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In a new biography of Barack Obama, the author David Remnick traces the astonishing political trajectory of a man without experience, money or connections, who beat the most famous woman in the world to the Presidency. Hillary Clinton's team underestimated their opponent for understandable reason.
Yet Obama's intelligence, charm and extraordinary self-belief proved more powerful than Establishment order. I wonder if his core of confidence owes more to the Kenyan male than the American dream. The more one reads of Obama, the more fairytale a character he seems to be. His story grows more rather than less incredible. Obama may be a Harvard law school graduate but there is also something of Aladdin about him.
In other words, he should be an inspiration for the unaided everywhere. In the great race for jobs, “connections” is a word invested with resentful significance. People mind less about David Cameron's privileged education than they do about the member of the royal household who allegedly put in a word for him before his job interview at the Conservatives' research department.
Nepotism is the cruellest of social advantages because there is no way of levelling the playing field. Oona King, who is campaigning to be London's next mayor, said in an interview yesterday that “as a black woman you have to be 10 times as good to get a tenth as far”. There is hope in that statement. But what if you are 10 times as good and it is still no use because jobs are already pre-ordained?
When Obama considered running for office he was warned by a Chicago old political hand called Abner Mikva about how the system worked. As a youthful idealist, Mikva had called in at the local office of the Democrat Party and asked if he could work on the campaign. The official took a cigar from his mouth and asked: “Who sent you?” Mikva replied that nobody had sent him, he just wanted to help.
The official put the cheroot back into his mouth: “We don't want nobody that nobody sent,” he said.
By the end of the Obama story, he is being hailed as a “black Jesus” and his followers have no doubt who sent him.
But at the start, the odds were massively stacked against Obama. So, showing an endearing mix of cockiness and humility, he sought out powerful mentors and asked each one if they would teach and help him. The figures he approached were flattered, or intrigued or amazed: “I thought: this guy has more chutzpah than Dick Tracy,” said Mikva.
To Hillary Clinton's dismay, money cascaded into the Obama campaign and her dearest old friends threw in their lot with Obama. The new President was cast as a saviour of America, but he is also a Patron Saint for job seekers without connections. And a reminder to employers to pay attention to the un-sent as well as the sent.
Limbs on the line for England
The World Cup coverage is so far a litany of injuries. I am also puzzled about what is serious and what is not. Rio Ferdinand has a sore knee and is out of the tournament. The Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba has broken his arm but seems to be fine after an operation. In real life broken limbs take at least six weeks to heal and they are smothered in plaster.
It is unbearable to contemplate any further injury to Wayne Rooney's groin. The New Yorker carries a piece about the 1950 World Cup match in Brazil between America and England. The 1-0 win to America pretty much destroyed England. This time, American critics diagnose England's weakness as a “ mix of arrogance and ignorance”. England's strength is Rooney. How can he play at full ferocity without risk of injury? It is sport's unhappy paradox.
Foxes are an urban menace
A pleasant consequence of my commuting from the countryside in recent weeks has been the absence of foxes. I have not had to clean up rubbish strewn across the path in the morning. Foxes are now an urban blight and if David Cameron feels like reintroducing hunting, there would be little opposition from the sentimental urban lobby.
The assault on baby twins by a fox in Hackney is the stuff of metropolitan nightmares. Of course the back doors were open, it is a London architectural imperative to combine “indoor-outdoor” living.
I pursued an obsessive vigilante campaign against a fox in Hammersmith, using an arsenal of Jack Bauer-style props including a blindingly powerful lamp. Nothing worked. Finally, it sauntered down the road to see me off in my removals van. The attack in Hackney should finally put an end to any fantastic Mr Fox fantasies from the animal rights activists. These are vermin.
Mother's warning to Nick Clegg
A middle-aged, dark-haired woman in Marks & Spencer was talking on her mobile phone to her son, with quiet exasperation. Why did he switch his phone off? Where was he?
It is a conversation most mothers have daily with their children. The difference in this case was that the mother was in a wheelchair. Her son, a shy and handsome teenager, hurried across the store to join her. He said he was sorry, he had just had his phone on silent for 10 minutes.
Nick Clegg promises the cuts will not fall too grievously on the vulnerable. Carers of the ill and disabled deserve all the help they can get.
Reader views (7)
Yes, kids should aspire to be politically polarizing, backstabbing, whining, narcassistic and become experts at playing upon people's insecurities in order to get what they want. No, Obama is actually the example of what kids should never aspire to be.
- JT, USA, 11/06/2010 03:49
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Fabulous, inspiring article. Remember, this isn't like a black person making it to the top of a meritocratic business organization.
This is politics! For someone black to have made it to the commanding job in US politics... well that is a kind of astonishing miracle - an event that would be far fetched even in wildest dreams.
7 years ago if you dreamed this I'd have asked what you'd been smoking.
It is interesting that in advance he assessed the major impediment he faced: lack of connections. Then he resolutely moved counter this. His remedy was to offer relationships (through flattery, charm etc - basically barter).
I'm black and it makes me wonder: prejudice perhaps doesn't always exist where I think it does. Prejudice in some cases might simply = Lack of relationship.
But then I'll only get far with this theory if I'm prepared to accept responsibility.
- Luca, London, 09/06/2010 10:53
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Re foxes: why not look at the route of the problem? It does not take a great deal of intelligence to work out that foxes have been invading urban areas because they have been driven out of the countryside by over development and/or hunting, and because of the amount of food waste left by households and supermarkets in towns. These are the problems which need to be addressed; the concreting over of the countryside, excessive number of supermarkets, excessive food production and food waste all being linked. The amount of food thrown away by supermarkets and households is truly staggering.
But on the basis of one (albeit horrible) incident, Ms Sands condemns all foxes. Would she call for a cull of 10 year old boys in response to the horrific murder of Jamie Bulger? Presumably not, but her lazy approach reflects the fact that it's more tempting to rant against those who cannot speak out for themselves, rather than remove one's prejudices and think about a long term and fair solution
- Oliver Dykes, London, 09/06/2010 09:48
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No, I don't thinks so... working through the political machine... finding mentors that knew how the system worked... learning what to say and how to say it... having the nerve, the drive and intellect to do it, and do it well... defying then beating the odds...
All good stirring stuff. I just went straight to the 'how he did it' part however. And that led me straight to my conclusion.
Nope. I don't think I missed the point at all. It's just that 'point' you mention isn't all there is to it.
- Rogan, Irving, 09/06/2010 07:32
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I do not know what has happened to Sarah Sands as her observations are becoming increasingly bizarre. There is nothing wonderful about Obama, the most ineffective President ever. This is what happens when you construct an identikit candidate- make him look good, give him lots of trite rhetoric , and oh- lets make him black as well. That will bring in the votes! It did and the USA now has a complete dud for his term of office. This is the ultimate triumph of spin, P.R. and illusion over reality and common sense.
- Miguel M, Old Isleworth, 08/06/2010 19:25
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Rogan, you have missed entirely the point of the article!
- Elaine, Norwich, 08/06/2010 19:19
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Obama a role-model? The 'say anything as long as it gets me what I want' misdirection he has and still does employ routinely? His 'you say I'm a socialist so you must be a racist' attitude? Everything, as in most other things he does, that touches on these sample faults?
Sorry, I could no more follow that path than I could carry out do-it-yourself cardiac bypass surgery.
- Rogan, Irving, 08/06/2010 17:40
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