TOWARD EVEN A MORE “PERFECT UNION”

By Edwin Cooney

I was as shocked, befuddled and disheartened as I’m sure most Barack Obama supporters were a week ago last Friday night when the video of Senator Obama’s pastor damning America was released by right wing talk television and radio.

Here, it appeared, at long last was the “red meat” Conservatives were looking for to cause Barack Obama to seriously stumble on his trek toward the White House. After all, hadn’t previous efforts to paint him as a “radical Muslim” been pretty much a failure? Now it seemed they finally had something to parade before the fearful.

Then, less than ninety-six hours later, there strode onto a Philadelphia stage this uncommon man to speak for himself.

Anyone who offers himself or herself for election to the presidency must be prepared to experience investigation, review and ridicule. Our history is loaded with embarrassed presidential candidates, but some have actually prevailed.

There was little tolerance back in 1828 for any political candidate who might be exposed as living in “marital sin”. Hence, as popular as he was, it was politically dangerous for Andrew Jackson when it was publicly disclosed that Rachel Jackson was a divorcée -- and that from August 1791 until January 17th, 1794 the couple had lived in a bigamist relationship. Due to the mistaken belief that her divorce had been finalized, Rachel Jackson was still the legal wife of Lewis Robards of Kentucky while living as the wife of Old Hickory. Ultimately, although it was said that the public scandal broke Rachael Jackson’s heart and led to her post-presidential election death, Old Hickory prevailed and served as our seventh president.

Embarrassing as it was for presidential candidate Grover Cleveland in 1884 when news of his fatherhood of an illegitimate child was revealed, Cleveland’s reaction was simple and direct. He instructed his political minions to “tell the truth”.

It was risky, too, for Vice President Harry Truman in January 1945 when he publicly attended the funeral of his old friend, the notorious Kansas City mobster Tom Pendergast. Pendergast had spent fifteen months in prison for income tax evasion in the early 1940s. However, he was a friend and loyalty to friends was more important to Harry Truman than possible political vulnerability in a future campaign.

John Kennedy didn’t run away from his religious heritage in 1960 even though there were those who were, at least initially, willing to make JFK’s Catholic faith a near crime. One of them, preacher Martin Luther King, Sr. (“Daddy King” as he was often called), had urged his Atlanta flock to support the Protestant candidate Richard Nixon --until the Kennedy campaign successfully intervened in his son’s October 1960 imprisonment.

Then, there was Jimmy Carter’s “lust in my heart” interview with Playboy Magazine during the 1976 presidential campaign. Additionally, there was an attempt by a black minister named Clement King to embarrass the Carter campaign by publicly integrating the Plains Georgia Baptist church, which, at that time—over the Carter family’s objections—was still segregated. Ultimately, Jimmy Carter remained in his church and won the ’76 election. Hence, even the most successful presidential campaigns have moments of crisis.

For nearly forty minutes last Tuesday morning, in a building not far from Independence Hall, the place where fifty-seven patriots from thirteen colonies put together -- though imperfect -- the world’s most perfectible document, our Constitution, Barack Obama told our National Story.

It is a story of promise, imperfection, struggle, legitimate misunderstanding and ultimate perfection. Specifically, Senator Obama acknowledged that statements made by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Jr. (statements with which he strongly disagreed) were distortions of the real America because they underestimated our people’s capacity to “change”. Even more, Reverend Wright’s angry words were divisive in a time when we need national unity.

Throughout the speech, Senator Obama blended his own story of multi-racial ancestry with America’s heritage and stressed, repeatedly, the significance of our commonality. Also, Senator Obama demonstrated both loyalty and understanding with respect to his community and to his church.

Asserting that if all he knew about Reverend Wright was what had been shown on television lately, he said that he too would have questions about his church affiliation. He explained that he could no more disown his church, which had been doing God’s work throughout his membership, than he could disown the black community or his white grandmother. Acknowledging that Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his pastor, was his spiritual leader, he strongly agreed with those who were angered by what he termed Reverend Wright’s distortion of American society. He also acknowledged the legitimate anger within the white community over affirmative action advantages toward minorities. Finally, as the son of a black father and a white mother, he freely acknowledged that in no other nation on earth could he receive the honor that soon could be his.

So the question is: Did Senator Obama put the issue of his association with Reverend Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ behind him?

Probably not, but what this most magnificent speech may well have done was to demonstrate, for all to see, the powerful authenticity of Barack Obama. Even more, Senator Obama’s speech may well have put us on a road that can heal and eventually bring about “a more perfect union” than ever before.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY