever seen. Especially coming from LaLaLand.

Unfortunately for the urban front Corbin Blu (the big haired, Obama-colored ethnic guy from Disney’s High School Musical) is still the face of rocking hip-hop paint by numbers routines, and the Ambassador to all things Black, Urban, or generally Rough ‘n’ Tuff.

I also heart Obama’s urban-ness, I happen to be from Chicago and to have a hopeful that looks like the people I grew up around and understands the territory is good for me. And I think it’s good for the nation.

Plus, Obama was poor and urban or not that is universal in this country… and he was poor on an island and that’s like eating clay in Mississippi.

Though I would have been a Kennedy supporter that brand of urban-ness is nothing like the post crack war zone alot of cities became and still are.

Oh and thanks for the ‘This day in history’ :)

January 7, 2008 at 4:24 pm

bitchphd

A bearded hippie today pulled up next to me at a stop light, honked, gave me the big thumbs up and yelled OBAMA! through the window.

January 7, 2008 at 4:43 pm

ari

Did he mistake you for Obama? Or does he do that to everybody?

January 7, 2008 at 5:59 pm

urbino

Was that you? Small world.

January 7, 2008 at 6:42 pm

PigInZen

bitchphd, that bearded hippie could have been my father. Seriously. I found out from him tonight that he’s now supporting Obama. Why? I asked (not that I object) and told me the following story:

When MLK, Jr. was shot my father stopped shaving. He figured that he would do something radical to make himself stand out from the crowd, from the mass of middle-to-upper-middle class white dudes. A beard was his choice and I guess at the time not too many older men (he was 30 at the time) grew beards. Now, I have very vivid memories of my father’s civil rights activities and volunteer work as a kid. I had an educational childhood. Dad told me that he’s been involved in civil rights issues for nearly forty years now. The most interesting part of the story, however, was that he hadn’t told anyone in our family about his reason for the beard. He doesn’t know if he’ll shave it if Obama receives the Democratic nomination or if he’ll wait for his election.

Anyway, your comment made me want to share the story.

January 7, 2008 at 6:47 pm

ari

That’s one of the sweetest — I’m not sure why — stories I’ve heard in a very long time. I know you directed it to Bitch, but for my part, thanks.

January 7, 2008 at 7:23 pm

PigInZen

Imagine hearing your father whom your entire life has worn a beard tell it. I had no clue. Of course I said “you’ve never told anybody that?” to which he replied, “yeah, sometimes I do crap like that.” Which is quite true…

Great blog, btw. I’ve only recently found it (can’t remember from where, unfortunately, but you folks are keepers. Thanks for the intriguing content.

January 7, 2008 at 7:24 pm

PigInZen

wow, i just read my last comment and man is the syntax in that first sentence poor…

January 7, 2008 at 7:28 pm

ari

If you’re worried about the syntax in that sentence, you really are a newcomer to this blog. Or at least to my posts.

January 7, 2008 at 8:00 pm

PigInZen

At the very least I have the mark of the perfectionist. And all the neuroses of it, too.

January 7, 2008 at 8:35 pm

urbino