Huffington: Enough!: Why Obama Should Release His Righteous Rage

[Wetzelbill]

Enough!: Why Obama Should Release His Righteous Rage
Arianna Huffington

Back in February 2007, I wrote about the role casting would play in the presidential race, and the American public's readiness to replace the John Wayne take-no-crap-cowboy model of leadership with a Gregory Peck-does-Atticus Finch archetype.

Given Obama's sense of moral obligation and social responsibility, and his "audacity of hope," I felt "the man and the moment may be made for each other."

Now, as the crises facing our country intensify, and the campaign McCain is running becomes sleazier and more trivial, it's time for Obama to unleash his inner Atticus -- or at least the key element of Finch that Obama seems reluctant to embrace: righteous rage.

"Finch had the riotous fire of all the great prophets in the Judeo-Christian tradition," John Cusack told me during our back-and-forth email conversation of the last few days. "He unleashes that fire in his final, great courtroom speech. If he didn't, if he refused to unleash his anger and contempt at the horror and immorality of racism, he would prove himself to be an unemotional man unworthy of our love and respect. Obama has waited long enough to show us this side of himself. Besides, we need to know that he can be a mean motherfucker if he wants this job."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/enough-why-obama-should-r_b_125519.html