Barack Obama: Practically Perfect in Every Way

When I was a kid, I absolutely, positively loved Mary Poppins. Along with Lady and the Tramp, Cinderella and a few other timeless classics, there was rarely a weekend that went by when I didn't watch one of those movies at least once or twice. However, at some point after my Step Mother actually had to buy a second copy of the movie, since the first wore out, I stopped watching it - until recently, when it was on TV. I figured, for old time's sake, I'd watch it again - and so I did. However, this time it wasn't nearly as good as I remembered it. It's funny, sometimes things can seem different than how you remembered it. For the first time ever, I realized that Mary Poppins may be nearly perfect in every way, but that doesn't mean I like her anymore for it. I'm beginning to feel that way about Barack Obama.

Like Mary Poppins, he's come out of nowhere, just without the talking, flying umbrella. Only a few years ago, he was a state legislator who couldn't get into the US Congress. He won an easy US Senate race, where his chief opponent was forced to leave the race early due to scandal. His eventual opponent, Alan Keyes, was no real opponent at all.

Like Mary Poppins, we barely know anything about him. Sure, Mary had Burt and Barack has Oprah, but does that really tell us anything about who they are? Barack's talking about change, but change for what? He says we need to unify the country, that we need Democrats and Republicans working together, but are these really problems? At least, are they problems we can solve? Barack Obama isn't going to be able to change conservatives - their inability to work for nonpartisan or bipartisan solutions is ingrained in their brains (and that's only the quickest link I could find). They strive for partisanship; working together is a sign of weakness to them.

The Democrats, on the other hand, haven't been partisan enough. Whether it's war funding or telecom immunity, too many Democrats have been willing to be 'bipartisan' and hand over all the loot - including this country's constitution - as if the Republicans were robbing a bank. Barack Obama thinks we haven't given away enough to that lot- as if the Republicans have given us any indication that they're capable of being reasonable in office. Obama either doesn't get it or is ignoring the problem, more interested in fancy slogans.

Either way, Barack Obama seems too perfect. He's proven to be too afraid to appeal to the real change this country needs (a true progressive vision), all in favor of capturing the low-information voters interested in an undefined "change," even if nothing Obama has advocated for represents anything revolutionary. When I was a kid who loved Mary Poppins, I fell in love with the message and spirit of things - and I still do. However, it's no longer enough to talk about change, there has to be something behind supercalifragelisticexpicalidocious, specifics that act as the change the campaign claims to represent. Otherwise, the whole campaign message sounds too much like a Spoonful of Sugar, forcing a most unnecessary medicine down.

No Fun League at it Again

While football commentary generally doesn't belong on this website, there are some very real aspects to the whole Pats-Colts game that shouldn't go unnoticed by any audience. Apparently, there may have been cheating again, but this time not from those dastardly Patriots, a team caught doing something the entire NFL has been doing for years now. This time it's the team representing the side of "good," the Colts (yes, I did read a sports column about how the Pats-Colts game was all about good vs. evil, but I'll spare everyone the link). But it's not like we're going to hear anything about it, because the "good" team can't possibly cheat - right? The Powers that Be only want to push the meme that the Patriots are cheating bastards, not just a team that's worked harder and longer at being better than the rest of the NFL. So, shhh, don't let that secret out of the bag.

What's stunned me as a person is how hateful the rest of the country has become toward something as trivial as a sports team, something that isn't altogether different than the political discourse going around for the past few decades. I don't know if we're more or less likely to pick up a column insinuating the Patriots ought to be renamed the Satanists, or hear Ann Coultershock claiming liberals are going to go to hell anyway, so we may as do the dirty deed now and get it over with. Seriously, would either of the two scenarios shock anyone?

It all gets me back to a discussion I had a few months ago with Lynne's husband on how some people - mostly conservatives - think differently. How these people have authoritarian minds. It doesn't matter if it's sports, politics, news or what's the best cookie recipe, a lot of the 'leading voices' on any of these matters all seem to think alike, even if the subjects they're interested in may be different. The Patriots were shown, in public, as a bunch of cheating scoundrels. In the case of the Colts game, NFL officials hushed up the nonsense and essentially said, 'go home everyone, nothing to see here, folks.' And, of course, they're doing many fans - with a certain kind of mind frame - a real service. Everyone else? Not so much. It's important to resist/ignore/deflate talking heads from around the country, because things that are right are often ignored, while the unimportant or trivial matters become the next Lacy Peterson story - all for the benefit of a few who would only be more than happy to be in charge of everything, yet can't be trusted within a hundred feet of a leadership position. Go Patriots!