What about Hillary?
Columnist James-Ingram
By now you’ve heard the rumors. You’ve seen him on Oprah and in Men’s Vogue magazine. During a recent trip to his father’s homeland of Kenya, two schools were even re-named for him. He was instrumental in the Democrats’ recent steamrolling of the Republicans to regain control of Congress.
He’s been referred to as a “rock star” after mesmerizing a national TV audience at the national Democratic convention three years ago and was mobbed during a recent swing through Indianola, Iowa (Iowa being a key presidential caucus state).
His travels to promote his latest book, The Audacity of Hope, look more like presidential posturing than any book signings that I’ve ever witnessed.
Yet, Illinois Senator Barack Obama dodges and deflects questions regarding his ambition to run for the White House in 2008. At the same time, he won’t give a blanket denial that he might toss his hat in the ring if the momentum and timing are right. He’s expected to make that decision within a month or so.
Former President Bill Clinton, in a New Yorker magazine profile, even weighed in on the prospect of an Obama candidacy. Clinton warned him about the “timing” of such a run, although it would behoove the former president to discourage Obama, given that his wife Hillary is gearing up for her own 2008 presidential bid.
Some have even hinted of a possible Clinton and Obama ticket in ’08. On paper, it would be the ideal “dream ticket.”
A recent Chicago Sun-Times poll indicated that women, Democrats, young voters, African Americans and Latinos would, most likely, vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, while Democrats and independents would support Barack Obama.
Would I love to see a Clinton /Obama ticket in ’08? As rapper Lil Jon might say, “Yeahhh”! Would that ticket be the winning ticket for the White House? As Whitney Houston would say, “Hell-to-the-no”!
Why the pessimism? Don’t get me wrong, I voted for Senator Obama, met him, interviewed him, etc.
He is a charming, intelligent, competent politician. However, I remain a realist. I don’t want four more years of Republican lunacy. The best way to end the nightmare of the last eight years is to assemble a winning ticket.
I’d vote for Hillary and Barack in a heartbeat. It’s the good old boys, the southerners, our buddies in places like North and South Dakota or Montana who frighten me.
Not that these are bad folks. I just don’t think that they’d be too thrilled about Clinton and Obama holding the two highest offices in the land. Just ask Harold Ford about the racial politics that Republicans in Tennessee used to deny him a Senate seat.
America has never truly embraced the notion of electing a white woman to the White House. Until that happens, we can forget the prospect of white America electing an African-American male to a position that would only be a sneeze away from being “HNIC” of America!
In a historical sense, I believe that there is always this unspoken, absurd paranoia (in the minds of many) that black folks somehow have the desire to repay white America (for the savagery of the slave trade) as soon as they make it to the White House.
That’s not some Ingram-ism. The subject was broached over and over again during the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson in ’84 an’88, and there was no way in hell that he was going to win.
But don’t think that the same paranoia doesn’t lie somewhere beneath the surface of the racist psyche of some Americans.
Despite Obama’s Harvard education, white mother, impeccable manners and non-offensive rhetoric, the Democratic ticket will be DOA if brother Obama decides to join the presidential race (or the ticket) in any capacity.
I hate to say it. One day that political paradigm might change. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll live long enough to see it. However, I hope that I’m wrong. After all, I live in East Boogie and stranger things have happened before.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.