The Joshua Generation

New Yorker by David Remnick | Nov. 16, 2008 (Special Report)
Race and the campaign of Barack Obama.

Barack Obama could not run his campaign for the Presidency based on political accomplishment or on the heroic service of his youth. His record was too slight. His Democratic and Republican opponents were right: he ran largely on language, on the expression of a country’s potential and the self-expression of a complicated man who could reflect and lead that country. And a powerful thematic undercurrent of his oratory and prose was race. Not race as ... Full Story »

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4.2
 by Ron Pulcini - Nov. 16, 2008

Remnick's focus on the nuances of Obama's rhetoric and personal style — ways to finesse a lifelong balancing act — is a good attempt at explaining how the President-Elect defines himself in the context of the differences between the Moses and Joshua Generations. Quoting Moses Generation icons' wonderment about being wrong on Obama's timing (and chances) was instructive to all racial groups (except the haters). Remnick's gave equal space to the doubters, too, avoiding the simplistic message that "post-racial politics" is in the air.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who caught the Second Para: "Her signal act of defiance…" Shouldn't that read: "her single act of defiance…"?

(7 answers)

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