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And the author of this letter voted for Nader in 2000.  This is no small matter. I’ve never seriously considered voting for a major candidate with a (R) at the end of their name.  It was anathema to my essential being.  But you were different.

I didn’t agree with you on everything (or, let’s be honest – most things), but I did believe the words that came out of your mouth.  I saw a man I could trust.

I saw a man who was winning significant support for “levelling” with the American people.

I saw a man who deserved, at the very least, to be President. Whatever that means.

And, to be truthful … I know what happened.  Some guy … who may or may not have been from the Bush campaign … let’s call him Rarl Kove.  Yeah.  Rarl Kove.  This pencil-neck four-eyes okays a push-poll in South Carolina.  This little prick smeared you in the ugliest of ways.  Anonymous pollsters start calling McCain supporters and asking them “if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black” (phrasing from a Boston Globe op-ed). You, of course, have an adopted Bangladeshi (read: dark-skinned) child.  The subtlety of this difference … probably lost in the media based on 5 second clips of candidates waving with their family. You get crushed in the South Carolina primary.

All of the sudden … you’re not the juggernaut who’s going to win (and quite possibly reform) the Republican Party.

Now, do I know this was Ka … Rarl Kove? Of course I don’t.  Do I assume it was? Probably.  Either way, it’s that *brand* of politics that lead to a hero’s demise.

So now … 8 years later.  Full disclosure: the author of this letter is an ardent Obama suppporter.  Having been a fan of his for years now, I kind of feel like the Red Sox are running for president.  He’s my favorite team.  I’m die-hard.  So, fine … consider the source …

But you disappoint me so much.  I remember a year or so just begging the Universe to give this country the choice of McCain v. Obama … then I don’t have to worry! It will be fine no matter what!  But then you pandered. And oh how you pandered.  I made excuses for the reversal on Jerry Falwell and the like.  I mean, you blew my mind when you called his ilk “Agents of Intolerance”.  So stumping at his “university” in a primary … I can rationalize that.  It wasn’t easy … but I could do it (I have a limber mind).

But this Palin shit.  Your switch on gay rights.  Why bother?  Do you really want to be president that bad? Doesn’t it matter what you do as president … or how you get there?

You’re a pale shadow of yourself … aping the market-tested buzzwords and trying to co-op them for yourself.  Mangling the facts and sometimes outright lying for your own campaign’s gain. Running on the image of the man you were 8 years ago and pushing the policies of the establishment that destroyed him.

Why have you sold yourself so short?  Why do you make me embarassed to have defended you at parties and such?

And now … now you’ll just be a footnote in your Party’s history.  The Party that shredded you in order to let Daddy’s little frat boy borrow the country’s car and wrap it around a tree.  And back it up and ram it again.

I don’t even know how you could salvage yourself in my eyes.

My only hope is that the man who will beat you in November does not bow to the temptations of power and office and makes me believe that it is possible to be the Most Powerful Man in the World … and not wilt into the Most Tiresome Asshole Ever.

Your reluctantly former fan,

Matt

TITLE: So Barack Obama Walks into a Bar …
DATE: January 17, 2007

Hey. How are things? You look good. Of course, you always do.

Yeah, I did hear about your Exploratory Committee. That’s great. I’m really happy for you. Glad to hear you’re doing well for yourself.

But that’s actually why I wanted to meet up here. Why don’t we sit down for a sec? What’s your poison? I’d ask you to get comfortable, you know … unbutton your tie and all … but I can see you’ve done that already.

Look. You know how much I like you. Riding on the Metra into Chicago those bitterly cold mornings in early ‘04, I used to stare at the giant Obama sign on my route, beaming. It was exciting to see the beginning of a poltical juggernaut. It was exciting to see a political sign facing the south side of Chicago. You were hopeful, idealistic yet practical, careful and charismatic, charming, good-looking and perhaps the most eloquent American speaker we’ve seen since that Reagan fella. [ed. note: Yeah, I just compared Obama to Reagan ... deal with it.]

But … I have to tell you … and I only say this because I care about you … but this whole ‘08 thing scares me a bit.

Please understand … I want you to be president. To be honest, I can’t think of anyone I’ve ever wanted to be president more than I want it for you. I can’t think of anyone that would be a better leader for us. Now or in the future. That may sound like fawning, but it’s really not saying much.

I just … I just don’t want to see you get hurt.

America is a fickle mistress. And you just made eyes at her from across the bar. And America’s gonna respond, especially if she knows what’s good for her. But looking at her, I’m guessing she’s a local … she comes here often. She’s gonna be sitting on that stool next Friday, and probably the Friday after that. Just a guess. You don’t have to make your move tonight, dude.

I don’t want to see you lose an election. I know you’ve lost in the past, but it wasn’t on a national stage. You have yet to fail right now, but let’s be honest … you’ve also yet to really prove yourself. And people are going to hold that against you after a while. And if you lose (which in ‘08, I think you would, sadly) … people will definitely think less of you. I think it’s important that you become president someday. And I’d hate to see you diminish your chances just because the media has issues with premature adulation.

America just really likes you right now … so why not keep flirting for a while? You’re having fun, right? Don’t push things too far, too fast. Come back when you’ve been a senator for a while … and in the meantime, spearhead some good work. Show us what you can do. Make it impossible for us to say no to you.

Just some friendly advice. You know what you’re doing. You’re going in with your eyes open.

And lord knows, I’d never follow this advice.

Anyway, it’s been great chatting with you. And seriously, those threads are nice. Don’t worry about the check, I got it. You got me next time.

