March 19, 2007

Obamamania

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year—or see Paris Hilton¹ as your mentor and role model—the name Barack Obama should certainly ring a bell. Given his compelling story, prolific star power, and seemingly unwavering optimism in the face of overpowering cynicism, he is someone I have followed since his arrival on the national stage in 2004 with the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to see him speak at a rally in Oakland, Calif.

Though I would not yet describe myself as being all about Obama, as many of my peers have been inclined to be in recent months, he certainly seems to be a presidential candidate—and politician in general—actually worthy of excitement (in definite contrast to the collection of candidates during the 2004 election). I went to the rally primarily to see him speak and gauge whether there is any substance to all that style—and hype. Overall, I was not disappointed; Obama is a strong orator and either has a great speech-writing staff, or is a very talented writer himself, or both. Though his speech was decidedly short on the details when it came to implementation of his proposed policies, he did make some fairly bold statements, including one that he hopes to be held accountable for achieving universal health care in the U.S. by the end of his first term. With only one term and a potentially hostile Congress—guided inevitably mostly by a plethora of special interests—this is indeed quite an audacious statement. Either he has some spectacular plan (a super secret plan to fight health care?) or he is making it up as he goes along. Time will obviously tell; a public, outdoor rally was not the place to go into these details, but the presidential debates—if he gets that far—will certainly be an appropriate venue.

Though Barack (how I am on a first name basis with the Junior Senator from Illinois is not particularly clear) himself was interesting, the venue and logistics of the rally were downright idiotic. Whoever planned the rally ought to be fired immediately. First, there was a huge tree in the center of the plaza that blocked the view of nearly half the crowd. I was worst off, as I was actually within the massive branches of the tree, standing in dirt and worrying more about various insects biting me than paying attention to the rally. Second, instead of putting him on a stage, the planners, in their infinite wisdom, put him in a trench. Are we paying homage to WWI here guys? What the hell is wrong with you? Finally, to complete their faux pas, the planners situated the media all alongside the trench, effectively blocking off the view of all those not blocked by the tree. Perhaps the only people who saw him were those standing on the rooftops of surrounding buildings, though I am not entirely clear how that was allowed from a security standpoint.

In any case, based on this rally, I might actually move his most recent book to the front of my queue. I am no where near ready to make a decision on 2008 yet, but at least this race is proving to be a hell of a lot more exciting than last time. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to see some of the other candidates in action before long; somehow considering that I live in California, and specifically, in San Francisco, I do not think that I will have to wait long.

¹ Paris Hilton is a stand-in for a subculture of idiocy that is embraced by far too many of my generation; another suitable description might be those individuals who find the concept of Fox's new game show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? entertaining. Basically, if you're more concerned with Britney's shaved head than world news, you fall into this category. Also, please see my policy on people of your kind.