Perhaps the only thing sadder than seeing a friend with a Facebook broken heart in their mini-feed is spotting a friend who has Barack Obama as their Facebook picture. It's one thing to be a "fan" of Barack Obama, or even Michelle Obama, who is admittedly quite fierce. But when a friend changes their profile picture to Barack Obama and joins the supplemental Facebook group, one has to wonder what they're thinking.
For years, Barack Obama was simply an affable guy called "Barry." "When Sen. Barack Obama moved from using the name Barry to Barack, his formal name, it was part of his almost lifelong quest for identity and belonging-to figure out who he is, and how he fits into the larger American tapestry. Part black, part white, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, with family of different religious and spiritual backgrounds-seen by others in ways he didn't see himself-the young Barry was looking for solid ground. At Occidental College, he was feeling like he was at a 'dead end'... 'that somehow I needed to connect with something bigger than myself.'"
Can we just say, the day after, that we're still totally impressed with Barack Obama's speech yesterday? Jon Stewart, after a whole routine about it that fell 90% flat, suddenly summed it up quite nicely: "and so," he said, "on a Tuesday at 11 a.m., a Presidential candidate actually spoke to Americans about race as though we were adults." That is actually unprecedented—since the 1960s, at the least. It was so odd, in fact, that it melted the brains of the people whose job it is to trivialize everything about the campaign. Times columnist Maureen Dowd filed a column last night that only barely resembles anything she's written in a decade.
The chattering classes continue to review Barack Obama's 45-minute speech today on race. The TV pundits' instant response was overwhelmingly positive, but it was almost certain to be. The current campaign narrative sort of required that response: they beat up on him for a week, then presented him the opportunity to redeem himself. Because Barack Obama is a brilliant writer, he did a good part of their work for him. Of course, the speech was, in this narrative, supposed to make everyone forget that he has a "nutty pastor." What Obama was trying to do with it was a little different, but that doesn't matter. As you can see in the Slate headline roundup above, people are still talking about the nutty pastor. So, the conventional wisdom, at the moment: it was an awe-inspiring, wonderful, magical speech, but it won't "work."
MSNBC.com streamed Obama's speech on race in America live on its website today. Naturally, MSNBC ran some advertising along with the stream, but it wasn't the smartest product placement. Have a look:
Democratic Presidential candidate and man who Americans recently realized might be black Barack Obama had to deliver a speech today about his blackness, because the media discovered that his favorite preacher occasionally says controversial things. Obama, who is probably the best writer to run for president of the last century at least, gave a very good speech that was also far too long for cable news people to actually digest, but they are all trying, and it really impressed Candy Crowley and Joe Scarborough. Pat Buchanan, not so much.
Peter Daou, the respected political blogger originally behind Salon's Daou Report, online guru for the Kerry/Edwards campaign, and now internet director for Hillary Clinton, has reached the phase of the campaign where you cannot for the life of you figure out how anyone could believe a word your opponent says, even when it is basically the same thing your candidate is saying. This is called living in "the bubble," after the popular television show The Prisoner. Daou wrote an open letter to liberal bloggers this weekend asking them to please point out that Barack Obama has been very mean to Hillary Clinton, even though Obama says he hasn't been. It's totally unfair because everyone thinks Hillary is mean to Barack all the time, what with her calling him inexperienced and saying McCain would make a better candidate, but the fact is, Daou asserts, Barack Obama's campaign has called Hillary "divisive" and "calculating" and "polarizing." Also they altered photos of her to make her look even more woman-y. (J/k!) Daou's full memo (which is quite reasonable while also liberally employing that uncomfortable tone of abject defensiveness that most of Ms. Clinton's surrogates can't help but share these days), after the jump.
Samantha Power, the woman who was kicked off the Obama campaign for calling Hillary Clinton "a monster" is profiled in today's Times. Power is extremely sorry about her "inexcusable" and "hateful" comments and hopes that the world will allow her to move on. She says she's "resisting the urge to retreat from the public eye." She wants to be left alone to continue her national book tour. It doesn't really seem fair that she'd have her life ruined for a comment that's far tamer than what we hear every day from talk radio and the prime time pundits, but is anyone really going to persecute Samantha Power? Does anybody even care?
