obama-watch

on inauguration day, at the "counter-inaugural" events at the U of C, professor melissa harris-lacewell said that she was currently on "obama-watch," now that our new senator seemed to be concerned, above all, with 1) appearing on oprah and 2) veterans affairs (which has recently become a huge issue in illinois, after a chicago sun-times investigation showed that illinois ranks 49th, or something, in benefits received among veterans through VA programs per capita).

after professor harris-lacewell made this remark, i went to oprah's website and viewed everything available there of obama's appearance. and, indeed, it was almost completely devoid of content. i want, of course, to give them some slack (and maybe i give them more slack than MHL does); after all, they are quite literally THE black chicago celebrities; they're allowed a bit of on-air banter. (for example: oprah notes that newsweek has declared obama capable of being "purple," i.e., uniting the red states and blue states, to which he responds by saying, "i guess you know something about the color purple," referring to her having starred in steven spielberg's version of the alice walker novel of that title. does ANYthing in that interaction mean anything? similarly, michelle obama, who appeared along with barack, allowed as how folks had said she'd need to keep an eye on her husband nowadays, but she wasn't especially concerned about it.)

(recently, after a meeting of the U of C's "reproduction of race" workshop, i got into a somewhat heated conversation about same-sex marriage with a fellow member of queer to the left, who is a postdoc at the center for the study of race, politics, and culture at the U of C. MHL eventually participated in our conversation, which i found flattering and interesting. she took a kind of middle ground between our two positions, actually - admitting (in support of my view) that it was imperative, whenever same-sex marriage appeared as a political issue, to take a position in favor of it, while also stating (in support of the other guy's view) that gays were making the same mistake that black folks had, in trying to work with the system. something like that. (i'm not sure what system. maybe she said more about that, but if so i can't remember it.)]

now, after visiting senator obama's website and reading the description there, i understood a little better what melissa is concerned about. but honestly, as much as this website caters, on a profound level, to a red-state audience - from the faux law-and-order preoccupation to the emphasis on his churchgoing character - these are, nonetheless, sacrifices i'm simply willing to concede.

this dude is not fucking kidding about making it as a national politician in 21st-century america. and if that means he talks about christ or about illinois veterans not getting enough pay, frankly, so be it.

however bad president clinton was - and i fully admit his deficiences, even on critical issues like welfare reform, NAFTA, and gays in the military - he's still better than the guy currently in the oval office. for one thing, he appointed stephen breyer and ruth bader ginsburg. and just those two appointments, by themselves, seem like treasures these days.