Filed under: News, Politics, President Obama, Race and Civil Rights
In the midst of two-and-a-half wars, a prolonged recession and a possible government shutdown, Barack Obama officially kicked off his re-election campaign on Monday. It wasn't the most auspicious moment, and the low-key video the president sent in an e-mail to his supporters was a far cry from that dramatic announcement speech in Springfield, Illinois, in February 2007, when the upstart candidate invoked the idealism of Lincoln to begin his unlikely journey to the White House.
Obama's video featured interviews with his grassroots supporters, who formed the remarkable core of his 2008 campaign, but have not exactly been a top priority for the White House since. "Politics is at the grassroots level," says Katherine in Colorado. "It's individuals talking to other individuals and making a difference." Yet the video didn't really emphasize the actual practice of grassroots organizing, such a big part of Obama '08, and the words hope or change were not even mentioned. Those days, it seems, are over. The Democrats' message in 2010 was: "We're not as bad as those other guys," which didn't exactly inspire Obama supporters to rush to the polls. Obama kicked off his re-election campaign on Monday only to get a jump-start on raising money, mostly from wealthy donors. It's not clear yet how the grassroots organizers featured in this video will figure into the overall strategy of his campaign. And oddly, the video didn't mention Obama's record as president or legislative accomplishments, which one presumes will form the backbone of his re-election effort.
Source: NPR
Kevin Eason is a freelance editorial cartoonist and illustrator from New Jersey. His brand of satire covers news events in politics, entertainment, sports and much more. Follow him on Facebook.