Temptation in the Garden of Barack Obama

(This is long. You may want to bring a book.)

I don't know what to think about Barack Obama. I want to like him. I do kind of like him in a respectful sort of way, except for his too-serious nature. I prefer my leaders to be spontaneous and given to fun: he is somber and dour. He has rather an economical sense of humor for my taste. I don't need zany, mind you, but a little Churchill would be nice or JFK or Reagan? Teddy and FDR are out of the question, I suppose.

Last night he seemed less bored, less bothered that he had to actually appear at the debate rather than phone it in.

He looks typical though of today's coming of age ruling class, 30 to 50 year olds, a blend of middle aged baby boomer power seekers and very, very rich gen x technocrats. All of them of course are auditioning for jobs in one power arena or another. They all think they're in charge. The me-first kids.

The more serious ones carry a hallmark: they are almost all short on manners--something I see when their mothers and wives are not around, mostly their mothers--and facts; when asked to support an outrageous statement, they typically change the subject and say something like, "but what's more important is..."

God bless them, they're like brand new religious converts, very zealous in their self-conscious, kiss-my-behind way, as-if-they-invented-it opinions and empty Armani styles. Some are shallow and intolerant of people they do not like. Actually, none of this is new, at least in politics. What is new is there's a woman in the room.

But to be fair, I'd like to look farther into this, to see where these whippersnapper Obama people might take us. Could they be right? They're the ones I'm talking about--those who have figured out the values issues (money, status issues, gone beyond the shallow stuff and Armani, ). Where are they in all this? Are they guilt ridden whites, angry, black reactionaries, what? And what is Barack Obama really about? I'm still not sure because all I'm hearing is something very repetitive and meaningless in the long term.

Boomer Box Barack
It is not necessary for Senator Obama to use his outdoor James Earl Jones voice in the preacher tone to get through to my little white pea brain. In fact, it insults the crap out of me, especially coming from a politician. After all, Barack (Barry) Obama is half white, a fact that no one has mentioned anywhere but--ahem--here. Well, he might get some white votes that way. By preaching, I mean.

Okay. We're family. I have to admit. I have fantasies. I've actually thought about voting for Obama.

Maybe, I thought, just maybe he could put the brakes on this black versus white undercurrent we have going on in this country, and the sky would open up, and a celestial choir would sing, and then I wondered...

Who is this Obama guy, anyway?
Senator Obama didn't exactly come up from the hood. He grew up in Hawaii, the only black kid in his class in an expensive Hawaiian prep school and was raised by liberal white grandparents. He did his undergraduate work at University of Hawaii and Occidental College, an expensive church school, got his JDs at the Ivies, then hit the streets as an activist, i.e., organizer, (will someone tell me what that is and who pays for it?). Then he ran for office, lost; ran again and he won; ran for the U.S. Senate and won.

Senator Obama, Michelle and the kids live in a monstrosity in Chicago some obviously grateful Chicaaaagoan gave him between hambiggers and da Bears games. *

Senator Obama says his dad is from Kenya and was the son of a poor goat herder. Actually, his dad was from a family of goat herders; they have thousands of acres of land and thousand of goats and homes worth many, many goat hides. Goat herding has been very good to them. His dad, an economist who worked for the Kenyan government, abandoned him and his mother when Senator Obama was 2. Unfortunately, Obama, Sr. committed suicide later in Senator Obama's childhood. The senator bonded with his Kenyan kin in 2000.

There's not much out there about the white side of Senator Obama's family except his mother came from Kansas and met his father while at the University of Hawaii. It's interesting her background is so muted. As a politico, I have to assume there are problems with the black vote and it's being done to keep attention from his mulattoness. Too bad. As someone who is very liberal in the civil rights area, it's almost as disappointing to me as Michelle's revealing statements--kind of like a slap, a pitcher of cold water in my face as if none of America's white activists sacrificed enough or were good enough for her or him or had done enough to help the civil rights movement.

Such ambivalence, frankly, causes me to wonder if Senator Obama knows himself as much as he claims to. I don't want Obama as president if he can't give credit where credit is due.

Senator Obama's policy stands
Of course, in the debate last night, no one corrected the candidate as he cavalierly cited some phantom, made up stats and notions on the war or on anything for else that matter (NAFTA) so I was left screaming, "Will someone please challenge him?!"

I disagree completely with Senator Obama's stance on Iraq and for that reason alone I could not and would not vote for him. Besides, he's grinding the truth so much even my teeth hurt.

Mrs. Clinton, of course, is also lying through her own teeth and will stay in Iraq for as long as we need. I trust her take the Iraq War to its conclusion. She knows the stakes. I'm telling you, this woman is tough. Too bad she's not a Republican. She'd be a good moderate.

As far as the Senator's hindsight, it is laughable. He has actually minimized the middle east situation into a game of R isk (Tom Hayden is one of his advisers? I heard Dick Gregory's looking for a gig--he'll provide his own case of Ensure.) He speaks in terms of whether the world "likes" us, using it in the same sentence with the strategy word. I don't feel he has a sense of understanding threats to the country, from Muslim terrorist states and terrorists themselves.

Here's the thing. Can Senator Obama, who believes in Israel's right to exist, as he declared last evening with such ferocity, as well as plainly shunning Louis Farrakhan's endorsement, be so naive as to place Israel at risk as we abandon Iraq? Worse, is he that horribly stupid or is he actually lying?

In which case, what? We elect a face? A leader? An orator? A shill? A henpecked man? Take a chance?

Maybe the only differences among all three candidates are the domestic ones, in which case, what are the real differences? There is a national election in which there will be two distinct choices.

The temptation has passed.


Thanks for the read.

*Personally I am very proud that race relations in this country have reached the point where a black woman, Michelle Robinson Obama, was literally given funds and scholarships for entrance into Ivy League schools, while my kids schlepped through state schools, a fabulous house in Chicago and a bitchin' career in a big city--all during my adult lifetime. On top of it all, she may even get to be first lady, all by accident of birth, almost like an white European princess. Wow. What a country!