11-07-2008, 04:28 PM
Quote:It was not a lecture. It was an observation and a wish for better. Your post was, however, a lecture about how I was wrong to not accept the hoopla that seems to indicate that his election can somehow start to make up for the oppression during those 43 presidencies. It can't be done since most of those who were hurt the most are no longer with us, nor are the ones that did the hurting around to do the making up. Also, my complaint was that every commentary I saw offered up was regarding his skin color (he is biracial, by the way), not just "some measure", every one. It was the sole focus. Then, you offer up that we need to wait for one example of each category to be president before we can focus on the person and not the package they are wrapped up in? Give me a break. I have more hope for humanity than that.
Leaving the rest of it aside (I think we'll have to agree to disagree here), there's probably a media issue driving much of this. If CNN comes out and runs a full day of programming on "Our new, intelligent, informed, diplomatic, charismatic president was clearly the best man for the job," they'll be spending the next eight years mired in accusations of partisanship. On the other hand, they can talk about the "historic event" (I've always wondered what an ahistoric event was...) of the first president to break the mould, which is not disputable from a partisan standpoint. The partisan press and commentary sites are more oriented towards the political issues, since that kind of thing doesn't apply to them.
Over in London, while there is certainly no lack of commentary on his race, perhaps the biggest 2 foci are that he's not Dubya, and that he'll have to do something about the financial crisis. So, maybe I'm just hearing things from a different place, but I'm not getting the sense that Obama-the-President is getting ignored for Obama-the-black-guy.
-Jester