Obama

I’m sick of Obama. I don’t want to vote for him anymore. The problem is that I want to vote for John McCain even less. Not voting doesn’t appeal to me, especially since a vote in Virginia actually counts for something these days, and writing in a name is a silent and pointless protest. I guess that means I’ll vote for Obama but I really don’t want to.

During the primaries, I was rooting for Clinton to win even though I thought either candidate would be good enough for me. It seemed many people supported Obama because he was against the Iraq war (conveniently, he wasn’t a senator during the vote) and he’s black (a stupid and not-so-stupid reason). And it seemed many people supported Clinton because she was a Clinton (unfortunately her husband went temporarily insane) and she’s a woman (a stupid and not-so-stupid reason). I supported Clinton because I dislike rhetoric and pretension and Obama is the embodiment of that. Sure, Clinton is a liar and a dirty politician but, in all honesty, I have no problem with that. Her controversies (an exciting fiction of daring escape from danger in the Balkans) were more interesting than Obama’s (the Jeremiah Wright debacle – can’t we just have an atheist candidate for once – and the soporific case of the missing flag pin).

But Obama won and I was fine with that. Not as happy as Oprah Winfrey, say, but definitely fine. But as the Obama train rolls on and he’s decided he’s already president, my general feeling of fine has turned ambivalent and is slowly curdling to sour. I’m not sure if it’s Obama’s fault – although the rhetoric and the pompousness is more grating than ever. I think I’ll blame the media, a convenient pinata if there ever was one. I think McCain’s furore-inspiring ad claiming Obama is a pop star has a kernel of truth in it. Obama definitely is a pop star and the press have been instrumental in developing his image as such.

Who can blame them? Because, really, there hasn’t been much of substance to report on. His whole platform thus far is built on the idea of change, a vague and formless concept that makes a catchy slogan and rouses the rabble. The media can’t report on his past – a favorite topic with Clinton and McCain – because he has a threadbare political history. Politically, he’s a freshman secretary running for student body president. There are no proverbial skeletons in the closet – perhaps a bone here and there but barely enough to frighten a child. But what good is change when you don’t know where that change leads? I hope it’s not into a different kind of politics, as Obama claims, because the politics of his rhetoric won’t get anything done.

In the past few weeks, Obama has finally begun to solidify his supposed views on the issues. Not philosophical issues like race and religion but political ones like guns, oil and war. It’s twisted but Obama’s recent declarations of his positions on certain issues may be what turns distaste back into ambivalence. Twisted because I disagree with many of them. Obama has already liquored up most of the Left and he can get them to do anything (including an Afghanistan for Iraq trade when what they really wanted was no war altogether). Now he’s trying to take the center home too and I have no problem with that. That’s politics and that’s what an aspiring President should do. That’s the type of conduct that will win me over. Of course, if he keeps supporting views that don’t suit me I might revisit my decision to vote for him. Well, maybe not. The alternative is John McCain.