Blame the system, not Obama

A lot has changed in my life since I last opined in TOKM. I left my job at the Flint Journal to take a new position as a reporter working for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

I live in downtown Detroit and, rather than roaming the streets at night, I thought I should get TOKM rolling again.

Now then:

Recently, I've witnessed a change in my friend Chris Matthews. I've been watching the host of Hardball on MSNBC for many years and I consider him to be the most knowledge political commentator in the game.

That being said, I've seen Matthews go through an unexpected metamorphosis in the last two years. First, he sacked his reputation as somewhat objective when he started shilling for then candidate Obama during the 2008 presidential election.

These days, the thrill is, apparently, gone.

As the American economy continues to trudge along (unemployment now over 10 percent), fans of Obama, like Matthews, appear heartsick. This week, Matthews said that Obama looks more like a Clinton-style Democrat -- a pretty typical politician who plays golf with the bourgeoisie and dances for money at Wall Street fundraisers.

A good friend of mine, Patrick Hayes, commented that Matthews shouldn't be so naive and he's right. Matthews is far too intelligent, and has been around too long, to have been caught up in the Obama hysteria.

Patty, an intelligent man in a field beset by morons, wrote:

The thing is, there were signs all along that Obama was a pretty typical Democrat. I don't expect people who voted for the first time because they were excited about a minority candidate to understand this. I do expect Chris Matthews to understand. Look at his endorsements -- Kerry, Kennedy, etc. Would they have endorsed a guy who wasn't playing ball with them/the party? Would the teachers union have endorsed him if they really believed he was going to be able to implement a merit-based pay system in public education rather than seniority-based? Matthews, as a political journalist, didn't do his job, plain and simple. Intelligent people who pay attention to politics understood all along that Obama was simply just a Democrat candidate who happened to be a brilliant campaigner.

And this from a guy who, like so many, gushed over the possibility that Obama might be different. He was never a true believer, I suppose. He just genuinely believed that a good man, with a common lineage, could break the mold. How many of us felt the same way? I know I did.

But, there's more.

That many on the left, the true believers, are disappointed in President Obama is, I contend, a commentary on American bureaucracy and not on the man himself.

Sure, he set himself up for failure with grandiose political rhetoric, but all aspiring politicians do that -- though few are as articulate.

President Obama simply failed to grasp the power of inertia in the arena of governance in this country. His was a misunderstanding not of a popular desire to change, as so many still want it, but of his ability (or the ability of one man, one administration), to effect it.

It's an indictment of the system.

Just this week, I watched Ed Norton's HBO documentary on the Obama presidential campaign and I'd watch it again were it not so depressing. The film was as much about the Obama himself as it was about the legions of volunteers who gave over many months of their lives to work for the man they knew, beyond doubt, was a transformational candidate. He was something new, different, incorruptible even.

It's distressing to think about the true believers and what they think now. Are they coming to Matthews' realization? I hope not. I hope the lesson they're learning is about the nature of bureaucracy and not the failures (or lack of substantive change) of one man.

It's Max Weber (the Iron Cage) 2009 style. Bureaucracy leads to oligarchy and makes minions out of good men like Barack Obama.

I defy you to watch Norton's raw portrayal of Obama and not come away thinking that this is a good and decent man -- a good husband, father and friend. Opponents are quick to point to his connections to people who have said and done some pretty bad things as evidence that he is none of what I say he is. Here again, we need to come to the realization that the system by which we fashion our leaders is, like our bureaucracy, hopelessly corrupt. We take our best and brightest, make them wallow in the mud, and then are scandalized by the stains.

How many people just knew in their hearts that electing an African-American president was a giant leap for race relations in this country? That the system, itself founded upon inequality, would somehow resolve itself into something entirely different -- a society where race didn't matter that much.

Hope didn't heal the divide, though.

When Matthews voiced his dismay about Obama fitting in, one of his panelists responded as you might expect: "No one likes it, but that's our system."

That's our system, indeed.