"it's an epidemic... it's Obama fever."
Sunday, January 18, 2009 Filed in: random
musings
seriously?!?!?
it’s official. there is a new pandemic in this country and it seems to be sweeping the nation at a very rapid pace. Obama Fever is running rampant throughout the general population.
everywhere i look, i see the signs of it.
and, to a degree,
i get it. things suck. things have sucked for a
while. from a presidential standpoint, things have
sucked for a long while. people are hopeful. people
are excited about something new. i am too!
now, i will say here and now that i did not vote for Barack Obama. (i wrote myself in.*) but it wasn’t like i was devastated that he won. the way i see things, things weren’t going to be phenomenal either way. John McCain is old and would have probably died in office leaving Sarah Palin as our Commander in Chief. this wouldn’t have lasted long because she would have been a moving target and then we would have ended up with Nanci Pelosi as our president and i can’t think of many things that would be worse than that. (John McCain wasn’t great for other reasons too.)
but, Barack Obama isn’t the answer to all of our questions. he’s a man. he seems like a good man. he says “um” a lot but is a good deal more articulate than his predecessor (which, as we all know, isn’t saying much). in the end, though... he’s just a guy... a guy who’s being treated like the second coming. this would have to be the definition of setting someone up for failure.
i mean, when was the last time that a president had almost 50 songs written about him and his own iTunes playlist?
have you ever
known a president to have commemorative coins,
plates, medallions, busts and throws available before
he even went into office? (have you seen some of
these late night infomercials?) today i watched “We
Are One,” an inaugural tribute to Barack Obama with
celebrities like Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jaime
Foxx, Ashley Judd (what?), Samuel L. Jackson, Steve
Carrell (who didn’t do anything funny), Jack Black
(who also was not funny), Kal Penn (the guy from
House and Harold and Kumar? were they desperate?),
Marisa Tomei (again... what?), Tiger Woods and more.
they also had performances by Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige,
Jon Bon Jovi, Garth Brooks (didn’t he retire... like
five times?), John Mellencamp (he always gets invited
to these things), Shakira (obviously), Bruce
Springsteen, Usher, Will.i.am (dude... just be
William) and, of course, U2 (new single tomorrow!).
remember when George W. had his pre-inagural concert? it was off the... oh wait a minute! nope. never happened. Bill Clinton? nope. Bush Sr.? Reagan? FDR? Bueller? anyone?
please, people. allow your optimism and hope to be balanced with a healthy dose of reality. i want Barack Obama to do well. but it’s a little bit like the over-inflated, unrealistic sense of unity we all felt after 9/11. it felt great for a while, but when things went back to normal, we crashed into partisanship harder than we ever had before.
so, everyone just back off a bit. give the man some breathing room. let him feel like a human being. because if we don’t and Barack Obama can’t live up to the ridiculous standards of fixing the universe that everyone is holding him to, he’s screwed and we’re all going to find ourselves right back where we started... looking for hope.
oh... and by the way, i’m sure the race thing adds to all the excitement. personally, i think it’s fantastic and amazing that a black man has made it to the Oval Office and that is something to celebrate because it means we’ve come a long way. but let’s keep some perspective and set the man up for a chance to do some good.
*i kid, of course
it’s official. there is a new pandemic in this country and it seems to be sweeping the nation at a very rapid pace. Obama Fever is running rampant throughout the general population.
everywhere i look, i see the signs of it.
now, i will say here and now that i did not vote for Barack Obama. (i wrote myself in.*) but it wasn’t like i was devastated that he won. the way i see things, things weren’t going to be phenomenal either way. John McCain is old and would have probably died in office leaving Sarah Palin as our Commander in Chief. this wouldn’t have lasted long because she would have been a moving target and then we would have ended up with Nanci Pelosi as our president and i can’t think of many things that would be worse than that. (John McCain wasn’t great for other reasons too.)
but, Barack Obama isn’t the answer to all of our questions. he’s a man. he seems like a good man. he says “um” a lot but is a good deal more articulate than his predecessor (which, as we all know, isn’t saying much). in the end, though... he’s just a guy... a guy who’s being treated like the second coming. this would have to be the definition of setting someone up for failure.
i mean, when was the last time that a president had almost 50 songs written about him and his own iTunes playlist?
remember when George W. had his pre-inagural concert? it was off the... oh wait a minute! nope. never happened. Bill Clinton? nope. Bush Sr.? Reagan? FDR? Bueller? anyone?
please, people. allow your optimism and hope to be balanced with a healthy dose of reality. i want Barack Obama to do well. but it’s a little bit like the over-inflated, unrealistic sense of unity we all felt after 9/11. it felt great for a while, but when things went back to normal, we crashed into partisanship harder than we ever had before.
so, everyone just back off a bit. give the man some breathing room. let him feel like a human being. because if we don’t and Barack Obama can’t live up to the ridiculous standards of fixing the universe that everyone is holding him to, he’s screwed and we’re all going to find ourselves right back where we started... looking for hope.
oh... and by the way, i’m sure the race thing adds to all the excitement. personally, i think it’s fantastic and amazing that a black man has made it to the Oval Office and that is something to celebrate because it means we’ve come a long way. but let’s keep some perspective and set the man up for a chance to do some good.
*i kid, of course