My So-Called President
posted Tuesday October 23rd, 2012
“Oh man,” my friend sighed into his spare ribs. “How could it be that not everyone understands that Barack Obama is, like, the coolest, smartest, most incredible president we’ve ever had?”
“I know,” I said, helping myself to more beef and broccoli. “I know.”
We were at a rundown restaurant in central Phoenix, the kind of place we aging, erudite hipsters love to frequent — a place the food critic I work with discovered last month, a place where you’ll typically be dining alongside large Chinese families. The food is terrific, the decor is not. So, so cool. (You better get there before everyone else discovers it and it’s suddenly not cool at all.)
I realize that not everyone likes to eat at a restaurant that smells like dirty laundry, where an old red leather booth is split down the middle and if you don’t watch it will catch the skin of your thigh, but where there is a stewed pumpkin dish on the menu that will change your life. I realize that, but as I sit here writing, I can’t really think of anyone I know who wouldn’t want to try New Hong Kong on Indian School and 24th Street. (You’re welcome.)
And yet there is, of course, the chance that the place will go out of business next week.
I call it the “My So-Called Life” syndrome. Remember that show, from years ago, with Claire Danes? You loved it, right? All your friends loved it. And then the network cancelled it, because no one watched it.
That is my fear about this election. Even in blood red Maricopa County, home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Governor Jan Brewer, I have managed to surround myself with people just like me. We text and email, post on Facebook, go to each other’s debate parties and out to lunch. We make fun of Romney’s smirk, roll our eyes at his family, wish he’d make more gaffes.
I watch the polls, I listen to the analysis, but still — how could Obama lose? Everyone I know is voting for him. (Or not saying otherwise.)
The other night, a dinner guest at my home (two, actually) popped my bubble, announcing intentions to vote for Romney. They were as horrified at my decision as I was at theirs. Hey, folks, that’s politics. It’s America. And it was a reminder of how easy it would be for the nation to turn the channel, to cancel the show.
Don’t forget to vote, friends. Don’t forget to vote.
I’m voting for Hilary…lol!! And Paul penzone and Yes on 204!!
One thing I have learned over nearly 15 years of marriage is that there is more than one right way to do something.
I suspect (hope!) most American’s want the same basic things, but we all have our own idea of how that should best be accomplished. I think it is wanting those same basic things that unite us, no matter how we vote.
How I wish I only knew Democrats right before an election! But Facebook, with my reconnected high school Republican classmates, always reminds me that it’s not so. But, like your friend said, I look at this fabulous, smart President and I think, “How can anyone not realize how great he is?”
OMG Linda . . . “How can anyone not realize how great he is?”
It’s easy. We take off the rose-colored glasses
I left Facebook cold after my sisters (in Ohio and FL) decided that rather than have civil email dialogue, they would belittle me for my progressive views on a more public forum. That way, their ignorant friends could get in on the action as well. After a sleepless night, I emailed both of them and asked that they remember that we are family first. No response from either…seems they only respond globally. So I quit. No more Facebook.
That said, I am in a formerly red county on MI (home of Dave Camp and several well-known MI legislators, as well as AG Bill Schuette who is running Mitt’s MI campaign while taking my tax dollars to ignore his elected job) but I see many more Obama and Democratic signs this time around. Please, folks, vote for the party who cares about the entire country.
I LOVED my so called life! Jordan Catalano for President!!
Sally has lousy sisters. (There. I said it.)
I’m Canadian, living in Canada, and have absolutely no right to comment. I will anyway. I actually follow American politics fairly closely (well, more closely than most Americans would follow Canadian politics I suppose). My brother and I had a discussion recently that had us admit that if we were American, we’d vote Democrat all the way, though fiscally we aligned more to the Right. From an ‘outsider’s’ POV…Romney scares the hell out of me, for many reasons. Yes, get out there and vote! If I could, I would….for Obama.
Yep, Robrt, thanks for saying it. Last week some of my relatives, said that although they support Obama, the person who wins the election will have no direct effect on their lives, which will more or less proceed as planned. This kind of lame thinking pisses me off more than anything. I cried in anger this week when MR said in the debate that the first thing he’ll do as president is repeal the federal health care plan. (Last week, I received news that my 19-year-old diabetic son is basically un-insurable until that plan goes into effect on January 1, 2014.) Then the Sunday Times article about what Romney will mean for Roe v Wade…and it goes on.
No effect on our lives?
BTW and for what it’s worth, I’m breaking up with FB, too.
I’ve driven by that restaurant since 1989 thinking, “Nice sign. It must be awful. But it has been there a long time. . .” So, good to know.
I’m the kind of person who’d stay on Facebook and block my sisters. I think you’d much rather be my friend than my family member.