04 Feb 2008

Lobamanized

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Supporters at Obama Rally singing: “Yes we can

Barack Obama has gained astonishing traction among voters simply by looking good and repeating in his mellifluous announcer’s voice a carefully-chosen litany of utterly and completely vacuous political mantras: Change, Hope, Move Beyond, which (everyone seems to fail to notice) commit Obama to absolutely nothing concrete and specific, and which (best of all) leave his opponents no policy position to attack.

In this downright scary, Obama 4:30 campaign music video, a collection of celebrity performers (including Jesse Dylan, Will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon) have been turned into pod people who echo all the phrases of one of Obama’s speeches in song with the glazed eyes and reverential expressions of members of a religious cult.

Or worse.

As in Night of the Living Dead, you wonder if you might not have to shoot the zombies in the head before one of them bites you.

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Hat tips to Andrew Sullivan and Walter Olson.

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Dominique R. Poirier

Whichever one’s opinion is, this video is atypical in its style, to say the least; or, while attempting to compare it to something déjà vu, it may easily remind the Band Aid style. But not really an ad for a presidential election in United States, by all means.

It’s hard not to think about Martin Luther King’s speeches while watching it; isn’t it? And, as a matter of fact, one may wonder whether this style didn’t truly inspire those who created this ad.

But why has it been made all in black and white? Such a dramatic style rather suits a campaign against AIDS, or famine, or poverty in some third world country.
It doesn’t apply at all to the United States, anyways. For neither the presence of the troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan, nor the subprime crisis can reasonably justify such dramatization; if ever such dramatization of the political and economic situation in United States was thus intentional. But how not to believe it was, since the making of this ad has been carefully done, unmistakably; and given the style of the song and lyrics.

So, the objective of its creators has been to play with other’s emotions and empathy potential, while brushing a rather dark and unrealistic picture of the country.

How daring was this decision!

Also, should it be intentional or not, the whole thing strongly suggests it addresses rather to black people; to the point that the presence of white performers goes almost unnoticed, owing to this choice of dramatic and sober black and white treatment. That is a mistake, in revenge; in my own opinion.

Wholesome, this ad will best address to certain minorities and to the have-less; but certainly not to all minorities.

Well, all this unmistakably betrays a bias whose justification is certainly to be found in a strong desire to stand apart from the other candidates.
However, this choice is dragging Obama’s image well beyond his natural style, regretfully — and quite far from the style, or way of expressing himself, he did choose until this video was made. In fact, it negatively transforms him into a caricature of himself; to the point that it might well afraid some among the undecided who, for the record, are those who are going to tip the scale at the decisive moment.

In this video, Barrack Obama has successfully made himself more a Che of a sort than a would-be President of the United States!

Good work, but not really relevant to the circumstance, I am afraid.

Where are you going, Mr. Obama?



Scott D

Liberals will always attract and mesmerize those parts of the populace who believe deep in their hearts that if you just say the right words (better yet, sing them), and wish them to be true very, very much, that thousands of years of human behavior will tumble in grateful response. Conservatives, alas, are left to point out that somebody actually has to get up off their butt and do something. Wouldn’t it be easier if we just sing louder?



AbecedariusRex



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