There nothing more comforting than a leader who is attuned to the symbolic possibilities of his potential. We are thrilled to see Obama showing just such a sensitivity during the transition.Though he appealed to the Left while campaigning, almost everything Obama has done since the election has signaled a shift to the center, or, in the case of Rick Warren, the center-right. The shift is a masterful political stroke which has cost Obama virtually no political capital while wooing those who would oppose him. Perhaps the most powerful symbol of this right-ward slide, more even than the much-debated Warren affair, is Obama's new choice of recreational sport. During his recent family vacation in Hawaii, the President-elect was photographed playing golf. Golf!
That's dramatically different from the campaign. Save for one ugly incident in a bowling alley, Obama was strongly identified with basketball throughout the campaign. Obama the candidate was constantly shown popping fifteen-footers and even taking guys off the dribble. A former Duke basketball player, Reggie Love got major press for his key role in Obama's inner-circle.
The connection made perfect sense for someone running as a champion of the underclass. Basketball is the quintessential democratic sport; not only for its association with urban areas, Obama's base, but because the structure of the game itself is inherently egalitarian. Every player on the court plays both offense and defense, every player handles the ball, and every player can score from anywhere on the court. Compare that to, say, baseball, where there pitcher handles the ball 99% of the time (No wonder Crash Davis famously called strikeouts "fascist.") or to football, which mirrors the right-wing authoritarian structure of a military unit.
Suddenly, after the election, Obama gives up shooting hoops to be seen with a putter in his hand? It's a radical shift. Golf is the archetypal game of Republican power in America. It is the game of Eisenhower and the Bush family. It is a symbol, at least for people who don't play it, of the wildly racist, sexist and classist country clubs that have nurtured American power since the turn of the last century.
For all the hue and cry over Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary and the rest of the Clinton holdovers, and for all the fuss about Rick Warren speaking at the inauguration, the clearest symbol that Obama is playing a new game is the fact that Obama is playing a new game.
