He’s something else, huh? I don’t remember when i first heard of him. However, the first time i heard him speak, I was hooked. I thought to myself this is the voice of a guy with intelligence, character and conviction. When’s the last time that all those qualities were present in a “politician” ? In the first week of January 2008, I saw Barack Obama’s victory speech at the Iowa Caucus. I was mighty impressed. At the outset, it should be clear that I am not knowledgeable about politics nor have I really ever been that interested. Having grown up in India, I’ve long viewed politics as a dirty game ripe with charlatans and crooks trying to topple over one another in their race to the house with the big gates. And the U.S only strengthened that view when I moved there. In the 11 years since I moved to the states, there have been two presidents. Both douchebags in their own way. I always liked Bill Clinton because as slimeballs go, he was the most efficiently self-serving one and quite a charming character as well. I always think of the expression “snake oil salesman” when i think of Slick Willie. God bless him. And Bush….well, all you need to know is my goldfish Jake offed himself the day Dubya got elected to a second term. Jake was a smart fish…

Then, this Obama guy comes along. All righteous and stuff. Talking about Hope. Talking about Change. Talking about “Yes, I did inhale marijuana. That was the point.” (He had my vote right there) Whoa. Honesty? Are you really going to be honest through this election? Yikes, we’ve got an idealist here. He’s not going to win an election like this! But…a funny thing happened on the way to the White House. Honesty became cool again. Sincerity meant something again. Hope wasn’t corny anymore. All the new millenium bullshit fell by the wayside as a man asked us all to look around and see if we wanted to go where we were heading or if we wanted a change. It was so simple that it was ingenious. Right down to the slogans, the posters, the speeches. Most everything was simple and direct. Even more amazingly, almost as if in a fantasy, the Republican party began to fall apart. Their selection of Sarah Palin simply sucked. If a boxer made a decision that poor, you’d accuse him of throwing the fight. How could she ever be credible? How could the entire party not be considered laughable with her as VP? It would be equivalent to AC/DC naming Olivia Newton John lead singer after Bon Scott’s tragic death. OKay, I understand what you are going for here (youth + glamour) but this just DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. Add to the mess, the Republican assertion that Obama was friendly with a “terrorist” (Hands down, the most overused word of the past decade) and they looked more desperate than a steroid jock at the prom. Like the cop in Super Troopers said, “Desperation is a stinky cologne John McCain”. Okay, he didn’t say it to McCain but he would have if he knew him.

When Obama won the election, people were ecstatic that the Bush regime had ended so emphatically. I was impressed as well. However, it made me wonder. As little as two years ago, I would have bet ANYTHING that the American presidents for the rest of my lifetime or at least the next thirty years would all be :

a) WHITE

B) old

and

C) WHITE

Add to that, I also believe that they all would have been Caucasians. So, then here comes Barack Obama. As Chris Rock said “BLACK MAN!! BLACK NAME!! BARACK OBAMA, IT’S RIGHT UP THERE WITH DIKEMBE MUTUMBO.” So, how is it that we elected our first minority president in 2008? Obviously, most of it was due to Obama being a very charismatic and qualified candidate. However, it also had to do with Obama’s timing which was perfect because of Dubya. Never has a president pissed off a people like Dubya has done to so many Americans. The young, the poor, the anti-war, the literate. They all hate him. So, all those people were looking for a viable candidate to be the ANTI-DUBYA. The opposite of a cowboy, the opposite of a buffoon. Enter this intelligent, articulate man whose entire demeanor is like that of a professor. His voice is the perfect pitch, his accent untraceable. His words are sincere and well thought out. He walked onto our TVs a sight for sore eyes. Therefore, I have to give George W Bush a little credit because I do not think Obama would have had this much support had the ole cowboy not COMPLETELY ALIENATED the nation AND WORLD AT LARGE. Again, the words of the wise Chris Rock, “Damn , George Bush fucked up so much, he made it hard for a white man to run for president!! People want the opposite of George W Bush. They want anything he is not!! A black man, a white woman, a giraffe…”

This brings us to the present. Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. In his thrashing of McCain, Obamamania took over the globe. My only concern now is that i feel the expectations are a bit unrealistic. Obama seems to have been placed in the role of savior and that’s not fair. Keep in mind that he is simply a man and not a magician. In his victory speech, he himself said “This is not the change. This is the chance to change.” The world and the United States are in a precarious position, the challenge ahead of him is enormous. It’s almost impossible to do his job without angering one group or another. That being said, I believe the reason he was the best candidate is because we can believe that he will sincerely try to solve the problems ahead and if not fix them, then at least explain the reasoning behind his actions. That, in itself, is a huge improvement over the administration of the past 8 years.