The week I started this blog, way way back in the foggy memory that is 2004, two very important things happened to be in Boston. Me and the Democratic National Convention. As I lived in the North End – which is a hop, skip and a flip-flop away from the Boston Garden – our neighborhood was abuzz and I remember paying particularly close attention to the goings on. The way I remember it, there were three big questions on everyone’s mind:
- Why is Ben Affleck speaking at the DNC?
- Will Ben Affleck nail either or both of John Kerry’s daughters?
- Who the hell is this Barack Obama guy?
It is astounding to think that in the 4 years since that painful week (you try traversing 14 different protests a morning on your walk to work,) Barack has become the figurehead of the Democratic party – nay, the hopes and dreams of the free world – and he didn’t really have to do… anything.
I recently took part in a demo for a proposed pop culture radio show I have been asked to participate in up here. It will/would be on the Canadian CBC network (which I love and listen to in my car everyday) and I was contacted as a result of a producer finding this very blog. As I have become such a fan in the year since I moved up North I was flattered and completely up for it. My rampant narcissism didn’t hold me back either. After some back and forth we decided the topic for the show would be the help/hindrance of celebrity endorsement on both sides of the fence as the Paris Hilton video response to McCain’s ad had just popped up and was all the rage.
Long story short, as I have a daunting mountain of real work to get through this week, the host at one point asked me – “Don’t you want to see the candidate with the most support voted into the White House?” To which I replied something along the lines of absolutely not! Do I want my new President to be elected because an untalented hack from Fall Out Boy was photographed at a club wearing his face on a T-shirt? Shall I ignore my concerns about Obama’s national defense intentions and experience fall by the way side because videos of a large-breasted siren singing his praises have gone viral on YouTube?
The man has support, all right. Staggering support. But it’s been whipped up in all the wrong ways by all the wrong people. I would like to (and have been in person) challenging people to tell me a few – Jesus, any – reasons they support or plan to vote for Barack Obama. And none of them can. That frightens me, and it doesn’t have anything to do with age, race, smoking or number of Sennett terms. “I think we need a change” is not going to cut it with me, and if these scribblings give one mindlessly (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) pro-Obama person pause for thought, I’ll be happy.
A person should be elected for President based on who he/she is, and not who he/she isn’t. This is no time in human history to propel an individual into the Presidency because they’re a fad. I’d sooner a hula hoop or a Pet Rock got elected. Feel free to hammer me for my shocking thoughts on Mr. Obama, and I hope you do. It needs to be discussed.