It fascinates me that so many pundits and would-be voters equate leadership with motivating and controlling followers in an organizational setting. Among folk musicians who jam together, "taking the lead" and "following" are very important concepts that effect each musical outcome. Most relevant in Obama's case, however, is the folksinger's concept of "leading" the audience. In rock and classical music, performers wow the audience who behave as enthusiastic spectators. To a professional folksinger, though, the concept of leading an audience involves not only getting them to sing unfamiliar choruses but to embrace the leader's vision at least for the duration of a song. Think Pete Seeger.

Some aspects of folk performance also apply to Obama as a leader. Who is he leading right now? He has his 300 hundred foreign policy advisors, his internet gurus, his fundraisers, his consultants, his speechwriters, his issue consultants, his organizers, his phone banks, his events planners, and his public relations flacks. For eighteen months, he has been running and financing a protean organization, the campaign itself. But being a leader does not merely consist of getting organizational workers to perform well.

Performing is also a form of leadership, not a pre-leadership accident or rhetorical trick that may result in some future opportunity to lead. Folk performers work hard at their performing skills and are in large part responsible for the level of popularity they generate for their act. Obama has spent a considerable time mastering performance skills. He works at oratory, at communicating through a presidential persona, and at positioning the vision he wishes to share within this historical moment. He needs the public and tries to involve them in developing and refining the vision. That is what is required during a campaign, what he is emphasizing. These are not pre-leadership factors-- they are part and parcel of leadership as he construes it during this election season.

I think performers, especially folk performers who draw on tradition, as does Obama, and who are incredibly interactive, also like Obama, should refuse to let the the GOP and the mediocracy get away with assuming that po;ularity or performance competence is just an act of God-- to do so would generate respect for us as public artists and also, perhaps, for the candidate.