When the tumult and the shouting die, when the bands are gone and the lights are dimmed, there is the stark reality of responsibility in an hour of history haunted with those gaunt, grim specters of strife, dissension, and materialism at home, and ruthless, inscrutable, and hostile power abroad….the bloodiest, most turbulent age of the Christian era… is far from over. Sacrifice, patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot for years to come. … Let’s talk sense to the American people! Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions."
If you’re wondering when Barack Obama said this, then you’ve just been PUNK’D! The words above were actually uttered by Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois in his acceptance speech at the 1952 Democratic convention. Unfortunately for Adlai, his soaring, articulate rhetoric sailed over the heads of way too many voters, both in 1952, when he carried only nine states and again in 1956, when he could manage only seven. During the 1952 campaign, GOP vice-presidential nominee Richard M. Nixon and others derided the thoughtful and deliberate--and also indisputably bald-- Stevenson as an “egghead” because his answers and explanations tended to be complex and detailed rather than short and sweet. Analyzing Stevenson’s crushing defeat in 1952, one analyst thought it demonstrated above all “the extreme remoteness of the 'egghead' from the thought and feeling of the whole of the people'" From that time on, the egghead label has been a fairly consistent death sentence for politicians who seem too “professorial,” especially in the last three decades when “intellectual” has become just another word for “elitist.”
Back in August, fearing that the deliberate and thoughtful Barry O. might be just another Democratic egghead destined for omelet duty at a GOP victory brunch, hard-nosed Pennsylvania Democratic governor Ed Rendell observed that the “”bright…well spoken” Obama was “not exactly the easiest guy in the world to identify with."
"He is a little like Adlai Stevenson,” Rendell explained, “You ask him a question, and he gives you a six-minute answer. And the six-minute answer is smart as all get out. It's intellectual. It's well framed. It takes care of all the contingencies. But it's a lousy soundbite."
"We've got to start smacking back in short understandable bites," he said, noting "Everybody is nervous as all get out. Everybody says we ought to be ahead by 10, 15 points. What the heck is going on?"
I have to admit that I shared Rendell’s concern back then, and, even now, conditioned to believe that too many Americans now sport an attention span roughly equivalent to that of a gerbil, (Oops! Sorry to sound like an egghead.) I still agonize as Obama qualifies and clarifies everything he says, wondering if he will ever deliver the zinger line.
Six weeks after Rendell’s comments, however, Obama is actually up above 10 points in some opinion surveys. Although I think he was beginning to widen his lead at least a little before then, there’s no question that when the latest ten megaton load of feces hit the Wall Street fan, his political capital expanded exponentially as my retirement capital did precisely the opposite. That said, I believe that Obama’s refusal to take Rendell’s advice and dumb down his message and the way he delivers it has nonetheless been a critical contributor to his rising poll numbers. I confess to feeling a little bit sorry for John McCain last night as he bounced from beating the long-dead-if-ever-alive Bill Ayers horse to trying to link Obama to ACORN, which, he insisted with every ounce of melodrama he could muster, is “now on the verge of perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, and maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." I noted to a friend that the fleeting smirks that followed the almost manically agitated McCain’s incessant jabs at his opponent’s “eloquence” suggested that the poor old guy really thought he was finally spilling some big-time egghead yolk. Clearly, the utterly unruffled Oby thought differently and, just as they had after the previous encounters, so did a substantial majority of viewers worried about their jobs and savings who went for the calm and thoughtful demeanor he maintained while John McCain did his best imitation of a pissed-off chiuahaha yipping and nipping at a stolid German Shepherd. Internal polls showed that while Johnny Mac was darting around like a canine on crack, Senator Egghead was convincing them that his health plan was far better for them than McCain’s.
Even Brit Hume and the boys over at Fox had trouble talking up JM’s performance as witnessed by the telling response of this irate viewer: “What in the world is wrong with Fox News now??? I just watched these jerk panelists after the debate and they were clearly not watching the same debate I was. I guess I will now turn off the ‘balanced approach’ news program and turn on AM radio full time. Thank God for Rush!”
There’s still time for things to change, of course, and even if they don’t, although he’s smart as hell and clearly preferable to the alternative, I’m not totally convinced that Barack Obama has all the judgment or political skill needed to get us out of this mess. (For that matter, who does?) Still, even the possibility that, in a time of genuine—as opposed to manufactured-- crisis, voters might actually choose a president who is at least articulate, thoughtful and deliberate truly heartens me. It should do the same for you too, Adlai, old buddy, up there in that great ivory tower in the sky. I know you thought you’d never live to see the day—and, by golly, you didn’t— but it appears that we have finally reached the point where Joe Sixpack might actually prefer an egghead with his beer.
