Can You Smell the B.O.?

The recent presidential political campaign is an eyesore. It seems as it is unfolding in cyberspace like a big horrible video game. Characters move, strategies are formed, and conclusions are reached, but there is no soul. How is it a black man could seem soul-less? The black man through the slavery experience is the soul of America. Although the British invasion of Rock ‘n’ Roll brought a different kind of retrospective Tory and Wig soul to America, the black man through jazz music gave America her soul. The disappearance of New Orleans from the map of cultural America along with the soiling of American pop music through mind-numbing propaganda has left America soul-less. There is no way possible Japanese video games, trash television, and a blatant disregard for the infrastructure of this county by presidential politicians can instill a sense of security in in these insecure times. All that can be hoped for is a shallow denial and blind allegiance to a man that seems to in epic terms define what America is looking for in a leader. It is true no matter what pundits say, we do not know Barack Obama. It is true he has not had the experience in office in the public eye to prove the American people can trust his judgment. He is such a schizophrenic image, how is anyone to know what he will do? Typically mainstream America considers his education “Ivy League,” and it is. Are we expected to, for this presidential campaign only, to suspend our stereotype of Ivy League business tycoons? We can’t fault a black man for doing well for himself in a mostly white America, but where do his interests lie? Taking off the jacket and tie and rolling up the sleeves is a common campaign device meant to appeal to the “down home folk.” Jimmy Carter did it. Barack Obama has in his favor the black vote, because everyone knows there will be nary a black man who will vote for a white candidate given the choice of a black man first. It is a stereotype, but some stereotype are true. North Carolina will prove the point. Hillary lost, because there are a lot of blacks in North Carolina. I can’t get past the idea that this man did remarkably appear from seeming nowhere and was propelled into the campaign from some unknown source in California. Barack who? He is like Beck, who won a Grammy award for “Two turntables and a microphone” with no prior exposure in mainstream music America. Can America trust such an entity with their sole fate? It is difficult to get past this. I was a Hillary supporter, and I was comfortable with that because we knew who she was. We don’t know Barack Obama. We know John McCain a little better, but what they are saying in continued sound bytes isn’t telling anyone how they are going to help the state of America. Only Bill Clinton was intelligent enough and cared enough about the job to be able to express concrete concepts concerning the inner workings of our social, political, and economic systems. I am still waiting to hear a remote hint of a substantial idea. Is this the way all presidential campaigns have been in the past, or has the sheer ignorance of television programming just severely lowered the bar? I think the latter is true, because I can’t watch television anymore. Not only can I not look at the made up faces with their hair and make up, but I can’t listen to the annoying whine of Katie Couric’s voice. Is this who we chose to which to listen on the evening news? Does anyone even watch the news anymore? It is the theatre of the absurd, where life relishes the weak and misguided. We as overweight uneducated Americans revel in our mediocrity, and take what is dished out on national television. It is an abomination and the presidential candidates should aspire to give us more.