Opinion
Obama's bid for presidency is electrifying, not annoying
Story by Lauren Russell | Sept. 23, 2008
Montana Kaimin
Last week, Trevon Milliard wrote an editorial entitled “Obama’s celebrity pitch has annoying ring,” in which he criticized the Obama campaign for using celebrity endorsements and the latest technology fads to win over the youth vote. In Milliard’s opinion, all Barack is doing is “trying to get you to follow the people you idolize,” because “becoming a celebrity…[is] the easiest way to get our Brangelina-hungry generation to pay attention.”
I have a different take. I think Obama’s “celebrity,” his popularity, fame, notoriety, repute, whatever your definition of celebrity is, was born of his political message, a proposal to bring change to a country that is fed up with the lame duck administration’s eight years of political bungling.
What’s wrong with getting passionate and excited about a political candidate? Sure, it’s probable that many of Obama’s eager young supporters blasting his ring tone from their en-Vs don’t know his positions on social security, health care and the economy. But some of them do. Obama’s bid for the presidency has electrified the 18-29 demographic, whose turnout is still rebounding from a 16-percent decline from 1974-2000, according to the Center for Information on Research and Civic Engagement. My younger brother, who never really cared about politics before Obama, was so inspired by his oratory that he volunteered for Obama’s campaign during the primaries when he was 17, not even old enough to vote.
Obama’s popularity with the youth tells me that they are disillusioned with the staid, ineffective and destructive establishment. Whether Obama is up to the task of tackling what’s broken in Washington remains to be seen. But the fact that he has been able to awaken some of the youth from their political lethargy — even if that means featuring Scarlett Johansson in his campaign video — is already an accomplishment.
McCain saw the challenge Obama’s celebrity posed and recognized the need to inject some energy into his own campaign. I presume that’s why he picked the GOP’s newest celebrity, Sarah Palin, as his running mate, because it certainly wasn’t based on whether she has foreign policy experience, disapproves of federal earmarks or actually did say “No, thank you” to the Bridge to Nowhere (she said “Yes, please” until the measure died in Congress).
I agree with Milliard in his desire to see young voters become passionate about substantive issues like health care and education. But aside from the very informed on both ends of the spectrum, a majority of our country seems to be most influenced at the polls by a candidate’s appearance, religion, family values and whether he or she “seems like me.” This doesn’t bode well for Obama. This campaign season has largely been about emphasizing Obama’s “otherness,” whether it be his race, religion, education or life experience.
A Pew Research Center survey released several days ago found that almost one third of voters “know” that Barack Obama is a Muslim or believe that he could be. It’s been well publicized that Obama is a practicing Christian; the rumor that he took the Congressional oath on a Koran is pure falsehood. But people still believe it. Whether it is because they’re uninformed or distrust the media (or are using religious prejudice as a proxy for racial prejudice), Obama will probably be plagued by misconceptions like this until the end.
Though we’ve come a long way, America is still bound in part by antiquated racial stereotypes. A new AP-Yahoo News poll designed in partnership with Stanford University found that Obama could receive about 6 percentage points more support in this election if racial prejudice didn’t exist among voters. Against these odds, Obama would be foolish to turn down celebrity endorsements and nifty phone features in our celebrity- and technology-obsessed age. If issues like Obama’s “otherness” are destined to dominate the campaign, then he might as well take the stage like a rock star.
Lauren Russell, news editor
lauren1.russell@umontana.edu
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Comments
Electrifying is precisely the right word for Obama’s campaign. One time, I wanted to see how our invisible dog fence worked, so put my dog’s shock collar on and walked toward the boundary. I don’t exactly remember what happened next, but the burn marks on my neck and the body aches when I woke up are certainly a clue. Vote for Obama! Wake up with electrical burns!
