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In coverage of the Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, much has been made of the demographic differences between the two candidates' supporters based on race, gender, age, income, and education. While observers frequently point to Clinton's strong support among women, older voters, and blue-collar Democrats, they also point to Obama's strong support among African Americans, young voters, and more highly-educated, affluent Democrats. Given Clinton's strong appeal particularly among working women and Obama's on college and university campuses, these same observers might call Clinton the candidate of the kitchen table and Obama the candidate of the professor's podium. To be certain, Obama is popular in the academic community, not only among students but also among their professors. While those focused on kitchen-table issues often say they like Hillary because of her emphasis on management, much of Obama's popularity in the academic community is likely attributable to his more scholarly style and approach.
We do have a towering precedent in American history for a scholar in the White House, one whose life and achievements make a strong case for having another one: Thomas Jefferson. Our third president, Jefferson was also among America's founding fathers and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Major achievements of Jefferson's presidency include the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and successful military operations against Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean; and I know of no complaints regarding his presidential management skills or his ability to wage war in America's defense. Jefferson is not most renowned either as a manager-president or as a soldier-president, however, but as a scholar-president. Indeed Jefferson stands alongside Voltaire, Locke, and Montesquieu among the major intellectual figures of the Enlightenment and the Age of Revolution. In addition to his life as a president and statesman Jefferson was also a horticulturist, an architect, an archaeologist, a paleontologist, an author, an inventor, and the founder of the University of Virginia: truly a "Renaissance man" in the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci. When Keith Ellison of Minnesota became America's first Muslim member of Congress, he was sworn in on a copy of the Quran once owned and studied by Thomas Jefferson. Had a president of Jefferson's intellectual depth been in the White House on 9/11 and in the years since, America and the world would look very different today.
Of course the ideal president would be scholar, manager, and soldier as well as a number of other things in equal measure. No one can be everything in equal measure, however, and so like the rest of us presidential candidates must emphasize their greatest strengths and hope that these register with the greatest number of voters. As a Democrat planning to vote in November for whichever Democratic candidate is nominated, I feel certain that both Clinton and Obama possess all the basic intellectual skill sets necessary to be a good or even a great president. Obama's scholarly background and approach, however, has in my opinion provided him with a far greater depth and breadth of vision than Clinton's on the large issues facing America and the world today.
Neither Barack Obama nor I would ever say that kitchen-table issues are unimportant or of secondary importance. All these - health care, education, social security, and the rest - are vitally important issues that Obama addresses in his presidential platform as anyone can find in detail at his campaign website. Beyond these kitchen-table issues, however, Obama displays a visionary perspective on global questions such as the environment and the future direction of American foreign policy with which Clinton in my opinion simply cannot compete. Obama has transcended nationalism in his approach to issues such as the broader Mideast conflict and undocumented immigration, refusing to engage in the kind of swaggering "tough talk" and finger-pointing by which other Democrats as well as Republicans attempt to score political points. Obama has promised to talk with America's adversaries as well as its allies, and has rejected the anti-Arab, anti-Iranian, anti-UN, anti-European, anti-Chinese, and anti-immigrant rhetoric other politicians commonly throw around to win votes. His vision is truly a global one.
Whether Thomas Jefferson's knowledge of the Quran helped him in his dealings with Barbary pirates on "the shores of Tripoli," I cannot say. I can state with some conviction, however, my belief that in a time of such sweeping global change as today we would be well served by a president as willing and able as Jefferson to think outside the box of conventional wisdom and politics as usual. As important as kitchen-table issues are, the compelling importance also of the larger questions of the day and the need for new ideas on how we might seek to address them constitutes much of what has drawn so many in the academic community and beyond to the Obama campaign. A true scholar possesses not just knowledge but also - even more importantly as Albert Einstein suggests - imagination. While I have no doubts as to Hillary Clinton's extensive knowledge and capability, I believe it is Barack Obama who truly possesses the intellectual depth and imaginative vision to lead America and the world into a new era.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
