Musings on Obama
From the 6/4/08 issue of "Capitol Fax" written by Rich Miller (a newsletter that covers the Illinois General Assembly political scene):
SINKING IN It's always been a little strange for many of us seeing Barack Obama on the national stage. Not that he doesn't belong there, mind you, it's just that, well, that's not something which happens every day. You know a guy in Springfield, some better than others, and then all of a sudden he's out there running for president. Many of us watched Paul Simon and Rev. Jesse Jackson run in the 1980s, but neither man was ever really considered a frontrunner.
We've all probably had our moments when it finally hit us that, wow, this man that we know could wind up in the White House. That moment happened to me a few months ago while watching Obama on, I think, David Letterman's show. I turned to my wife and said something profound like, "This is really weird."
Over the weeks and months since, we've watched as one local figure after another who has been connected to Obama was dragged into the spotlight kicking and screaming. His pastor, education activist (and former Weatherman) Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, and on and on and on. Each one was portrayed in the national media far differently - and far more negatively - than we're accustomed to seeing in the local press. At times some of us have surely wondered with each new revelation whether we and the local media had been wrong about those people all along or whether the national media is just so screwed up that maybe nobody could survive that intense and twisted scrutiny.
Obama has been put through the same national wringer, of course. By the time Obama wrapped up the nomination last night, it was almost as if I didn't even know the man anymore. I doubt he's changed that much, but I do think my perception of him has been altered by months of this crazy national coverage. He's almost just another TV commodity now - another public carcass to be picked over and vilified. He's no longer our hometown guy, he's their perpetual cardboard target, on every channel and on all the front pages.
National reporters will say that this vetting process is a good thing. It toughens up a candidate and allows voters to get to know what he or she is really like and what they're made of. That's partly true, but watching how Obama has been portrayed - the good and the bad - has been an object lesson to those of us who know the man that the boys and girls on the bus really have no clue what they're doing. The more they cover him, the less real he becomes.
Obama, like all the other candidates, I suppose, has been reduced to a two dimensional cartoon. Maybe the American public prefers it that way, and maybe that's how it's always been in this country, but when I watch the coverage of our US Senator now, it's as if he has been replaced by a pod person. He looks the same, but he's somehow not quite human, without real faults and foibles and real attributes. The American public is missing out.
I understand what he's saying, even though I don't "know" Barack Obama. As we watched his speech last night, I thought "Now we get The Candidate, and every word will be careful and well-planned and written by committee. It's already starting."
So what do y'all think? Am I overreacting here?
SINKING IN It's always been a little strange for many of us seeing Barack Obama on the national stage. Not that he doesn't belong there, mind you, it's just that, well, that's not something which happens every day. You know a guy in Springfield, some better than others, and then all of a sudden he's out there running for president. Many of us watched Paul Simon and Rev. Jesse Jackson run in the 1980s, but neither man was ever really considered a frontrunner.
We've all probably had our moments when it finally hit us that, wow, this man that we know could wind up in the White House. That moment happened to me a few months ago while watching Obama on, I think, David Letterman's show. I turned to my wife and said something profound like, "This is really weird."
Over the weeks and months since, we've watched as one local figure after another who has been connected to Obama was dragged into the spotlight kicking and screaming. His pastor, education activist (and former Weatherman) Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, and on and on and on. Each one was portrayed in the national media far differently - and far more negatively - than we're accustomed to seeing in the local press. At times some of us have surely wondered with each new revelation whether we and the local media had been wrong about those people all along or whether the national media is just so screwed up that maybe nobody could survive that intense and twisted scrutiny.
Obama has been put through the same national wringer, of course. By the time Obama wrapped up the nomination last night, it was almost as if I didn't even know the man anymore. I doubt he's changed that much, but I do think my perception of him has been altered by months of this crazy national coverage. He's almost just another TV commodity now - another public carcass to be picked over and vilified. He's no longer our hometown guy, he's their perpetual cardboard target, on every channel and on all the front pages.
National reporters will say that this vetting process is a good thing. It toughens up a candidate and allows voters to get to know what he or she is really like and what they're made of. That's partly true, but watching how Obama has been portrayed - the good and the bad - has been an object lesson to those of us who know the man that the boys and girls on the bus really have no clue what they're doing. The more they cover him, the less real he becomes.
Obama, like all the other candidates, I suppose, has been reduced to a two dimensional cartoon. Maybe the American public prefers it that way, and maybe that's how it's always been in this country, but when I watch the coverage of our US Senator now, it's as if he has been replaced by a pod person. He looks the same, but he's somehow not quite human, without real faults and foibles and real attributes. The American public is missing out.
I understand what he's saying, even though I don't "know" Barack Obama. As we watched his speech last night, I thought "Now we get The Candidate, and every word will be careful and well-planned and written by committee. It's already starting."
So what do y'all think? Am I overreacting here?