So Much To Say (pt 3 - Obama For President)

*update 1:45P - I updated the links to Obama's graphic designer and the source of the quote.

Not that any of it really matters to those of us "Livin' La Vida Low Budget". "In the end", to quote Linkin' Park, "nothin' really matters".

Because I always say regardless of who comes in at the top it's always the same crap and nothing ever changes down here on the bottom. Except maybe get worse for poor people and the downtrodden but who really cares about them anyway?

But I'm a registered voter so that means I have to vote; I was convinced that I should be a voter by those people who still believe in The System, and I went and registered as a Donkey cuz supposedly, they care about minorities.

So, as a registered voter, and after much ruminating among the roots of that large tree I was talking about earlier, I'm going to make a stand for Obama. Not just cuz he's African American (an American whose dad was African), but because he's black AND "inexperienced". MAYBE it would mean change. Maybe he'd get to be president and actually try to do something interesting before they get him.

For a long time, I was a Hillary fan. Her raw, naked ambition didn't bother me. I admired it, the same way I admire Condoleezza Rice; who says a woman is lovable and feminine? Who says? We can be "scary", too. As in "I will do ANYTHING to get what I want including sell my soul to the Devil and cut anything in my path" scary. I always admire a scary bitch.

But Bigbear went on a rant recently about the Clintons, and blaming Bill for the sale of Harlem and I thought about it and found myself agreeing... Harlem was eventually going to be reclaimed; 125th Street is too important. But the takeback had sort of slowed to a crawl, and those of us who grew up down there sort of figured that like roaches, we would prevail and Harlem would always be Harlem. But then Bill took his offices on 'Two-Five, and right away the storefront rents doubled. Stores that had always been there couldn't afford to be there anymore, and closed. So new people began renting and bigger, more well-known businesses came in. Then the landlords, who didn't live in Harlem, and never had, suddenly had more money to rehab apartments. Apartment rent quadrupled (a $600 studio apartment in certain sections of Harlem is easily going for $1500 and UP) and the only people who could afford it were the Japanese students and the superbrave white kids, so they moved in. Now, they are pretty much the only people who can afford to live there, and in every Harlem section there's at least one high-rise condo going up, and you damn well better believe they are not for the few Old Timers that are left. Particularly when they advertise private shuttle buses that take the inhabitant of said high-rise condo directly to the subway stop. You know, just so they don't interact with the locals.

So Hillary is out, just because she brings with her her husband. He was amusing the first go round, but I don't think I'd want to deal the Clintons another four years. Plus, the whole Bush (G Sr.)/Clinton (B)/Bush (G W)/Clinton (H) thing really fundamentally bothers me. It's like a conspiracy or something. I bet that if we endured a Clinton (H) term we'd next be subjected to a Bush (Jeb) term and that is just completely unacceptable. We really WOULD end up in WWIV or something like that.

The fire burned bright the other day when Obama won Iowa. That was pretty interesting. But New Hampshire was like "I don't THINK so!" and came out for Hillary.

The Voices wonder

• if America is really ready for "Change You Can Believe In". Could there REALLY be the first Black President in American History? Or would America not stand for that? Especially one that's black AND looks good running through surf?
  
  
  
• if he didn't have such an exotic name--say his name was "John Williams" or "Richard Carter" or "Alfred Johnson"--or was more "regular" Black as opposed to "bi-racial/grew up someplace exotic/not really regular/'hey, you're the whitest Black person I know!'" Black... would he be quite as palatable to the general public?
  
  
• if he a.) actually won the nomination and then b.) actually was elected, would he c.) actually serve a term without being assassinated? (Last year a very quiet story that I only saw hit the news once was where the first black mayor-elect of a small mostly-white Louisiana town was found shot to death. The story never had legs--which you would think it might considering the history. But nah.)
  
  
• will all those Republicans out there who currently are enjoying that Other America They So Comfortably Live In rise up in unison and elect another Republican president? Say, John McCain? Which quite honestly, I'm betting on... life is too good for them right now to give it up to a *cough* "African American", nee that-word-we-don't-say-anymore or a chick. "Aw HELL naw!" I can hear some KKK-dude saying.
  
  
• if Obama's graphic designer might be a little TOO slick. “It begins to break with tradition while also rooting itself in tradition,” said Peter Krivkovich, CEO of Cramernt-Krasseltnt advertising agency in Chicago. “Patriotism is the foundation, but above that is hope, opportunity, newness.” I know the design signals a departure from the regular deep red, white and blue and serif type, but I dunno. That logo looks like the Pepsi logo to me. A "frosty" Pepsi logo. And his website is just "too" for me... kind of like Windows Vista is "too". But what the hell do I know.
  
  
• if The Power of O! (cue in heavenly chorus) as in Oprah is enough to convince white women (not black women.... Oprah reaches white women) to vote for Obama.
  

• if Ellen came out and took a stand for Obama, in addition to the Big O... he might really stand a chance. But Ellen is pretty conservative.
  

No matter what the excitement level is right now, I'm betting that it'll be the same old same old this time next year when it's all said and done. At least to the rank and file.