12:12 Tune of the Day: Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours — Stevie Wonder
Posted By Ben W. on November 3, 2009
Happy Election Day! We’re better off this year than last, aren’t we? Right? Well, aren’t we?
I’m not sure about you, but Election Night ‘08 seems like at least 10 years ago now. But I remember it well. I spent that Tuesday night dancing and drinking into the early morning. Of course, that’s how I spent nearly every Tuesday night last year. So let me be more precise. I spent Election Night 2008 dancing and drinking into the early morning with a purpose.
The bar was packed and there was a palpable sense of hope. A hope that Barack Obama’s election as the country’s first black president was important. A hope that, finally, after a decade of tepid war protests and bad 9/11-inspired pop music, our generation had really accomplished something. A hope that maybe we weren’t going to go down in the history books only as the narcisstic Internet kids.
Even the most hardened of the hardened, “I’m so over the two-party system” hipsters were on board. And when the DJ put on “Signed Sealed Delivered” — one of Obama’s signature campaign songs from the fall — the place just erupted. I will never forget that moment.
But let’s be honest. Obama 365 days ago was an idea; a concept. Nothing more.
So a year later, are we really better off? Was that Tuesday night worth such a resounding celebration?
The thing about being president is you can’t really be a concept anymore. You have to be, you know, the president. It’s like the football thing where they say the most popular guy in town is always the backup quarterback.
His first year in office likely will be remembered not for its sweeping wave of changes but for the interminable government machinations working their way through the would-be health care reform. It’s been frustrating, no doubt.
And is Afghanistan a bad idea? Almost certainly.
Is an increasingly destabilized Pakistan a looming crisis? More than almost certainly.
Did the auto industry bailouts fix Detroit? Ha.
Did the gazillion-dollar stimulus plan produce immediate results? Yes and no. But not enough yes.
Is the national debt obscene and horrifying? Jesus Christ yes. Don’t have kids.
Etc. etc. etc.
Obama hasn’t even fixed the BCS system in college football yet!
And so yeah, a year later we find our King of Hope with sagging approval ratings. He’s getting bashed by the right, slipping with the independents and even disappointing the hard left.
So maybe that celebration last year was a little foolish. Things aren’t much different on Nov. 3, 2009 than they were on Nov. 3, 2008 at all.
Well… not so fast…
I’m sticking with my 12:12 Tune of the Day through and through.
Obama did not create the above problems. Not even a little bit.
Let’s blame Reagan for deregulation. Let’s blame him for stoking the Middle East flames with underhanded guerilla warfare tactics. And while we’re at it, let’s blame Reagan for generally encouraging a brand of short-sighted selfishness, passing it off as American patriotism and helping foster a country of entitled consumers living well beyond their means in houses of (credit) cards.
And George W. Bush? Ummmm yeah. We can blame him for a few things perhaps too.
Obama has years and years of mess to clean up. It’s not going to happen overnight. Just the mere fact that he’s even pushing the health-care reform stuff is huge. It might get a little watered down. It won’t be exactly what the left wants. But this isn’t a country only for the left. It’s a country for a whole lot of different people, so get real. It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.
Obama isn’t trying to be the Democrats’ president. He’s trying to preside over the entire country — crazy as that concept may sound in today’s MSNBC vs. FOX NEWS mindset. He is the best political communicator I have seen in my 15 or so years of paying attention to this stuff. The health-care issues were threatening to drown in a sea of muddled concepts and angry town hall meetings. Then Obama gave an hour-long speech to Congress, and everything was cleared up. He has the unique ability to simplify even the most complex issues. It served him well on the campaign trail, and it has continued to in presidency’s first year.
If anything, I wish he talked more often to the public. I know he has his weekly radio addresses which are available on iTunes. But I wish he just talked to us on network TV every Sunday night for like 10 minutes. Like “What up USA? It’s your boy Barry, here’s what’s happening this week…” That would be fantastic.
Look I know the economy isn’t fixed. I’m in the newspaper business. I know it ain’t fixed. Believe me. But things are getting better. The stimulus is working, slow but sure. Investing in America’s infrastructure is never a bad idea. And hey, stem cell research is happening again. That is huge. Huge! I can’t tell you how important that is to me; how infuriating it was to think of how much time and potential progress we lost in fighting disease during the last eight years.
And isn’t it nice to know Obama is representing us on the world stage and not W? We finally have a president who presents our country as a rational, intelligent listener, and not the bully with the puffed-up chest. We don’t need that shelf in Urban Outfitters dedicated to all the books and calendars detailing the stupid things our president says. That section of the store is gone. A shame for Urban Outfitters’ bottom line, but good for our country!
I’m not stupid enough to say that everything is wonderful here in the best of all possible worlds. Obama isn’t a concept. He is one man.
But I’m happier today than I was 365 days ago. So maybe we should celebrate tonight even more than we did last year.
Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m still yours. Go vote and then go party.
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Hear hear!!!!!!