Sunday, December 02, 2007

Sexy Dictator

I'm still in the boat, it is rocky, the water's a bit choppy, but I can still see land despite constant reports to the contrary. Some passengers look weary though, and every once in a while someone jumps overboard with that depressing, blank look on their face. I wonder if they don't see the land. It's all about the land for me. But a lot are starting to insist that it is all about the boat. "Hope," in bright white letters is written on our stern and painted beside it is the insignia of an abstract rising sun in red, white, and blue.

A friend of mine, a masters in journalism student at Columbia University, called me in distress recently. He and a fellow reporter had waited in the cold for an hour, and just at the moment Barack Obama stepped out of his car, making his way past, they implored "could we ask a question senator?" They got the political cold shoulder. "Columbia, great school." Obama efficiently repeated, and made his way into the breakfast fundraiser. Obama was then trailed by a perpetual guest list of the well-off. As my friend put it, "you've never seen these kind of rich people before. The kind only ever poorly imitated in the movies." But that wasn't the point he said, the point was, Barack Obama is a jerk! Here I needed to take a step back and agree, but only for a moment. As I ceded to him, being a politician, Barack could have handled dismissing two young Black, male Columbia students, waiting in the cold, with a little more finesse. But 'jerk' was a stretch for me.

Eventually Barack came back out and answered some questions, but my friend's faith was already shaken. The incident for me crystallized two visions; the president America has, and the president America seems allergic to. George W. Bush is a result of a distinctly delusional American desire of familiarity with greatness. Americans I find, don't just want the best president. They want a best buddy; the kind of president who would stop a press conference just to go around the corner with you and your friends for a few beers. And you would maybe play darts and laugh, he would win of course, either by luck, or by that air of inexplicable cool. This is the president America wants, and this is the president the rest of the world despises. Actually, the rest of the world has no idea why you would want that guy running the country. That guy screwed up a lot of things before he ran for president, and while he is amusing to the rest of the world, he only gets a special section on the cover of Okay Magazine, not an oval office.

The president in a non American arena is the smartest kid in class (Maybe this was the case before FDR, but I don't even believe that!). He is the geek. He is that awkward kid that just didn't make sense in any other context, except president or perhaps law professor, or 'the distinguished senator from Illinois.' This president of course brings along his own baggage, and can illicit pointless hero worship just as easily as the best buddy guy (see my wonderful/creepy photoshop creation in this entry), but in the long run, he is obsessed with a functioning system. He is obsessed with being the solution to a broken system, and it pains him to be otherwise. It is this obsession that kept JFK up nights, and I used to think JFK's popularity was based on an attraction to that obsession. I am finding myself wrong. America it seems is obsessed only with the image of the Playboy President, because at the end of the day he's the guy you can convince to have just one more beer.

On a Bill Maher with Russian politician Garry Kasparov recently Chris Matthews said this; "you ever get the sense they're playing chess and we're playing checkers?" Yes, I do. I believe Barack is trying to play chess, the only game in town with any possibility of handing him a victory. He could easily be the type of "Black candidate" who runs on that rarity alone. It would be a good show, cameras would show up, maybe he would have a few rock star moments, but ultimately, he would be,'that Black guy who ran for president in 2008.'

I will vote for Barack Obama because at the end of the day he is the president America needs, if it has not yet realized it wants him. So he wasn't nice to my friend who waited in the cold to interview him for an hour, I don't care, I am not afraid of intelligent dictators, only the foolish ones. At least for today.

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