No-drama Obama says he choked up over King speech

[babylonsister]

No-drama Obama says he choked up over King speech

By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Often seen as a cool, calculating concealer of emotions, Barack Obama says he choked up while practicing a campaign speech about Martin Luther King Jr. But the president-elect promises to "try to keep it together" when he is sworn in Tuesday as the first black commander in chief.

He also said that when his family read quotes from Abraham Lincoln during a recent visit to the Lincoln Memorial, his 10-year-old daughter said her dad's precedent-making inaugural address had "better be good."

In a broadcast interview taped Friday, Obama talked in more personal terms than usual about the racial and emotional dimensions of his election.

"If you think about the journey this country has made, then it can't help but stir your heart," he said. "Obviously it's an extraordinary personal moment," he added, but it carries far-reaching social and political implications.

"You can think about what Washington, D.C., was like 50 years ago or 60 years ago," when the city was segregated, Obama said, "and the notion that I now will be standing there and sworn in as the 44th president, I think is something that hopefully our children take for granted. But our grandparents, I think, are still stunned by it, and it's a remarkable moment."

When asked about the deep emotion that many blacks will feel at his swearing-in, Obama said, "Well, I'm going to try to keep it together." But at the Democratic convention in Denver last August, he said, "there was a moment at the end of my convention speech where I talk about Dr. King and what he accomplished. And the first time we practiced it, I had to stop. I started choking up, because, you know, when you start thinking about is not just your own personal journey. But you think about all the women who walked instead of riding the bus, out in Montgomery and Birmingham, and what a moment like this would mean to them."

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_EMOTION?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[elocs]

1. I guess I'm not sure what choking up has to do with being no-drama.

I see those as being two entirely separate things.

[babylonsister]

2. That's the point, they are different. Choking up is out of character

for Obama from what we've come to know of the man publicly.

[Happyhippychick]

3. It does amaze me how he is able to keep his emotions so in check when I feel so much emotion by what

he has done. I remember seeing him tear up when he talked about Toot but that was the only time I've seen a tear.

I cried for days after the election, I still cry when I see the youtube footage of Joe coming out to join him on stage and then both families gathering together on that stage...I am crying now.

[babylonsister]

4. It amazes me also. He does have control of himself when there

have been so many opportunities for him to lose it. Even during the primaries and some of those debates, he never showed anger while I was screaming at the tv. I guess that's what's so attractive about him, too, one of his many positive attributes.
And I'm not crying, but my hankies will be out through Tuesday. :hug:

[Cha]

6. 'Cause it means

so much to us:hug:

[TTUBatfan2008]

13. I remember he choked up...

during the DNC biography video when he was talking about his mother's death.

[Cha]

5. I couldn't do it. I get so

choked up talking about the good stuff that's been happening since Obama hit the scene that I can't finish a sentence sometimes.

I like that Obama always brings everyone in on it..he knows it's not just about him. I really like that.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. I always choke up when I hear Dr. King speak. I'm 49. So I believe him.

It is a generational thing. We grew up watching school kids get attacked with fire hoses and police dogs. For three years, when I was 5-7. we lived in Huntsville Alabama which was fine. But---- When my family would drive through Birmingham, I would hide in the back seat like I was driving through Beirut in the 1980s, I was so convinced that the city did nothing but attack children. And then here was Dr. King who was so firm and calm and he gave such hope---and they killed him.

I can not watch a video of Dr. King without reliving the day in the 3rd grade when we watched his funeral on TV. It was worse than when either Kennedy died. It was worse than Vietnam on TV. It was worse than when LBJ said he would not run again. It was probably the worst political memory I have as a child.

[rvablue]

15. Thanks for the personal story.... so interesting to hear all of them

I wasn't alive then and have only watched the video and read the books.

You are an eyewitness to these things and thanks for passing on the memories, how traumatic they may have been, so that we all remember; really, really, remember!

[Luminous Animal]

8. Will people stop calling our president "the commander in chief"

He is not being sworn in as the commander in chief. He is being sworn in as the president. No president is "our" commander in chief. A president can be commander in chief of branches of the military but no president is commander in chief of civilians.

[babylonsister]

9. Testy, ain't ya. nt

[Luminous Animal]

10. Perhaps.

But this is one of my bugaboos. This "commander in chief" stuff started with George Bush. No other president prior to Bush had been referred to "our commander in chief" by civilians. It militarizes civilians and infers military authority over the civilian population, which is, quite frankly, unconstitutional.

Glenn Greewald says it better:

"Worse, "commander in chief" is a military term, which reflects the core military dynamic: superiors issue orders which subordinates obey. That isn't supposed to be the relationship between the U.S. President and civilian American citizens, but because the mindless phrase "our commander in chief" has become interchangeable with "the President," that is exactly the attribute -- supreme, unquestionable authority in all arenas -- which has increasingly come to define the power of the President."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/02/biden/index.html

[babylonsister]

11. To me, this is really trivial. I just don't care, as long

as it's not idiot son who gets the name.

[Luminous Animal]

12. Thanks for letting me know...

It is very important to me to know what you find trivial. I'm really glad that you took the time to comment on my frame of mind, as well. I'll consider your possible opinion next time I post.

[babylonsister]

14. I wasn't commenting on your frame of mind, I was commenting

on mine. Testy, ain't ya.

[Luminous Animal]

16. Referring to your first comment on my post

which was, "testy ain't ya." And thanks so much for reasserting your opinion about my frame of mind! You are too generous with your time.