How Obama won the race, and other things

Shafey Danish

‘Yes we can’ is a fine slogan. But it looks a trifle unfinished as a sentence. Like ‘Yes we can….?’ What? Change? As in ‘yes we can…. change?’ Except that it looks like a conversation you had with a waiter suspicious of your ability to pay. Let us try it out without the dots and the question mark. “Yes we can change.’ Better, but can we really? (change I mean). We can’t change. We will remain the same blundering idiots that we always were. We keep on making mistakes. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone. He’ll tell you at least of 3 mistakes of his life, or of somebody’s, standing in for the life of the Common Man. A cutout of the Humphrey Chimpden Earwickers that we all are. And if you ask a man called Chetan Bhagat, he’ll write you an entire book about it. You, ever gullible, would actually buy it, thus adding to the long line of your mistakes. Since you are not a writer you wouldn’t hawk it to the beguiled public at a profit. Which would be another mistake. No, we do not change, and if truth be told, neither does Mr Obama. He didn’t change his strategy, and he didn’t change his slogan. So yes we can all be made precious fools. Obama once said to his fund raiser in the very early phase of his career, when he was running for the Illinois senate, something to the effect that if he(fund raiser) was able to raise $4 mn, he would stand a 40% chance of winning, if he raised $6 mn, he would stand a 60% chance of winning, and if he could raise $10 mn he, Obama, could promise that he would win the election. Obama won that election. His strategy hasn’t changed since then. He has raised money hand over fist. Much more than Hillary, the early fund raising stalwart, and much, much more than McCain the Republican hopeful. The half-finished sentence of a slogan is a beautiful ploy: it lets the potential voter complete it as he or she wants. To some it is ‘Yes we can – have cheaper oil’ to others ‘Yes we can – let the tax cuts remain.’ It allows Obama to be different things to different people. Poor Hillary. Poor rich Hillary. The rumour has it, that she can’t pay her bill (or Bill, or bills. Whatever). One reason she lost the race was because she didn’t handle the Race thing well. She moved in with a bludgeon where others fear to tread. Hillary suffers from another drawback. The blood boiling in Obama’s inspired veins is suitably multicultural. In person he is the ultimate representative of the melting pot, the very symbol of America. That he is ever in denial is another matter. He never forgets to hammer home the point that his mother was quite white, honest. And though his father was a Muslim he isn’t, he is as true and as blue a Christian as any. Another thing. Hillary is a method actor. Obama a stand up artiste. Sample this: “Alright, alright folks the excitement is over (dramatic pause)…or it is just beginning (clap, clap. Standing ovation). He says that sort of thing off the cuff. Whenever Hillary opens her mouth to say something off the cuff she sounds like a school marm giving you a lecture on economics, politics, taxation, foreign policy, etc, all in one full sentence. Still wondering how he won the race? See his pic with the bicycle.