This week marked a special occasion in the
annals of Presidential observation. No, I do not mean counting the final 72
hours before #45’s one-hundredth day in office. Rather, I am referring to the
return of President Barack Obama to the public square. The former POTUS returned
to the city where 14 and-a-half weeks earlier, he delivered his farewell
address as Commander-in-Chief, that day at McCormick Place, Monday at the
University of Chicago.
Mr. Obama’s return was termed as a "conversation
on community organizing and civic engagement" and a part of Obama's goal
to "encourage and support the next generation of leaders." His design
was to create an environment in which he could converse expressly with young
people, a group he believes is critical to reviving a flagging, moribund
Democratic Party. To be clear, those are
my adjectives, not Mr. Obama’s.
The setting incorporated a stage that included Obama and six
students, plus an audience of 300 students.
The format included brief introductory remarks by the former President,
the introduction of the students sharing the stage, the individuals on the
stage posing questions of each other, but also taking questions from the 300
students in the audience, who represented colleges and universities throughout
Chicagoland.
Spoiler Alert: Despite the imminent proximity of the much
bally-hoo’d 100-day mark of the current President, and the torrential stream of
blamesplaining targeting Mr. Obama, the previous C-i-C adroitly avoided
mentioning #45 or any of his policy prescriptions. There had been rampant
speculation about whether the occasion might be used by Mr. Obama to weigh in
on his successor and his first months in office. This event, however, was not
about that. A source from Team Obama said the adopted Chicagoan no intention of
confronting the current administration’s policy, and the often-professorial
Obama declined to be drawn down that rabbit hole. In fact, he was so assiduous
in giving a wide berth to the topic of the new administration that he neither
deigned to defend his own legacy in the office, nor spoke in support of the
Affordable care Act, AKA Obamacare, his signature accomplishment, and a program
under perennial assault by the GOP.
The occasion certainly could have served as an opening for the
former President to beat back unsubstantiated wiretapping allegations made by
the current occupant of 1400 Penn Ave., or to take on the often awkward, and
occasionally meandering Republican agenda. Never one lacking message
discipline, he blithely passed. Alternatively, he opted to lead a seminar on
engaging a new generation of youth and prodding them to become active
participants in the political process. Upon reflecting upon how he sees his
role in the post-Obama Presidency era, he intoned:
The single most
important thing I can do is to help in any way I can prepare the next
generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at
changing the world.”
Bypassing #45 was clearly the result of Mr. Obama’s own
authentic design. He has determined, at least for the time being, that it is
prudent cede criticism of the current administration to those camps that have
already elevated doing so to a cottage industry. This appears, in part to be
due to reflecting on and appreciating the space his predecessor gave him in the
early going. It’s also fair to note that Mr. Obama and his advisors have
reasoned that now it simply not the right time to invest time and energy in
confronting the newbies.
They realize, after all, that the current administration drew
much of its synergy from the mere existence of then President Obama. To that
end, they believe that challenging the current administration would make Obama
a foil for #45’s efforts to rally his supporters, which in turn, could buttress
the efforts of the current administration to enact its policies, which of
course, Mr. Obama opposes.
With those predicates, the event at the University
of Chicago, where a pre-POTUS Mr. Obama
taught constitutional law, transpired absent any tension related to the 45th
President. The former President appeared relaxed, casual, and comfortably
ensconced in the moment. In other words, he appeared to enjoy himself.
In a moment of reflection, hearkening back to his speech at the
2004 Democratic National Convention in which he introduced the notion of their
being no “red” America or “blue” America, he conceded the aspirational nation
of the assertion, going on to add, that it’s obviously not true as it pertains
to our politics and civic life.
By and large, Mr. and Mrs. Obama have elected to avoid the
intense glare of the public spotlight since leaving the White House on January
20th. Both have committed to writing Random House memoirs as they
continue to make Washington, DC their home while Sasha, their youngest daughter
completes high school. She will graduate in 2019. However, in the intervening
three months since the Inauguration, they have spent most of their time on an extended vacation,
even as his staff has been establishing an office in Washington. Planning is underway for his Presidential Library, which will be located in Chicago.
It is anticipated that Monday’s event in Chicago will be the
first of a series of public appearances Mr. Obama will make in the United
States and Europe. He is scheduled to appear next in Boston for a speech at the
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, where he will receive the institution’s Profile in Courage award.
At the Chicago event, he discussed various elements of civic
engagement, community organizing, and the importance of actively facing the
challenges confronting contemporary society. For over an hour, he served as the
resident Commander-in-Chief & Professor of interviews. He posed the
questions, and kept the “show” moving. He provoked a variety of queries,
including:
·
Asking Ayanna Watkins, a senior at Kenwood
Academy High School in Chicago, about the importance of access to social
studies and civic education. She responded, “Awareness is something that holds
a lot of youth back from getting involved.”
·
Asking Harish Patel, a graduate of the
University of Illinois at Chicago, why he had chosen to run for the office of
state representative last year. His short response was he, “didn’t see many
Patels in office and wanted to fix that.”
·
Asking Max Freedman, an undergraduate at the
University of Chicago, and the lone Republican on the panel, about issues of
political correctness on college campuses. Freedman answered with a personal
anecdote from eighth grade, when Mr. Obama was launching his first Presidential
Campaign, prompting the former President to note, “I’m old.” “But please
continue. Eighth grade!”
Much of Mr. Obama’s conversation Monday echoed themes from his
farewell address in January, including a plea not to take democracy for
granted. He underscored his continued concern for issues such as economic
inequality, climate change, justice, and the spread of violence. However, he
suggested it was a lack of leadership that stopped the country from making the
necessary inroads into solving those problems. He said:
“All those problems
are serious, they are daunting, but they are not insoluble. What’s preventing
us from tackling them and making more progress really has to do with our
politics and civic life.”
And so, the venerable former Chicagoan, via Honolulu, came full
cycle vis-à-vis his Chi-town roots. He arrived in Chicago as a 31 year-old
community organizer, steeped in the ways of civic engagement. During his 2008 Presidential
Campaign, his opponents belittled his experience (as a community organizer).
Arguably, it served him well, as he went on to win twice, serving two terms in
the highest office in the land. And now, as he seeks his next career path, he
is reprising the tenets of the career that launched him upon the veil of our
collective consciousness. “President Obama Returns toChicago; Revisits Community Organizing and Civic Engagement!"
I’m done; holla back!
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Consult the links below for more
detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obama-chicago-idUSKBN17Q29F?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews
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