Barack Obama And The Empty Suit

One of the many derogatory terms that I've seen applied to President-Elect Barack Obama in recent days is "empty suit." In one way, it says something positive about how far our Western culture has come that the first black U.S. president is being slurred in a way that criticizes his assumed character, rather than his racial makeup. Believe it or not, that's progress!

But after reading that term for the 2nd or 3rd time, I started thinking about what its use really told me. I suspect that the employers of the "empty suit attack" believe that Obama is nothing but a speaker-of-platitudes. In other words, he's not someone who will ever actually accomplish anything, but rather will be all talk and no action. If anyone can think of an alternative interpretation, please speak up...

If I'm right, though, then I really have to wonder about the intelligence of those who'd throw that slight around. Yes, I know that the Republican party, especially as personified by Gov Sarah Palin, spent much of the last few months leading up to the election characterizing Obama as being inexperienced (when they weren't otherwise occupied insinuating that he chummed around with terrorists... just like the Bushes and their Saudi friends, I guess!). "He's only been in the U.S. Senate for 2 years," they'd point out, "and most of that has been taken up by his running for President!" What they always seem to forget, or choose not to remember, is that Obama was an Illinois State Senator for 7 years. He didn't wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to be President, spend a couple years in the U.S. Senate and then somehow ride a wave of change-hankering madness to the highest office in the land (as some would have us believe). He also, unlike the man he'll shortly replace in the Oval Office, didn't have a family name to fall back on in his pursuit of political power. Each success (and failure) that Barack Hussein Obama has experienced has come on the strength of his own character and his ability to speak to the voters' hearts and minds.

The other aspect of the "empty suit" argument that boggles my mind is that it suggests that he really stands for nothing. While I can understand some cynics attributing that character flaw to many politicians in this day and age, Obama has published a very entertaining (and best-selling) book that details exactly what he believes! The Audacity of Hope, which I'm now about 80% through, reads like a character study of its author. He lays out, in painstaking detail, what he considers the greatest challenges of the 21st century to be, and what he believes should be done about each. He often adopts stances that are surely going to turn some people off (such as some of the educational programs that he's supportive of) but he accepts that and moves on, after explaining why they're so important. It's all right there on the printed page, trapped for all eternity and immune to the artistry of HTML wizards who might update a campaign webpage to reflect the prevailing winds (such as a true empty suit might employ).

I had many doubts about Obama when he and Hilary Clinton were going at it head-to-head back at the start of 2008, and my biggest concern was that they'd beat the crap out of each other and leave an easy target for whichever Republican would win their party's nomination. It really wasn't until the three Presidential debates that I got a good read on this "young" man (he's roughly the same age as I am!) at which point it became clear that he was the real deal and John McCain was a desperate old man whose only chance for success rested with his ability to denigrate his opponent. Everything that I've learned about him since then has elevated Obama's star in my mind, to the point where I think that it's possible he may actually become one of the greatest leaders to have served during my lifetime. Not exactly the sort of person who I'd describe as an "empty suit."

If only George W. Bush had just been an empty suit, instead of a clown with the power of an emperor.