Posted by Wallace on 10/02/2008 at 5:07 pm
Interesting analogy but I do agree with you Wallace. I’m going to apologize right off the bat for the length of this post but I am so sick and tired of swallowing the misguided, left wing, ideological swill that is swirling over this campus. The naivete and sheer number of people that don’t even realize what a colossal lapse in judgment it is to vote for Obama is astounding and downright embarrassing as an American. I’m not suggesting that the Republicans are, or have ever been perfect, but Barack Hussein Obama as the alternative...the best word I can think of to describe this spectacle is again NAIVETE!!! I wonder if Obama were 100% white if people would still have issues with his religious background? I think so!!!!!!!!! Stop bringing race into everything. I’m sure Obama’s move into “Christianity” went something like this: as a young, budding politician, Obama realized that he would never be a highly successful politician in the US as a Muslim (whether you believe this to be fair or not is irrelevant - isn’t democracy great!!!) and decided to “claim and practice” Christianity to further his career. It sure has worked marvelously for him hasn’t it!!! What he has “practiced” all these years doesn’t matter one iota if in his heart he is still a Muslim. Again, it is extremely naive to simply take his word for it, vote him into office and just hope for the best. For God’s sake this is the potential President of the United States! The American people have hesitated in the past just to vote a catholic into office and now we are ready to vote in someone with a Muslim background, and this just 7 years after 9/11. Wake up people!!! You’ve all got you’re heads in the sand! Theoretically speaking, if religious beliefs really don’t matter then the American people should be okay if one of the presidential candidates in the next 4 years is say a devil worshiper or practices Voodoo.
Obama’s angle is in no way different than any other democratic candidate’s would be, “let’s fix the last 8 years, blah, blah, blah”! There is nothing whatsoever special about him as the democratic candidate, regardless of what so many people have duped themselves into thinking! Unfortunately ideological political ideas rarely translate into practical doable ones! The idea that Obama is a closet Muslim scares me less than the idea that he is a closet Muslim and feels the need to lie about it!!! I would like Obama to address what compelled him into the Christian faith in the first place! It certainly couldn’t have been his family background! My guess is that it was nothing more than a political move, PERIOD! Even if Obama truly is a practicing Christian, his “Christian” background is almost as scary as his potential Muslim one! This country was founded on Christian belief by Christian men and women (regardless of separation of church and state - let’s be honest here, they have never been completely separated) and the faith of those in charge DOES matter. People in this country are losing sight of that fact and the country is correspondingly going down the crapper. To think that this isn’t a factor is again sheer NAIVETE!!!
Also, I am sick and tired of people trying to say that a politician’s personal decisions do not matter and shouldn’t affect how successfully they are able to run the country. Bull %$#@!!! That’s like saying you wouldn’t care if a child molester was teaching at your child’s school as long as they were an effective teacher! Not!!! Apparently some people think there is an invisible line that no politician will cross when it comes to personal decisions and professional ones. Yeah right! Ask Bill Clinton to point that line out for you!! Again, NAIVETE, NAIVETE, NAIVETE!!! Are we starting to notice a trend!!!
Posted by fossa777 on 10/03/2008 at 12:23 pm
When it comes to “downright embarassing as an American”, nothing can touch re-electing Bush and Cheney in 2004. Nothing.
Posted by Forrest on 10/03/2008 at 2:09 pm
fossa777, when—NOT IF—Obama gets elected, I hope he forces you to become Muslim. I bet he’ll do it! I bet you he will!
He’s gonna force you to become a Muslim, become gay, and have an abortion!
Beware, fossa777, the end of Christianity is near! It’s been a good run for 2,000 years, but this president WILL DESTROY IT AND HE WILL DESTROY YOU!
NAIVETE NAIVETE NAIVETE !!!
