Is Obama’s style attracting conservatives?
Paula: On the front page of the New York Times Week in Review yesterday (Sunday, Oct. 19), there’s an article about conservatives who are deserting McCain and endorsing or at least leaning toward Obama.
The article mentions Charles Krauthammer, who criticized McCain for “frenetic improvisation” and praised Obama for his “first-class intellect and a first-class temperament.”
Also mentioned is George Will, who said in a column that McCain is acting like a “flustered rookie playing in a league too high.” And there is the endorsement of Obama by Christopher Buckley, son of the late uber-conservative William F. Buckley, he of the most intellectually effete and unruffleable manner. It seems to me that what these men are objecting to in McCain and responding to in Obama is style. McCain is not acting like a conservative in the stereotypical mold: measured, elegant, intellectually rigorous — these were the leadership characteristics that conservatives valued as the qualities needed to oppose the potential hysteria of the riff-raff. Think of that original of all conservatives, Edmund Burke, opposing the chaos and upheaval of the French Revolution. Well, now it’s Obama who projects these qualities. His views don’t necessarily appeal to conservatives, of course, but his manner does, and I think that some conservatives find this more important than his views, since style, ultimately, can affect thinking.
The fact that Obama seems like he would deliberate and maintain a level of civility, even in uncivil times, might suggest to these highly educated (elite?) conservatives that Obama might come around to their viewpoint. In this sense, Obama is probably seen by these people as more of a centrist than his views and voting record would indicate.
Robert: I was astounded when I read the George Will column on Obama and McCain a few weeks ago and then the Krauthammer column. (By the way, I once read that those two actually meet for a weekly lunch or breakfast and discuss politics. So I wonder if this came out of one of their conversations.) Will said something to the effect that experience can be acquired (Obama’s inexperience can be overcome), but that a poor temperament (John McCain’s) was not something likely to change over time. The key word here is “temperament.” This is one of those words, almost old-fashioned, used by conservatives like Will, and I never took to it over the years. Yet I think Krauthammer and Will are onto something.
It’s easy to think the problem with George W. Bush was his inexperience and his being totally over his head in the White House. But actually, I think it was Bush’s temperament (defensive, incurious, impatient, intolerant of ambiguity) that was the biggest problem. His temperament, as much as anything else, is why Republicans in Congress dislike him almost as much (if not more) than Democrats. He didn’t treat them any better or any more respectfully (by negotiating in good faith, sharing important information, looking out after their interests) than he treated the Democrats.
The funny thing is that when Bush ran for office in 2000, he campaigned as a friendly open-minded compromising “different-type-of” conservative. Then he gets into office and it’s all stubborn defensiveness. Someone less defensive than Bush would have corrected course on Iraq years earlier than Bush did.
Barack is quite measured and cool. I read a New Yorker article where a writer compared Obama to General David Petraeus, the guy who turned around the war in Iraq. Barack and Petraeus, according to the writer, are people who become more calm under stress. It’s quite possible that a lot of folks are burnt out on the emotionality of the Bush years. Given how saturated we are in media coverage these days, maybe Barack’s measured temperament wears well over time.
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Also recall that Obama (like Bush) will be tested in this presidency. Even Biden conceded to that fact. Obama’s got some heavy stuff to grapple with. We’ll find out whether he’s really got the stuff it takes or whether it’s all veneer.