Man. How fearful of me. I should have more faith in people.

I’m looking forward to the next few months. I’m looking forward to John McCain being the worst-case scenario … as opposed to living in an even worse-case scenario.

I’m looking forward to seeing America choose Obama. I want to watch that happen. I want to see how that works. I’m going to watch carefully, so I can tell my kids exactly how a revolution happens.

Because I do think Obama is the The Real Deal. I think he means it, and that he has the capacity to lead a nation to do Great Things. I’m not worried about him sleeping with Gina Gershon. I’m not worried about having to apologize for him.

I really hope that he gets the chance to show us that we don’t have to accept the mediocrity (and worse) that we’ve been saddled with for the past 45 years. I mean, anyone younger than that can’t even conceive of having an unscandalized president. I look forward to genuinely considering the possibility that I could get behind a viable national political figure.

So, Barry … just don’t let me down.

“Fort Hood” – the first track off his new album, Golden Delicious – is perhaps the finest example of these yet.  After 6 years of divisive politcal bickering, yielding  tens of thousands of dead people … I know that I’m simply exhausted with the whole situation … and the spiritual guilt I feel as a result of it. Guilt as an American for being a complicit participant … as a liberal, for failing to present a coherent counter-argument to war … and as a human, for being practically unaffected by it on paper.

And in my heart of hearts, “I’d rather hang up a flag and be done with it” too.  I’d rather just hope that The Surge worked and “leave the mobs and the murder in a distant land.”  It’s too hard to think of their dead, our dead.  It’s painful to have no response left to such loss, although I’m not sure it would be possible to have a proper or fitting one.

With a populist bent, Doughty also captures how dangerous the culture of political debate has become.  Sincere debate doesn’t sell.  Instead we get political coverage resembling a blend of soap opera digests and NFL clip shows … battles to be won, rather than problems to be solved. Instead of being revved up with misappropriated patriotic fervor, our young men and women would have been better served if they spent their youth … being young.  I don’t pretend to know how their young men and women would have been better served.

Finally, I think weaving in “Let the Sunshine In” is both a perfect conclusion to come to … as well as demonstrating a stark contrast in times.  It sounds so quaint in the context of today’s war … however, in this context … it seems to suggest that Things won’t get better until The People get better.

I dig that.

(You can read Mike Doughty’s own comments on the song here.)

And while I’m on the subject, “Busting Up a Starbucks” (off of 2005’s Haughty Melodic) clearly pointed out some of the embarassingly hypocritical aspects of the anti-war, anti-corporate movements of recent years.  When I go to protests, I like seeing giant puppet versions of world-leaders as much as the next guy.  But a protest’s message is only obscured when people throw bricks into Starbucks windows.  It’s hard to claim you’re taking the high road when you start a small riot.  I’d also like to point out that it’s hard to be converted from a conservative ideology by a dude in a blue wig and butterfly wings. At some point you have to decide if you’re protesting in order to change people’s minds and call attention to a situation … or if you just want your friends to see you call Bush a Nazi on MSNBC.

I’m pretty sure that Ghandi never threw a stink bomb into the subway, either.  Just sayin’.

I just want him gone. No hard feelings. We got what we deserved. Believe it or not, I actually think he meant well.

But just imagine a national discourse that doesn’t consider him. Now, take this pill and imagine a national debate that wasn’t framed in a red-state blue-state paradigm … just try … I know!! It’s so awesome … you can actually debate the merits of an idea. So cool.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I have a schoolgirl crush on Obama … but he’s got the ambition (and probably the ability) to elevate our national discourse above this polarizing framework. The junior senator from NY thrives on that polarization (among other things). And I just don’t want that anymore. I’m tired. Aren’t you?
Here’s hoping 50.1% of people agree with me today.

For my evidence, please look at this photo of Hillary in her youth, versus this recent photo.

Note the swelling of the head, as well as the irritability.

This would also explain her ability to throw heat at Barack Obama at this late stage of her political career.

Roid Rage would also explain her “crying” fits, as well as her campaign’s obnoxious position that voting to fund soldiers constitutes “supporting the war” … giving her and Obama “the same record” on the subject. Obviously he wouldn’t have voted for the war, considering the speeches he made at the time. That’s not in question. It’s a ridiculous, academic response to the fact that she (and most of the US) made an awful mistake that Obama didn’t have the opportunity to make.

Finally, it might account for her inability to apologize for that vote to go to war in the first place.

Really, that’s all I want.

Oh and anyone who isn’t named Bush or Clinton to be president.

I really like Annie Lennox … she’s a beautiful woman with a predilection for dropping bizarre visuals into her fairly mainstream work. Not to mention that flawless voice. I generally don’t even like flawless voices, but I find hers hard to deny.

Sometimes her work is extremely middle-of-the-road, though. Which is fine, I don’t think she’s making music for me, or people like me. It does however leave me restless and bored during some of her tracks.

This new single is no exception. Beautiful enough, but forgettable, I guess. I’ll definitely listen to the album when my mom buys it.

But re: this video …

WHY THE AMERICA SHIT? What exactly does that illuminate about the song … or America for that matter? I love the low-budget superhero outfit, especially at the bus stop … but the “juxtaposition” of “real” Americans with the clean, pretty flag (while earnest, I’m sure) seems just as hollow as the branding of America it’s clearly criticizing. Also … sorry, but what exactly does this Scottish adult-rock star know about “real” Americans? They can’t afford her shows at Mohegan Sun.