Well,
the latest email in my in-box as a foot soldier in the Obama Army made me
grimace (note: I am one of the millions who are showing our support for
his vision, his work and, well, his awesome coolness, by enlisting to receive
multiple campaign solicitations, er, updates each week from the President’s
Re-election campaign . . . even as I type that out, I am compelled to utter
“heaven help us”). Following on the apparent success of his fundraiser in
the home of George Clooney, and earlier events where you could win a meal with
Obama or whomever, the Obama campaign is now offering two new
sweepstakes: "An Evening with Two Presidents" with Clinton and
Obama (airfare and hotel covered) or "A New York Night" with Sarah
Jessica Parker here (airfare and hotel covered).” How about the title
"Socialism and the City" for the Parker sweepstakes? The letter
starts out,
“If you're wondering why we have so
many contests to meet President Obama, I'll be honest.
Yeah, it's partly because they're
really popular. But it's also because we don't accept any money from
Washington lobbyists or corporate-interest groups -- not a dime. We don't want
them owning any piece of this campaign or expecting any special consideration.
So Barack Obama has only you. And the
feedback from people like you is that they like chipping in a few dollars at a
time -- and if there's a chance to meet President Obama as a result, all the
better.”
Anyway,
I say “grimace” because it shows that the Obama campaign has finally realized
how crass their fundraising efforts have been over the past few months.
How so? Because they have found that they can raise a lot of money by
playing on celebrity with audaciously audacious audaciousness. These
emails target the youth of the American Left and the youth of the American
Squishies, but they also target that large swath of people you could call
“Those who should know better.”
In sum,
the Obama folks have figured out what Starbucks discovered a while back: a lot of young people have a lot of disposable
income, and if you have some type of shiny object to dangle in front of them,
you can separate these typically wisdom-challenged persons from their
dollars. Frankly, to most young people in America, ALL their money is
disposable income; because if they run out of money to pay for really important
stuff like auto insurance premium or the electric bill there is someone who
will bail them out.
In all candor, a part of me wishes
that this option was more available to the GOP and that more celebrities (note,
I didn’t say “famous” or “successful” or “important” persons) were acknowledged
Republicans or Conservatives. But I have resigned myself to the fact that
as long as there is almost near total overlap between the groups “celebrity”
and “lazy thinker” my party and my political persuasion will suffer a
disadvantage in this area. That confession out in the open, however, this
means of raising money has the same scent to it as the Clintons renting out the
Lincoln bedroom (younger readers: Google it).
Sure, I
don’t deny that a big part of effective leadership is related to what we call
“charisma” (a deep discussion of that will have to wait for another blog
post). But I think we should be troubled when a political campaign begins
to openly and effectively tout or pitch intangibles (in the sense that cotton
candy is an “intangible” food) for their candidate. You know, what
difference does it make if a president is “cool” (see here)
or even humorous? Granted, I don't doubt that many young persons would
like for Obama to make taxpayers foot the bill for outstanding college debt, or
that they would like to collect unemployment benefits for two years.
What's not to like (unless you're the one paying the taxes)? But
seriously, I think it is a good thing that people feel a little awkward reading
the magazine covers at the grocery checkout. And I think it is kind of a
good thing that most responsible adults treat three hours watching the Oscars,
or a subscription to People, as an
indulgence and a wholly separate proposition from choosing a president.
Don't you?
Mr. Ned Williams
Ned Williams is a husband, father and attorney
specializing in adoption. He and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee.
Image by Leaping Lizard
Image by Leaping Lizard
