Spontaneous Musings

To realize how amazing this election is, you only have to rent the 1960s film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner starring Sydney Poiter, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. The film is about a white woman who brings her African-American fiancee to her parent's house for dinner. In the film, there is a scene between Spenser Tracy and Sydney Poiter, who respectively play the girl's father and his future-son-inlaw. Tracy tells Poiter that he worries about their children. They'll never be accepted in the world. Won't ever be able to become or even aspire to, President of the US. They won't have the same opportunities. Poiter responds, "President? Heck, I'd be satisfied with Secretary of State or a cabinet post."

In 1960s, when the film was first released, the mere idea of interracial marriage was a bit controversial, so much so that Sydney Poiter and the woman who played his fiancee in the film were not permitted to kiss or embrace on screen. That was not permitted back then. Or so my mother informs me.

So how amazing is it that in the past eight years, we've had not one but two Secretary's of Defense who happened to African-American and now, today, have a man who was the product of an interracial marriage between a white woman and an African, run for President of the United States on a major party ticket? Barack Obama is around the same age as the child from Sydney Poiter and his soon to be spouse in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner's marriage would have been. Something neither thought they'd see in their lifetime or their children's lifetime.

Meanwhile, I read an article in this weeks Economist about conservative Republicans jumping ship and backing Barack Obama. It's on page 46, under an article entitled: Lexington: The Rise of the Obamacons.

The article states in one passage: "Much of Obama's rhetoric is strikingly conservative, even Reagonesque. He preaches the virtues of personal responsibility and family values, and practises them too. He talks in uplifting terms about the promise of American life. His story appeals to conservatives: it holds the possibility of freeing America from its racial demons proving that the country is a race-bling meritocracy and, in the process, bankrupting a race-grievance industry that has produced the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton."

The cartoon accompanying the piece is rather amusing - it depicts a bunch of elephants jumping off a sinking ship with the GOP flag waving, and climbing abord a pristine cruiser with Obama 08 and a bunch of astonished donkey's peering over the side.

The writer describes from of the evacuees or rats fleeing the ship depending on your pov:
"Mr. Powell (Colin Powell) is now a four-star general in America's most surprising new army: the Obamacons. The army includes other big names such as Susan Eisenhower, Dwight's granddaughter, who introduced Mr. Obama at the Democratic National Convention, and Christopher Buckley, the son of the conservative icon William F. Buckley, who complains that he has not left the Republican Party, the Republican PArty has left him. Chuck Hagel, a Republican senator from Nebrasks and one-time bosom buddy of Mr. McCain has also flirted heavily with the movement..."

"The biggest brigade in the Obamacon army consists of liberatarians, furious with Mr. Bush's big-government conservatism, worried about his commitment to an open-ended war on terror, and disqusted by his cavalier way with civil rights. There are two competing "liberatarians for Obama" web sites. Cafe Press is even offering a libertarian for Obama lawn sign for 19.95. Larry Hunter who helped devise Newt Gingrich's Contract with America in 1994, thinks that Mr. Obama can free America from the grip of the zombies who now run the Republican Party."

This election has been fascinating me. Online, I've read more and more conservative and independents, who voted for HW Bush and Reagan in the past - now wholeheartedly support Obama. Even a few who voted for George W. Bush. And having seen Reagan speak, albeit briefly, in public, Obama does remind me a bit of him in deameanor and temperment. I was not a Reagan fan by the way. Didn't like the man and didn't like his policies. And strongly believe he led us to where we are today in more ways than one. But, I think what people found appealing in Reagan exists in OBama. Reagan set people at ease, in much the same way JFK, Robert F. Kennedy, and Obama does. Even Bill Clinton had a bit of it. And I think it is an invaluable quality in a leader, in some respects it is a necessary one particularly in an age in which the leader is so visible to the public. Roosevelt had it, FDR. And so did Lincoln. That ability to set people at ease.

What's interesting about the election - if you have been watching the polls and reading the analysis of the campaign strategies - is not just the surreal moments, but how the game is being played. Did you know that Obama went after Arizona today? He put resources and people out West? While McCain is concentrating everything on PA, Ohio and Florida? Also that the race in Arizona is literally neck and neck? Arizona hasn't to my knowledge voted Democrat in at least 15-20 years. And it's McCain's home state. Same deal with Virgina, which is leaning towards OBama. And Colorado.

Also, the McCain campaign appears to be unraveling. One incredible gaff after another, some so bizarre that the sketch comedy teams can barely keep up. I watch the SNL skits and realize that the difference between the skit and what's actually happening is...well it's hard to tell what's satire and what isn't. It's almost as if John Stewart and company are paying the McCain camp to feed them material, even though I know that is not the case. Meanwhile Palin has become a charicature of herself. She reminds me a lot of those reality tv stars, a la Omirosa from the Apprentice, et al, who get 15 minutes of fame and go hog wild. Look, Mom, I'm a star! People are copying my style! Isn't it neat? Yet, oblivious to the fact that they are being ridiculed in the process? Or maybe they just don't care. [The latest, which I read in this mornings paper, is a McCain supporter who made up a hoax that an OBama supporter maimed her and managed to fool everyone in the McCain camp as well as some conservative news pundits, before being revealed and coming clean.]

ETA: Just scanned my flist - it blows my mind that a good percentage have "already" voted. The election isn't until Nov 4, but about 75% of the US can pre-vote. Wonder what this will mean? I don't remember people doing this back in 2000 and 2004. Did you do it back then? We can't in NY. And even though one could in Kansas, I never did.
We live in insane but highly entertaining times.