Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption

Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption PDF Author: Stanley A. Renshon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135193983
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Every new president raises many questions in the public mind. Because Barack Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, he raised more questions than most. Would he prove to be a pragmatic centrist or would his politics of hope ultimately flounder on the rocky shoals of America’s deep political divisions? What of his leadership style? How would the uncommonly calm character he demonstrated on the campaign trail shape Obama’s political style as commander-in-chief? Based on extensive biographical, psychological, and political research and analysis, noted political psychologist Stanley Renshon follows Obama’s presidency through the first two years. He digs into the question of who is the real Obama and assesses the advantages and limitations that he brings to the presidency. These questions cannot be answered without recourse to psychological analysis. And they cannot be answered without psychological knowledge of presidential leadership and the presidency itself. Renshon explains that Obama’s ambition has been fueled by a desire for redemption—his own, that of his parents, and ultimately for the country he now leads, which has enormous consequences for his choices as president of a politically divided America.

Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption

Barack Obama and the Politics of Redemption PDF Author: Stanley A. Renshon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135193983
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Get Book Here

Book Description
Every new president raises many questions in the public mind. Because Barack Obama was a relative newcomer to the national political scene, he raised more questions than most. Would he prove to be a pragmatic centrist or would his politics of hope ultimately flounder on the rocky shoals of America’s deep political divisions? What of his leadership style? How would the uncommonly calm character he demonstrated on the campaign trail shape Obama’s political style as commander-in-chief? Based on extensive biographical, psychological, and political research and analysis, noted political psychologist Stanley Renshon follows Obama’s presidency through the first two years. He digs into the question of who is the real Obama and assesses the advantages and limitations that he brings to the presidency. These questions cannot be answered without recourse to psychological analysis. And they cannot be answered without psychological knowledge of presidential leadership and the presidency itself. Renshon explains that Obama’s ambition has been fueled by a desire for redemption—his own, that of his parents, and ultimately for the country he now leads, which has enormous consequences for his choices as president of a politically divided America.

Redemption Song

Redemption Song PDF Author: Niall Stanage
Publisher: Liberties Press
ISBN: 1909718807
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
In little more than four years, Barack Obama rose from political obscurity to become the 44th president of the United States. His election win in November 2008 was a moment of enormous historical magnitude, greeted with an outpouring of emotion in the US and around the world. However, on taking office, Obama was faced with unparalleled challenges as the global economy plunged ever-deeper into crisis and the US struggled with the two wars in which it was enmeshed.In Redemption Song, Niall Stanage tells the extraordinary tale of Obama's journey from community organiser in Chicago to leader of the free world through exclusive interviews with some of the new president's oldest friends and closest advisors. He explores the then-senator's long and acrimonious tussle with Hillary Clinton, sheds new light on his battle with John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin, and hears from the members of the grassroots movement that carried Obama all the way to the Oval Office.He also provides an intimate account of the first phase of the Obama presidency, reporting from within the White House walls on the new Administration's first tests, triumphs and tribulations.

The Black Presidency

The Black Presidency PDF Author: Michael Eric Dyson
Publisher: Mariner Books
ISBN: 9780544811805
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A provocative, lively deep-dive into the meaning of America's first black president and first black presidency, from "one of the most graceful and lucid intellectuals writing on race and politics today" (Vanity Fair)

The Persistence of the Color Line

The Persistence of the Color Line PDF Author: Randall Kennedy
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307455556
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A “provocative and richly insightful new book” (The New York Times Book Review) that gives us a shrewd and penetrating analysis of the complex relationship between the first black president and his African-American constituency. Renowned for his insightful, common-sense critiques of racial politics, Randall Kennedy now tackles such hot-button issues as the nature of racial opposition to Obama; whether Obama has a singular responsibility to African Americans; the differences in Obama’s presentation of himself to blacks and to whites; the challenges posed by the dream of a post-racial society; the increasing irrelevance of a certain kind of racial politics and its consequences; the complex symbolism of Obama’s achievement and his own obfuscations and evasions regarding racial justice. Eschewing the critical excesses of both the left and the right, Kennedy offers an incisive view of Obama’s triumphs and travails, his strengths and weaknesses, as they pertain to the troubled history of race in America.

