ACTORS AND POLITICIANS

We love the King’s English and are unabashed fans of those who have mastered it. We agree with the theater critic who once remarked that he could listen to Sir Richard Burton read a grocery list. We are therefore forced to comment on the mystical status that has been conferred upon the speech of Barack Obama. Having been raised in the center of the Bible Belt we recognize the rhythm and intonation of the Baptist Preacher in President Elect Obama’s rhetoric. He has the sing-song, repetitive form that is the hallmark of that oratorical tradition. It is clear that he has been influenced by the late Martin Luther King Jr. and his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. However, King and Wright were raised with the legacy of soaring speech and it became an integral part of them. For Obama, it is an acquired talent which he puts on as an actor dons a costume for a play.

We just watched Obama’s first of many Presidential press conferences and we were struck by the contrast in his rhetoric between his prepared remarks and his extemporaneous answers to the press’ questions. While delivering the prepared remarks he appeared cooler than the last four iterations of James Bond (No one can approach the benchmark coolness of Sean Connery’s Bond). However, he quickly dissolved into a verbal flop sweat while taking questions. He punctuating every third word with an “um” or “uh” while blinking like a drunk staring into a traffic cop’s flashlight. Contrast this with the performance handed us by Rev. Wright at the National Press Club breakfast. Offensive as it was, it was genuine and powerful. What we take from this is Barack Obama is an actor. His public appearances during the campaign have been performances, well written, well rehearsed, well directed, well produced, theatrical events.

The question is who is Barack Obama really? We always thought it remarkable that African Americans identified so closely with Obama. Apart from his genetics, he shares none of the common experience of Black Americans. He was raised in a white, upper middle class home. He attended the a prestigious white prep school in Hawaii. He started college at an elite private liberal arts school and completed his studies at two Ivy league institutions capped by graduation from the Nation’s most exclusive old boys’club, Harvard Law School. In fairness, he has taken great pains to join the African American community since graduation. Through his work as a community organizer and association with Trinity United Church of Christ he has immersed himself in the African American experience, albeit from a comfortable upper middle class distance.

As much as we believe we have not been introduced to the real Barack Obama as of yet, we are equally certain that his true persona shall not remain hidden for long. There are few more scrutinized homes than the White House and few confidants more willing to leak items to the Press than Rahm Emanuel , the man Obama has chosen as his White House Chief of Staff. In the end Obama’s legendary cool will be stripped from him. After all, we understand that Sean Connery really isn't very nice in person.

RATS AND REPORTERS

One of our favorite themes is the paucity of journalism integrity in the US today. Perhaps it is our age which allows us to remember Murrow, Brinkley, and Cronkite. Perhaps it is an archaic college class in journalism ethics. Perhaps it is just an old fashioned sense of decency. Whatever the antecedents, we are horrified and saddened by the media’s reporting of the sleazy stories coming out of the McCain campaign corpse.

Chief among these reports was Carl Cameron’s piece on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor yesterday evening. Citing anonymous sources, Cameron reported that the McCain organization was doomed by Sarah Palin’s inadequacy as a running mate. Without the hygiene of rubber gloves or disinfectant, he offered up stories of a Palin who did not know Africa was a continent, that the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was an agreement between the North American countries of the US, Canada, and Mexico, or the most rudimentary facts about US government. He even threw in the salacious tidbit of Palin greeting McCain staffers fresh out of the shower, wearing only a bathrobe.



Now we have a problem with this report on a couple of levels.

• The only defense for slander is the truth. Absent named sources, this report cannot rise above the primordial slime of vicious rumor.
• It is incredulous that a sitting US governor could not name the countries in North America, identify the three branches of the federal government, or know the diffefrence between a continent and a country.
• The bathrobe item makes us cringe at the inappropriate intimacy.

The real story here is the rodent-like behavior of the McCain staffers. In a frenzy to save careers from drowning in a boiling sea of ineptitude, they are clammering over the body of the one person that gave the McCain campaign a shot at the Presidency. Palin’s nomination was the only point in the campaign that the media lights were turned away from Barack Obama and focused on McCain. Had McCain selected any other running mate, he would have lost by three times the margin. Post election finger pointing is inevitable, but the press’ role is analysis, not gossip. Now, we need a shower.

WE HAVE A NEW PRESIDENT

We have a reverence for our political system akin to a religion. We look to it for comfort when a cruel world batters us and threatens us. We take solace in the constitution the way some rely on the Bible and look on our founding fathers as wise prophets that provided the roadmap that guide us and all future generations. Just as we rely on the book of Job to remind us that sometimes we must simply accept the challenges the Almighty has given us, so we must accept the path a democracy has chosen.

We don’t purport to understand why our citizenry has chosen Barack Obama to lead us for the next four years, but we do know we will embrace him as our President and wish him well for our fate is now inextricably intertwined with his. More importantly, the fates of our children and grandchildren rely upon his decisions and actions. What we truly believe is our republic will endure. It is that well designed and soundly crafted that it will survive any missteps a less experienced leader may make.

One thing, our countrymen must do is hold President Obama to the high standard demanded of a US President. A free press, and active opposition party, and an involved public must serve their role. For all of us that supported another candidate, it is time we stood alongside Barack Obama and point out the path we wish to travel with him. It will not serve any of us well if we allow him to go astray or lead us into the abyss. So put your regrets behind you, there is work for us all to do.