Posted by fredstapleton on 10/03/2008 at 7:02 pm
You’ve missed the entire point of my post altogether. I am not against other religions nor am against gay rights (I know, most people are dumb enough to think all republicans are gay bashers). Not to mention I never even brought up gay rights or abortion in my post! For people to be naive, yes NAIVE, Mr. Stapleton to think that the Christianity of the founders of this country didn’t play a major roll in it’s success is a serious oversight!! Let’s just move right on past that history and there won’t be any consequences at all!! Yes, NAIVETE, NAIVETE, NAIVETE!!! Let me guess, you don’t think the US has been successful, right? Are you humming “Imagine” by Lennon as you read this? Just for the record, you seem to post a lot of silly, terribly (and I mean that in the very literal sense) sarcastic posts. May I suggest that you find yourself a hobby!! My fears are a little more far reaching than he will simply force everyone to be a Muslim. Your response to my post suggests of your simple mindedness!
Posted by fossa777 on 10/04/2008 at 2:08 pm
Well I certainly think you’re “dumb enough” to believe that Obama is a Muslim, and even dumber to believe that a Muslim would be—because of his religion—unable to serve our country.
Some beliefs are more equal than others, right?
Fossa777, feel free to leave this country, because honestly your beliefs aren’t what make it the great place it is.
What an absolute waste of a human. ABSOLUTE. WASTE.
Posted by fredstapleton on 10/04/2008 at 4:19 pm
fossa777 seems to be under the impression that there has never been a politician in our country that might have joined a church for political gain. Are you kidding me? Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asians—they’ve all done it. I hate it but it’s the truth. People are dumb enough to base entire votes on things like religion, gun rights and abortion. Of course politicians are gonna try and make their alleged faith into a big deal… it win’s votes.
Posted by boognish on 10/06/2008 at 10:51 am
I don’t think I indicated that my impression is that Obama is the only politician who may have done this in either of my posts. My emphasis was not on the idea that he may have done this but rather his history beforehand. There has never been any politician at the attempted level that Obama is going for who had a background anything like his. There are just an awful lot of people who seem overly willing to ignore this fact! Also, I don’t want any politician in any office who doesn’t have enough integrity and character to not alter that aspect of their lives for political gain. Yes, I realize that both Republicans and Democrats are both equally guilty of telling the public what they want to hear just to get into office but you have to weigh who is telling what to who and why they are doing it too! Are any democrats even willing to admit that there is a possibility that Obama is the bigger gamble here or are you all really that naive?????? I’m willing to admit that if he wins he may do a good job (if he even has any idea what he’s doing) but the stakes sure are high (with his sketchy background) that if things don’t go well, things will be bad!! The mere fact that a politician would join a church for political gain also proves that religion DOES matter! Let’s stop fooling ourselves into thinking that it doesn’t!
What this all boils down to is do you think that Obama’s “electrifying” ideas are practical or not? And if they are practical, will he actually follow through with them if he is elected? I could think of some great ideas too but that doesn’t automatically mean that they are all going to be doable! Voting for Obama isn’t going to magically change the last 8 years it’s just going to give a lot of democrats what they think will be “vindication” for the last 8 years but especially the last 4. It was the same story when Clinton left office, the republicans/conservatives and everyone else who was on the line were fed up with his crap and decided they wanted a “CHANGE” and guess who won the election!? And now the democrats/liberals and all of those people who were on the line before are doing the exact same thing. It’s all one big cycle and it’s not how we should be electing the President of the United States. Here’s some food for thought: how many of you young, ideolistic democrats think you will still be democrats in 20 or even 10 years? Fewer than you think! Yeah, the real world is going to slap you in the face some day and bring many of you back to reality!! There’s a reason that more people switch from democrat to republican as they get older and not the other way around! Do I need to go on?
Posted by fossa777 on 10/07/2008 at 11:13 am
Ignorance… bogging… me… down… make… it… stop…
Posted by boognish on 10/07/2008 at 5:20 pm
Why can’t you actually say something to refute or at least challenge anything that I’ve said? Stop wasting your time with posts that critisize but don’t actually add anything of substance whatsoever? Kind of missing the whole point of these posts aren’t you?
Posted by fossa777 on 10/08/2008 at 5:27 am
