On this, the first ever Whip it out Wednesday, I'm proud to feature our new President, Barack Obama.
Our new President will be a great leader...because he is all the things other people claim to be. He doesn't have to tell the world he's a good father...he simply is. He doesn't have to tell the world he's an intelligent man...he simply is.
Barack Obama symbolizes so many things to so many people, both here and around the world: this country (such as we know it; we could have a very lengthy discussion about the legitimacy of our occupation of the Native American lands, but for purposes of this conversation we'll simply accept that we're Americans) brought Africans here in chains, denied them the right to vote until 150 years ago, and still -- to this day -- has Ku Klux Klan members squealing about "white power." With Obama's election, we finally took the first step to putting all these embarrassing people on the road to extinction. In the eyes of the world, the United States has finally grown up. And though that may not mean anything to the wife-beating, cross-burning racists currently living in this country, in their double-wide trailers, I take comfort in knowing that they're a dying breed and a very small minority of the population.
To Michael Moore, Barack Obama symbolizes the triumph of intelligence. (Yeah, imagine that: a President who went to an Ivy League school...ON HIS OWN INTELLIGENCE, NOT ON HIS DADDY'S COAT-TAILS. A President who graduated said school in the TOP five percent of his class...NOT FIFTH FROM THE BOTTOM. Hell, a President who can actually SAY "nuclear" and "strategy" and won't hold My Pet Goat upside down while reading to kids!)
"Today, we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago," said Moore. "What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country's greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet."
Moses Avalon, the respected music industry mogul, thinks that the election of Barack Obama signals the rebirth of the impossible dream. "Forget all the opinion polls of the last four years, skewed and spun for a nation hemorrhaging in so many ways. This is the only poll that matters. The People have spoken. "Enough" is the word. "Get out" is the word," said Avalon. "Tomorrow we will wake up in a world with a new kind of President. One who beat the odds and beat the prejudice. It gives me pause to think what will be possible in the coming years. No idea will be too crazy or too idealistic. We will need to be careful, but as of tomorrow we once again live in the world of dreams."
For me, the election of Barack Obama is a lot like the ending of Return of the Jedi: a small, understated group of rebels, with nothing to back them but their belief in the goodness of people and the wrongness of their quasi-fascist war machine and all its evil constructs (including its evil leader (Cheney) and his patsy (Bush)), toppled a seemingly-limitless regime. Hell, even the celebrations in the streets were remarkably similar (and judging from the feedback on sci-fi boards, I'm not the only one who thinks so).
Clip below:
Regardless of who you voted for -- and though I voted for Obama, I have to say that McCain gave a truly classy concession speech (would it be that his supporters showed that same dignity. The Obama supporters CHEERED McCain, while the McCain supporters BOOED Obama. Even McCain, for all that he ran a dirty campaign, seemed embarrassed by, and for, them) -- you have to admit this was truly a monumental, historic moment. And that, alone, makes Barack Obama worthy of today's ogling.
