Barack Obama and Us Ordinary People

by Bob Parks, Outside the Wire: Words mean things. On one hand, they can be meaningless. Their use can be a coincidence. They can be taken out of context. They can be unintentional. Or they can be an example of how someone thinks. This may be coincidence, but it may also be an indication of what Barack Obama thinks of the America he may inherit to lead. After last Tuesday night’s primary victories, he was talking to thousands at a rally in Houston. Near the close, he said:

“I was convinced, most of all, that change in America does not happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up. Some of you know I used to work as a community organizer with churches on the south side of Chicago after the steel plants had laid thousands of people off. And we brought together black and white and Hispanic to try to create job-training programs for the unemployed and bring economic development to neighborhoods that had fallen on hard times.

And it was the best education I ever had, because it taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they're given an opportunity.” – 2/19/08

Who are “ordinary people”? I know what he means, but especially when you’re running for the job with the most clout in the world, one must be very careful about the words you use. . . .

Whether it being all the offers of free this, or subsidized that, or promises he may or may not be able to keep once he has a friendly or hostile congress to deal with, Barack Obama is displaying a certain arrogance to the “ordinary people” he may have to lead. If this is what he thinks of us now, imaging what he’ll think of us should he move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? . . . [Read More]

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