First Hillary wanted more debates. She felt that the America public needed to hear her and Barack Obama delineate their subtle differences as many times as possible. She even ran an attack ad on Obama (after the jump) for only wanting to have 18 debates. With the North Carolina and Pennsylvania primaries coming up, you'd think Hillary would maintain her commitment to public pontification. But you'd be wrong, because she might back out of the debate scheduled for April 19 in North Carolina—hosted by Katie Couric, which would be her first time hosting. Clinton's claim: it's the first day of Passover, and no arguing can be had during the festival of the Unleavened bread. And she's Jewish now, apparently.
Historic moment alert: The cover of the April issue of Vogue has a black man on it. Yes, not a white man or a black woman. We've seen that before, if infrequently. You know who else is a black man? Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton is a woman. And the only thing Vogue hates more than t-shirts that change color with heat is other women. I think I've proved my point. [via Fashionologie]
Barack Obama's favorite preacher is this guy named Jeremiah Wright, Jr., a black man who heads a black church and preaches utterly crazy conspiracy theory nonsense like "[America's] got more black men in prison than there are in college" and "[America] bombed Cambodia, Iraq and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi" and other demonstrably true statements. This makes him "divisive," a special media term for "being a negative Nelly." Or "being an aggrieved black man." Now Barack Obama has staked much of his campaign on his not being even remotely aggrieved, which is called being "inspiring," a term that means "not threatening." So naturally some people find it a bit odd that he is friends with this aggrieved preacher, and attends his services, and even named one of his books after a Wright sermon. It might become a big scandal! But on the plus side, every time voters are introduced to Obama's crazy preacher friend they will be reminded that Barack Obama might not secretly be a Muslim. After the jump, a clip of Jon Stewart explaining how Reverend Wright is "not helping."
After weighing the comments in response to our post yesterday, we've picked a winning slogan for the upcoming Virgin Mobile Canada ad featuring Barack Obama. As you'll recall, the company already cranked out a sexy Spitzer scandal ad, and Obama is the next man on their schedule. They certainly didn't ask for any input on the slogan, but we decided to give them some anyhow. From you, and for free! There's no better deal. Two runners up, the winner, and our email to Virgin Mobile Canada corporate communications (as promised), below.
After teabagging Barack Obama for the past nine months, Rolling Stone political writer Matt Taibbi still considers the magazine's political coverage Gonzo-esque: "We have the license to talk about things that other people won't because we're a music magazine and we don't have to worry about access for anything." While it is true that Rolling Stone's access is shit, Obama's only fear in talking to them would be not getting a halo drawn over his head. Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail was about the 1972 election. But maybe Rolling Stone has license to talk about things that they think other people won't because it's irrelevant. [MediaBistro]
Robert De Niro is just like us—he has problems with his health care provider! De Niro won his case against the Fireman's Fund Insurance, which had sued the actor, alleging that he had withheld information about his medical condition. Fireman's Fund had to cover costs when a prostate cancer scare delayed filming for the De Niro vehicle Hide and Seek blah blah blah. But why is Robert De Niro, a very famous actor, having these middle class problems with his regular-people insurance company? There's no national health care. Our veterans are sleeping under bridges and our respected actors are getting turned away by insurance companies! Hillary Clinton has promised universal health care within her first term, but "Hollywood" Robert De Niro has endorsed Obama. Like so many Americans, he doesn't realize that Hillary Clinton should be on the line when terror calls to deny you coverage due to a prior existing medical condition. [Deadline Hollywood]
Mississippi votes tonight. They will probably go for Obama. Basically all that matters, though, is Pennsylvania, on April 22, and to a lesser extent North Carolina, in early May. Clinton will probably win Pennsylvania. Obama will probably with North Carolina. If Hillary wins North Carolina too, though, Barack is in deep shit. If she doesn't, the convention (August 25) will be 1968-style madness. If Michigan and Florida get a do-over, Obama should probably rethink his "I won't be your vice president" stance. Florida Governor Charlie Crist—a possible McCain running mate—would like a do-over, which should tell you how McCain thinks his chances are against Hillary. The Democrats will probably end up with some compromise that will upset everyone. Also, the governor of New York slept with a prostitute.
