ABSTRACT
Obama can’t stop seeing the world through the eyes of others. He keeps underscoring that his campaign is not all about him. And, in this media-driven age, you can catch glimpses on CNN of how his campaign empowers African-Americans (and forces them to prove it all night). Over the past months, that network has looked to black commentators for sound bites. Two of these “analysts”—Jamal Simmons and Roland Martin—have distinguished themselves as canny (though not tendentious) defenders of Obama. Martin is a speed-talker who discombobulates Lou Dobbs and sundry shills recruited by that demi-demagogue. Simmons has faced even harder tests. Aware he’s on the spot in a hot medium, he plays it cool, calm, and collected. Yet, on the night of the Texas primary, the Clintons’ lawyer Lanny Davis accused Simmons of being “angry.” Stunned, Simmons burned for a half-second, before getting back in the game. When Davis tried the same trick a couple days later—this time 116accusing Obama of sounding “angry,” Simmons breezed past him without hinting at his own frustration at the Clinton man’s repeated efforts to conger up the specter of “Black Rage.”
