• Forty Years A-Wandering

  Posted Monday, April 21, 2008 11:30 AM | By Emily Bazelon
  
  
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  Speaking of Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary, at our family seder in Philadelphia over the weekend, my mother pointed out that just as 40 years elapsed before the Israelites made it to the Promised Land, so 40 years have passed since the assassination of MLK in April 1968 and this contest, with Barack Obama's candidacy. He may be down in the polls statewide, but in my parents' corner of northwest Philadelphia, Obama signs bloomed in many a yard (even on streets near the home of Gov. Ed Rendell, a Clinton diehard). If MLK plays the role of Moses in this analogy, then Obama is Joshua—of a generation one step removed from the past (civil rights-era leaders like Jeremiah Wright come to mind). It's the Joshua-vintage leader who gets to lead his people into the new land. All very biblical and sweeping and moving—even if you're right, Hanna, and tomorrow Obama doesn't yet pull it off.
  Filed under: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, '08 election, Jeremiah Wright, Joshua, Moses
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