Obama draws out the best in others

I just listened to the very gracious and supportive words that George W. Bush said about Pres.-elect Obama this morning on the steps of the White House.
Last night, John McCain also gave what I thought was one of the best and most gracious speeches I’ve ever heard from him, when he conceded the victory to Obama and congratulated him on it.
And before that, without a doubt the very best speech that Hillary Clinton throughout the entire, lengthy primary-race struggle she fought was the one in which she conceded victory to Obama.
What is it about this guy that he can elicit these generous and gracious reactions from people who, until just hours before, had been his bitter opponents?
I think it’s in good part his own calm, steady, and always respectful demeanor. What a resource. What a gift.
And yes, I know that all those gracious words spoken by, respectively, Clinton, McCain, and Bush did not necessarily signal that all the old resentments and criticisms had ended. (In Hillary’s case, as we subsequently saw, they clearly seemed not to have. Though after an interval of time, she did start doing some good work for the Obama campaign.)
But still, having those defeated opponents utter those gracious words of concession and congratulation is far, far preferable to having them speak in other, more grudging, mean-spirited, or even inflammatory tones.
Words matter.

15 thoughts on “Obama draws out the best in others”

  1. All US election and Obama win is done as a Rock Star Show as its US way of life.
    Let remember the Rock Star show Bush Remarks on “Mission Accomplished” Banner when he spoke boarding US ship after invading Iraq.
    This dilutions of “Rock Star” will fading soon, people will come down and facing the realities and gets their usual life hunting for the Dollars…..

  2. Seeing the spontaneous celebrations on the streets of the US, I am reminded of third world peoples cheering the overthrow of a despotic regime.
    In so many ways, that’s just what it is.

  3. Yes Helena! So true, words matter.
    May Obama indeed be the President he promises to be — one for all of us, including those many dear friends and relatives of mine who couldn’t bring themselves to vote for him….
    May he yet find ways to bridge these awful divides in our land…. God protect him.

  4. Here are some reflections of an outsider :
    1) It seems that Obama only got some 52% of the voices. After the cataclismic reign of Bush, after the mounting costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, after the subprime crisis and the economic looming crisis, it is surprising that Obama didn’t get more voices. I mean, there is still almost half of the US people supporting the Republicans unilateralism and lack of social solidarity. This, along with the increasing public debts and with the diminishing PIB will seriously diminish the latitude of the Dems to implement more solidarity in the US society.
    2) Comparing the Bush heritage inherited by Obama to the one which Bush inherited from Clinton, this joke is circulating here : in the US they always call a black man to achieve the dirty works.
    3) Concerning the nice words uttered by Bush and McCain to congratulate Obama : of course, now that they have lost the presidency, the senate and the congress, they are all for bipartisanship and collaboration with the Dems. They have nothing left if they hope to be heard in the new government. It would have been more remarkable to defend a bipartisan collaboration when they were at power, in 2000 and 2004, but then they didn’t want to share power with any dems.. how curious.
    4) Nevertheless, I’m happy to be rid of Bush !! hurrahhhhh. The streets’ celebration looks like when François Mitterand won the elections with “L’union de la gauche” in France, in 1881. However, I hope that things will turn out better in the US than in France. Alas, left wins are difficult to get and fragile to keep. Best wishes for Obama.

  5. BUT can obama draw the best out of the democrats???
    ‘Attorneys monitoring the incident reports coming in to the hotline have taken no action in regard to removing the failed machines from service, despite reports of the presidential race not appearing at all on some ballots; voters having problems selecting their preferred candidates; machines not starting up at all; “paper trail” printers jamming or running out of paper, and; a number of machines at a number of sites which refuse to work at all.
    And this is just during early voting. A number of those startling reports are posted at the end of this article…
    Democratic Officials Refuse to Impound Machines, Despite Myriad Failures…
    We’ve been reporting for weeks about the lack of action being taken by the Obama campaign and the DNC in regard to wide-spread voting machine problems across the country (e.g., detailed story on that here, Obama attorney responds here).
    We’ve noted that while Obama/DNC has, this time around at least, compiled a sophisticated “election protection” database in each state, their continuous assertions of “thousands of attorneys on the ground on Election Day if anything goes wrong,” is both too little and too late, as well as being precisely what we heard from Kerry/DNC in 2004 before they failed to take appropriate action with failed machines. They then quickly conceded the race just hours after polls in Ohio finally closed.’
    http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6616

  6. Ah yes, it was wonderful thing to see those two blood thirsty beasts Bush and McCain so quickly tamed by the president elect who is about to make a zionist neo con type his first appointment. More of it, please, Helena!

  7. Yes indeed, Obama is off to a cracking start in appointing Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Plus ca change.
    Have Obama’s supporters been hoodwinked?
    When I find myself agreeing with bb it hard not to feel that something is seriously amiss…

  8. Maybe not. The Republicans are going to go even farther to the Right to combat Obama’s agenda. They have already shown us their true colors. People of good will must be ready and prepared for this.

    Change I want to believe in.

  9. Have Obama’s supporters been hoodwinked?
    If by ‘supporters’ you mean Christopher Hitchens, Marty Peretz, Thomas Friedman , Colin Powell, 78 percent of US Jews and a majority of Israelis I’d say probably not!

  10. COS sets the tone and intention of the administration – in this case, take no prisoners.
    Did Doug Reith and Wolfowitz endorse Obama like Adelman did? Would not be surprised.

  11. Well, if bb and Vadim are gloating there is but one conclusion, Helena, et al: you have been sold a pup…

  12. So Obama turns out to be a Mossad plot. Whoever would have thought?
    Black jokes aside, Anon, I happen to agree with Helena on this one. Emanuel will be seen in the ME as an appointment contemptuous of Arabs, and with good reason.
    Injudicious start for the Big O.

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