226 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographyassess just how risky was this,” said Pete Giangreco, who along with Mr. Axelrod described the
conversation. When Mr. Obama tossed out the idea of calling it a “dumb war,” Mr. Giangreco
said he cringed. “I remember thinking, ‘this puts us in the weak defense category, doesn’t it?’
(Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York
Times, May 11, 2008.)
Betty Lu Salzman is the daughter of Philip Klutznick, who was Secretary of Commerce in the
final years of the Jimmy Carter regime. So it was evidently an old Carter network that gave the
anointed one his golden opportunity to go on record against Bush’s war.
A number of Obama critics have rightly stressed the pervasive role of Obama’s old SDS
networks in setting up this legendary rally. Steve Diamond, for example, writes: “...do not forget,
the Anti-war speech Obama gave in 2002, was organized by former terrorists of the SDS days, Carl
Davidson, Marylyn Katz and others!” And:
As it turns out, there are other ex-SDS types around the Obama campaign as well, including
Marilyn Katz, a public relations professional, who was head of security for the SDS during the
disaster in the streets of Chicago in 1968. She is close (politically) to Carl Davidson, a former
vice president of SDS and longtime Fidelista, who is webmaster for a group called Progressives
for Obama, that is headlined by other former 60s radicals like Tom Hayden and the maoist Bill
Fletcher. Davidson and Katz were key organizers of the 2002 anti-war demonstration where
Obama made public his opposition to the Iraq war that has been so critical to his successful
presidential campaign. Davidson apparently moved into the maoist movements of the 70s after
the disintegration of SDS.’ (Steve Diamond, ‘Who “sent” Obama?‘ globallabor.blogspot.com,
April 22, 2008)
Obama spoke before an undetermined number of persons, with aging SDS radicals from the
Ayers-Dohrn era setting the cultural tone. The following account is from the New York Times, and
must therefore be regarded with a dose of skepticism:
The rally was held on Oct. 2, 2002, in Federal Plaza before nearly 2,000 people.^87 On the
podium before speaking, Mr. Obama joked about the dated nature of crowd-pleasing protest
songs like “Give Peace a Chance.” “Can’t they play something else? ” Ms. Saltzman recalled
his saying. The speech, friends say, was vintage Obama, a bold but nuanced message that has
become the touchstone of his presidential campaign: While he said the Iraq war would lead to
“an occupation of undetermined length with undetermined costs and undetermined
consequences,” he was also careful to emphasize that there were times when military
intervention was necessary. (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic Politics, Forged on
the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.)
Obama’s careful hedging could not have been more evident, and this hint of duplicity was not
popular with the assembled crowd:
Obama’s refrain about supporting some wars perplexed some in the crowd. An event organizer,
Carl Davidson, recalled that a friend “nudged me and said, ‘Who does he think this speech is
for? It’s not for this crowd.’ I thought, ‘This guy’s got bigger fish to fry.’ At the time, though, I
was only thinking about the U.S. Senate.” (Jo Becker and Christopher Drew, “Pragmatic
Politics, Forged on the South Side,” New York Times, May 11, 2008.)