Monday, July 21, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
15
CHRIS KOSLOWSKI OUT TOASURE
E-MAIL KOSLOWSKI AT CSKOSLOW@UMICH.EDU
Trail-weary
So what do you think of that - .
Medicare il? tgms foot me once.,shame
° on.-shame on you.YE E E E OW
whng o m e from.., You cant get fooed gan
LO*
Attac fte'hag. ns
t's not even November yet,
and I'm already tired of
hearing about John McCain
and Barack
Obama.
Every little
thing these
guys and their
friends, fam-
ily or acquain-
tances do (or
don't do, like
wear American
flag lapel pins)
is headlined on
GARY
GRACA
Come September, when
the political party con-
ventions commence,
presumptive
Republican
nominee John.
McCain will
take to the
podium in St.
Paul with an
audience of
three-piece RYAN
suits, oil execs KARTJE
and any other
good ol' boy
with a.VIP pass.
About one thousand miles away
in Denver, presumptive Demo-
cratic nominee Barack Obama
will be making a similar accep-
tance speech, except his will lack
the gas-guzzling SUVs,. National
Rifle Association _ officials and
padded seats. Instead, he'll speak
to 60,000 screaming fans decked
in Obama apparel from head to
toe - red, white and blue mem-
bers of the "change" fan club.
When Obama came to Flint's
Kettering University last month,
I sought out Obama supporters
after his rally. I say "sought," but
in truth, I was mobbed by sup-
porters, each echoing the same
message of "change" Obama had
used throughout his speech. At
times, dedication to this mes-
sage was more devout than it was
logical. One enamored woman
assured me that her 17-year-old
son will vote for change in 2012 as
well. But assuming Obama wins,
voting for change in 2012 means
voting for someone else.
As expected, the post-McCain
rally scene wasn't quite as enthu-
siastic. Supporters there flocked
in my direction, too - but only
because I was standing in the des-
ignated smoking area.
Their mellower attitude toward
the media was a welcome change
from the same old sentiment I
heard from excited Obama-ites.
"Barack Obama is not a politi-
cian," each of his followers par-
roted. "That's why we love him."
And they're backing up that love
with some serious cash, donat-
ing more than $52 million in June
alone. Here's my question: where
is the red, white and blue Kool-
Aid these Obama fanatics have all
been drinking?
Barack Obama is a politician.
In fact, he's a great politician just
for convincing people that he isn't
one. Take a look at his recent vot-
ing record. Similar to every presi-
dential candidate for years and
years, Obama has drifted toward
the middle, flip-flopping on the
Washington D.C. handgun issue,
supporting Bush's right to invade
Americans' privacy, and forgo-
ing public funding after coming
out in favor of it. So why, then, is
Obama so untouchable?
Because he's done exactly
what he set out to do: unify the
passionate, Washington-hating
Americans.Gung-ho, anti-politics
Americans aren't used to hear-
ing the words "president" and
"unity" in the same sentence like
that. He's unifying Americans so
well that it's frightening.
His supporters have become a
political cult of "change-lings",
a new breed of political machine
complete with "Yes We Can" but-
tons and graffiti-laden Obama
T-shirts. Those stationed in the
Obama camp have put on blind-
ers, preventing themselves from
seeing anything wrong with their
gracious leader.
For the Obama die-hards, it's
not really about the issues any-
more. It's about the man. It's
about the future. It's about - you
guessed it - change.
He's become the new American
rock- star, enjoying pop-star-like
status - except this rock star has
a message, and he's riding it to the
White House.
That's what scares me about
America's idolatry of Obama.
As the past presidency demon-
strates, blind allegiance is the
poison of democracy (see war in
Iraq). A strong leader is impor-
tant, but the last time I checked,
actual change requires a majority
vote in Congress.
Don't get me wrong; it's not the
man himself who concerns me.
It's his minions. Obama's message
is one that could save a suffering
America as we know it. Howev-
er, his "change-lings" and other
Americans alike should under-
stand that a great smile, a great
speech and a great slogan don't
make a great president.
It's Obama's ability to get
Americans off their couches for
their country, not his ability to
produce a soundbite that will
make him a great president.
Blind allegiance
is the poison
of democracy.
So if you're in the crowd at
Invesco Field during the Demo-
cratic National Convention in
August and you're offered a free
glass of red, white and blue Kool-
Aid, politely deny it and continue
to enjoy the music. I hear the
Dave Matthews Band might be
playing.
Ryan Kartje can be reached
at rkartje@umich.edu.
every newspaper in the country,
blown out of proportion on every
cable news channel and analyzed
by every "expert" who has slith-
ered out of the woodwork and onto
the Internet.
I now know more about these
two idiots than I know about my
own mother. Case in point, I don't
even know what arugula is, but
I know that Barry (a nickname
Obama dropped after high school)
likes to eat it. And he especially
likes the kind sold at Whole Foods.
I need an election vacation.
Butyou can't evenleave the coun-
try to avoid hearing about every
McCain-Obama back-and-forth
about who would rid the world of
terrorists quicker, so that's prob-
ably not possible. It could happen
if McCain and Obama both go on a
vacation of their own - to Antarc-
tica. (It's necessary to go there if
you want to formulate good envi-
ronmental policy.) I'm not hopeful
that will happen, though.
So instead of whining (which
McCain surrogate and former
Texas Sen. Phil Gramm would
definitely not appreciate), there is
a simple solution-- one that these
candidates could actually accom-
plish, unlike all of their promises
on gas prices, Iraq, health care and
taxes. Both McCain and Obama
could finally get their respective
parties' national committees to
reform the current nominating
system that needlessly kicks off in
January.
They could do it before they
even get elected, too - at the con-
ventions next month.
People have already proposed
tons of different fixes for the pri-
mary system in the last few years.
There's the rotating regional pri-
mary system, which breaks the
country into regions that each vote
on the same day and take turns
going first. And there's the Ameri-
can Plan, which starts with small
states and ends with big states in
only 10 days of voting.
Basically, all you have to do is
break up our 50 states in some
logical way and then set a sched-
ule for when each group gets to
vote. Pretty simple. The common
denominator is that the Demo-
cratic and Republican National
Committees get to choose when
this nonsense begins each year.
Imagine what a perfect world we
could live in if only the first pri-
mary started in April and the last
one ended in June.
But since perfecting the world
wouldn't be a strong enough
argument to make either McCain
or Obama take their parties to
task on this issue, there are polit-
ically expedient reasons for them
to jump on the reform-the-pri-
mary-system bandwagon before
next month, too.
Candidates are
key to ending
long races.
For McCain, shaving down
the campaign season would limit
campaign spending in a way that
the McCain-Feingold Act could
have only dreamed of doing.
When presidential campaigns
start after midterm elections two
years before the general election
ever comes around, it's no won-
der that this year's presidential
election will cost an estimated
$1 billion. And it's no wonder
that candidates do every shady
thing possible to get that kind of
money.
For Obama, this would be the
perfect chance for him to actual-
ly reform something in American
politics (because no one believes
that ditching the public cam-
paign finance system was any-
thing more than smart strategic
maneuvering). What better a way
to shut up the naysayers.
The truth is I don't want an
election that only lasts a few
months - that wouldn't give peo-
ple enough time to get to know
the candidates or at least have
candidates' messages drilled into
their heads. But I don't want an
election that goes on for years
either. And I don't care if John
McCain wears boxers or briefs.
Gary Graca is the summer
managing editor. He can be
reached at gmgraca@umich.edu.