My friend Shellie forwarded me a fantastic* piece, written 9 Feb in The Australian, that perfectly articulated my concerns about Barack Obama. Many people are very inspired by him and hope he becomes the next President. On the other end of the spectrum, some think he is — literally — the antichrist (as illustrated by the responses to my friend Iain’s tongue-in-cheek post from just shy of a year ago). I haven’t read Barack’s book, and pretty much all of my opinions about him are more like impressions than footnoted, well-documented, researched thoughts. However, the above article’s author, who is much more familiar with Obama specifics, has come to much the same conclusions I have, for many of the same reasons.
He begins the story relating the story of what happened to the folks who completely bought into Mandela’s (possibly unintended) campaign promises, and likening that event to what may happen if Obama actually takes the Oval Office.
It was early 1994 when Nelson Mandela gave a speech in a slum outside Cape Town and spoke in grand terms of a new beginning and how when he was elected president every household would have a washing machine.
People took him literally. A few months later he became South Africa’s first black president. That’s when clerks in department stores in Cape Town had to turn people away demanding their free washer and dryer.
The story only improves from there. It’s well-worth a read, whether you support Obama or not.
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*If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that’s my favorite superlative. Sorry for its overuse. Any suggestions for alternate exclamations??
