Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Today Is Election Day.

November 2nd, 2004, for me, was all about defeating George W. Bush. Today, November 4th, 2008, is all about electing Barack Obama. Simply put, I love the man. Today is going to be an intense day no matter what happens, but I want to stay in that place of positivity: in my lifetime, I have a politician I can admire, and there is a very good chance that today will go down in history as the day he is elected president. In this spirit of hope and affirmation, I offer ten reasons why Barack should win today.

10a. He plays poker, he watches The Wire, he follows the NFL closely enough to pick a decent fantasy team. I think it's important to share interests with your president. Bush enjoys "working on the ranch." Maybe for all the ranch owners in America that was appealing, but I'll stick with a guy who can set himself up for the evening with ESPN and a quick run to the bodega.

10b. He plays basketball. A lot has been made of the fact that he'd be the first black president, but what about the fact that he'd be the first president with game? And what is his game like? Is it an arechtypal old man game, characterized by hook shots and seventeen footers? Or can he still get to the hoop? And if he wore a jersey on the court, whose would it be? (I'm thinking Dr. J.)


Penetrating to set up an easy jump shot for a teammate.

9. He wasn't born into anything. He was born to a hippie mother and a Kenyan father who divorced soon after he was born. He was raised in Indonesia and by his grandparents in Hawaii. Let's be honest—it wouldn't surprise you if the dude with that biography ended up selling leather bracelets on the beach in Thailand. But Barack made his way to the U.S. Senate and, in less than 24 hours, maybe the presidency. That impresses me. Far too many of our leaders are the scions of old, established families (Bush, Kerry, Gore, McCain…). One of the best things about America is the fact that social background is not a prerequisite for success—Barack embodies that.

8. If they were Saturday morning cartoon characters, Barack would be Optimus Prime and Joe Biden would be Ironhide. Just as importanly, John McCain would be Megatron and Sarah Palin would be Starscream—as this clip proves (with the added bonus of Joe Lieberman as Soundwave).



7a. He went to Columbia. I'm pretty pleased that Barack was a lion, to say the least. And it's equally awesome that a lion might be president. But besides all of that—he SEEMS like someone who would go to Columbia. Columbia seems to attract intelligent randos, and I believe that's how Barack describes himself in Dreams of My Father. I dunno, I can just picture him eating a sandwich outside of Uris with a copy of the Spec in his hand.

7b. He smoked weed.


Who wants to get high and grab a chicken parm at JJ's Place? Barry does.

6. In November, 2007, when Gabi and I were in Egypt, I remember telling our guide, Heba, about Barack—this was in the context of how completely Bush had fucked America's reputation over there. I remember we described who Barack was, how he was black, how his father had been raised as a Muslim, etc. She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "But he probably won't win, though." I don't think you can overestimate, on the one hand, what Bush has done to tarnish America's image, and, on the other, what Barack's election would do to repare it. Heba thought, reasonably enough, that the prospect of America electing Barack Hussein Obama was just too good to be true.

5. McCain sucks. I know I wanted to stay in a place of positivity, but if McCain doesn't pull off the upset, there is going to be all this talk from the right about the media bias. I'm sorry, there is no bias. McCain is a terrible candidate. He has aged horribly over the last year. Watch a YouTube clip of him at the start of the primaries and watch one of him now: it is like watching a 65 year-old and a 74 year-old. Of course, the media never touches this story because it's "improper." Also, McCain is not a maverick. He voted with Bush on every important issue, including torture. You can't say the media is biased against McCain when they blatantly misreport the fact that he voted in support of torture. Finally, McCain wanted to pick Joe Lieberman as his vice-presidential candidate. But the right went ape shit because Lieberman supports abortion rights. So McCain bowed to their medieval hysteria and picked Sarah Palin, a woman he didn't know and who turned out to be pretty dumb. Now the right has a candidate for 2012 and McCain is stuck with a girl Starscream.

4. He can orate! Barack Obama is the best public speaker of my lifetime, period. He is even better than Coach Cal when he spoke at my elementary school graduation.



It's nice to be inspired.

3. He's mixed. My parents are members of different religions. So like many, many people I know, I didn't start out with an undivided identity based on my birth. How I define myself is something I had to work through, often consciously. I think that is an essential component of the American experience for our generation, and one that is too often ignored. Barack is part of that experience. To me he isn't post-racial, he's bi-racial, in the best way.

2. He's right about Afghanistan, health care, Iraq, renewable energy, taxes, abortion, torture, Iran…

1. When I was a kid I went to the Hall of Presidents in Disney World, and before breaking out the animatronic Grover Clevelands and Chester A. Arthurs, they showed a short movie. I remember the narrating saying that America had been lucky to always elect in its times of greatest crisis its greatest leaders: Lincoln during the Civil War era, Roosevelt during the Depression and World War II, and so forth. We were stuck with W. after 9/11, and we are even deeper in the shit now. But I believe Barack Obama is the leader who can get us through this crisis. And I believe he can lead America into the new century. I guess what I'm saying is: Sometimes there's a man… well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there.



Yes, we can!

3 comments:

  1. 10c. According to the email I got from Imeem this morning, B's personal top ten playlist includes The Fugees, Stones, Kanye, The Boss, and Nina Simone. McCain has a pair of ABBA songs.

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  2. If there is one shocker on election night in the presidential race, cast your eyes to Georgia. 1,994,990 people voted early in Georgia. 3,301,875 total voted in Georgia's presidential race in 2004. Let that sink in.

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