President Obama: "I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes"

Yes, President Obama wrote those words. Not only did he write them, he did it in 2006 - during the Bush administration. If you are a Democrat/liberal/progressive, they are jarring, aren't they? Here's a little more context to what he said:

I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes, no matter how much I may disagree with him. That’s what empathy does—it calls us all to task, the conservative and the liberal … We are all shaken out of our complacency. 

Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope

I've often thought that one of the most powerful - and least known - speeches of this President is the one he gave at the 2009 Notre Dame graduation (that link is to the transcript, the video is here). In case you've forgotten, his invitation to do so sparked a pretty big controversy over the issues of abortion and stem cell research.  And yet, as the Aikido Way requires, he used the opportunity to "enter into the very center of the conflict" by using the divide in this country over these issues to make the same point he did in the quote above.

In this speech, President Obama scrambled the order of storytelling outlined by Marshall Ganz. He began with the "story of now" and the urgency of the tension we face.

For the major threats we face in the 21st century -- whether it’s global recession or violent extremism; the spread of nuclear weapons or pandemic disease -- these things do not discriminate. They do not recognize borders. They do not see color. They do not target specific ethnic groups.

Moreover, no one person, or religion, or nation can meet these challenges alone. Our very survival has never required greater cooperation and greater understanding among all people from all places than at this moment in history. Unfortunately, finding that common ground -- recognizing that our fates are tied up, as Dr. King said, in a "single garment of destiny" -- is not easy...

The question, then -- the question then is how do we work through these conflicts? Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort? As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without, as Father John said, demonetizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?

And of course, nowhere do these questions come up more powerfully than on the issue of abortion.

President Obama then went on to tell the "story of self" about a time when a constituent called him on his lack of open-mindedness about abortion.

And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that -- when we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that’s when we discover at least the possibility of common ground.

Throughout the speech the President reminded the graduates of the "story of us" as it has been demonstrated at Notre Dame. But then he connected that story to one that tied the "us" to a larger one.

I stand here today, as President and as an African American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Now, Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the "separate but equal" doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the 12 resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

There were six members of this commission. It included five whites and one African American; Democrats and Republicans; two Southern governors, the dean of a Southern law school, a Midwestern university president, and your own Father Ted Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame. So they worked for two years, and at times, President Eisenhower had to intervene personally since no hotel or restaurant in the South would serve the black and white members of the commission together. And finally, when they reached an impasse in Louisiana, Father Ted flew them all to Notre Dame’s retreat in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin where they eventually overcame their differences and hammered out a final deal.

And years later, President Eisenhower asked Father Ted how on Earth he was able to broker an agreement between men of such different backgrounds and beliefs. And Father Ted simply said that during their first dinner in Wisconsin, they discovered they were all fishermen. And so he quickly readied a boat for a twilight trip out on the lake. They fished, and they talked, and they changed the course of history.

Finally, he called us to the kind of empathy that he talked about in that first quote up above:

Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family, the same fulfillment of a life well lived. Remember that in the end, in some way we are all fishermen.

What he's telling us is that the challenges that encompass the fierce urgency of now will only be faced when we can "try to see the world through George Bush's eyes." That is a high calling for any of us to accept. But it is one this President has answered in the affirmative.

Something we can all learn from President Obama: The power of storytelling

I've been thinking a lot about the speech Jon Favreau gave in Dublin about what he learned from President Obama. In it, he lists several things that have impacted his own writing - like how a simple logical argument is more important than a snappy applause line, that shorter is better, and the value of honesty and authenticity. But Favreau says that the most important thing he learned from President Obama was the power of storytelling to instill a sense of hope, and why that's so important today.

Its interesting to think about why stories are so important. One of the people who has articulated that is Marshall Ganz, professor of community organizing at Harvard and the man the President called on to develop "Camp Obama" during the 2008 election. You can watch Ganz talk about that in this video:


Or if you prefer, you can read about it here.

Ganz breaks the stories leaders tell to engage people in a sense of hope into three parts: (1) the story of self, (2) the story of us, and (3) the story of now. One way we can see the power of that kind of storytelling is to watch Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention...the moment that sparked the seeds of a campaign four years later based on "hope and change."


1. The story of self - "In a sense, all of us walk around with a text from which to teach, the text of our own lives."

Obama tells the story of his father from Kenya and mother from Kansas who shared a common dream:

My parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or "blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential.

2. The story of us - "What experiences and values do we share as a community that call us to what we are called to?...It’s putting what we share into words."

Obama shows how "his story" is also "our story."

I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible...Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago, "We hold these truths to he self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

3. The story of now - "the fierce urgency of now. The story of now is realizing, after the sharing of values and aspirations, that the world out there is not as it ought to be. Instead, it is as it is. The difference between those two creates tension. It forces upon us consideration of a choice. What do we do about that? We’re called to answer that question in a spirit of hope."

After spending some time talking about specific issues and John Kerry's candidacy, Obama highlights the tension and the choice we face.

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

Finally, he reminds us of stories from our past that demonstrate what it means to hope in the face of daunting odds.

It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. The audacity of hope!

If you have any doubts about the power of storytelling, just remember that prior to this speech Barack Obama was an unknown state senator from Illinois. The moment after it was done, people started talking about the possibility of him being our first African American president - a prescient thought. That's why its the most important lesson Jon Favreau learned from President Obama. I'd suggest we might all do well to pay attention.

The fierce urgency of now and the long game

I think a lot of what prompts conversations like the one going on between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jonathan Chait comes down to whether or not we prioritize the fierce urgency of now or the long game of systemic change.

I thought it might be interesting to listen to the voices of a couple of other black men who articulate each of these approaches. On the former, here's Daniel Beaty.


Back in the 1980's we abandoned the War on Poverty and beefed up the War on Drugs. As a result, we are now seeing the 3rd and 4th generation of too many black boys growing up waiting for that "knock, knock"... struggling with whether or not prison is simply written into their destiny as well. Unfortunately, they face that question in the fierce urgency of now and don't have the privilege of waiting until we implement the long game of systemic change. And so Beaty talks about the power to change this world one little boy and girl at a time.

But...you might say...Daniel made it. Ah, yes. But listen to what Geoffrey Canada says about that.


The resilience of the exceptional (or those who - like President Obama - grew up in a "more forgiving environment") is not enough. As Canada says, at some point we have to change the conditions these children face on a regular basis. 
Anytime someone suggests that President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative is not enough, I agree. That's why his administration is also working on things like ending the school-to-prison pipeline and the war on drugs.
Its not about choosing between the fierce urgency of now and the long game. We need to do both.