The Race Whisperer

The Race Whisperer PDF Author: Melanye T. Price
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479819255
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Analyzes the manner in which Barack Obama uses race strategically to engage with and win the loyalty of potential supporters. Price uses examples from Obama's campaigns and presidency to demonstrate his ability to authentically tap into notions of blackness and whiteness to appeal to particular constituencies. By tailoring his unorthodox personal narrative to emphasize those parts of it that most resonate with a specific racial group, Obama targets his message effectively to that audience, shoring up electoral and governing support. The author also considers the impact of Obama's use of race on the ongoing quest for black political empowerment. Unfortunately, racial advocacy for African Americans has been made more difficult because of the intense scrutiny of Obama's relationship with the black community, Obama's unwillingness to be more publicly vocal in light of that scrutiny, and the black community's reluctance to use traditional protest and advocacy methods on a black president. --From publisher description.

Dramatic Catharsis

Dramatic Catharsis PDF Author: Chris Marshall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Equality
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The 2008 election of Barack Obama as America's first African American president was popularly held to represent a fulfilment of Martin Luther King's Dream and led to speculation about the implications of an Obama victory for a post racial America. This thesis argues that race was a recurring theme of Obama's election campaign, and that his rhetoric referred frequently to America's history of racial inequality. It explores how Obama constructed a racial identity that connected him to the African American struggle for civil rights and which placed him within a national progress narrative, and it argues that an important feature of Obama's campaign was the articulation of a rhetoric of redemption.Academic debates focussing on Obama's racial identity and the extent to which he spoke about race have been supported either by textual analysis of his speeches or by applying a historical perspective to the campaign. This thesis incorporates both approaches as it combines discourse analysis of a reference corpus of 172 speeches with intertextual and extralinguistic analyses facilitated through contextual knowledge of African American history and culture. The methodology embraces Ruth Wodak's Discourse-Historical Approach, consideration of Obama's appropriation of the Exodus narrative, and the application of Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to explore the construction and representation of racial identity in Obama's rhetoric.The approach identifies an analytic corpus of 41 speeches which focus on race. This is used to identify how Obama presented his personal history within the context of the civil rights struggle and how he positioned his campaign to neither confront nor accommodate white America about racism and inequality. The results reveal Obama's desire for a national catharsis in repudiation of America's history of racial injustice; a redemptive moment made possible through unity, atonement and the collective effort encapsulated in the campaign slogan, "yes, we can".

The Obama Presidency and the Politics of Change

The Obama Presidency and the Politics of Change PDF Author: Edward Ashbee
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319410334
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This edited volume considers the extent to which the Obama presidency matched the promises of hope and change that were held out in the 2008 election. Contributors assess the character of “change” and, within this context, survey the extent to which there was enduring change within particular policy areas, both domestic and foreign. The authors combine empirical detail with more speculative assessment of the limits and possibilities of change amidst a very dense institutional landscape and in an era of intense political polarization. Some see significant changes, the full consequences of which may only be evident in later years. Other authors in the collection present a markedly different picture and suggest that processes of change were not only limited and partial but at times leading the US in directions far removed from the promises of 2008. The book will make an important contribution to the debates about the Obama legacy.

Obama's Challenge

Obama's Challenge PDF Author: Robert Kuttner
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
ISBN: 1603580794
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Invoking America's greatest leaders, Robert Kuttner explains how Obama must be a transformative president--or a failed one--a president who must succeed in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better.

Nation of Cowards

Nation of Cowards PDF Author: David Ikard
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253006287
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more—not less—about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama's historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating "post-racial" political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization.

The Price of the Ticket

The Price of the Ticket PDF Author: Fredrick Harris
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199325235
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
In The Price of the Ticket, Fred Harris contends that Obama's success has, in reality, exacted a negative price. His victory has not only utterly transformed the forms of black politics that emerged in the 1960s and which laid the foundation for his eventual ascendance, Harris claims-it has profoundly weakened them.