I love stereotypes. Especially when they come true. I also love Obama. On Election Day, 2008, two of my loves came together: Obama fulfilled a black stereotype.
While McCain was probably taking a nap in the middle of the day or watching Matlock, or whatever it is that old people do, Obama was playing basketball. Now don’t get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with playing sports on election day. It helps ease the stress by getting your mind off of the possibility that you have a large chance of becoming the president of the free world in a matter of hours, and it gives you time to spend with your buddies. But basketball? When you’ll be the first black president?
It does make sense. Now as President- elect, Obama has to do a lot of work and he doesn’t have any time for basketball and other stereotypical things. So he had to get it out of his system. He may have even eaten fried chicken.
The Daily News, Chicago Tribune, UK Guardian and multiple other news publication have released the secret code names that the Secret Service uses for Barack Obama and his family yesterday and today.
Many other forms of media such as Yahoo!’s Buzz blog have this scoop posted up front for everyone to read, because it’s the hot story of the day. This leak came out yesterday, but the secret service has been protecting the Obamas since May of 2007 according to The Daily News.
The Obamas’ code names all begin with R’s and the Joe Biden and his wife begin with C (Joe being “Celtic”).
The code name for Obama happens to be “Renegade”, which is leading to more controversy including how he is rebel and conspiracy theorist about the end of the world.
So why did the media disclose this information? I have a few theories.
My first theory, or what I will call “probably the truth”: These newspapers and websites want to get attention. They wrote about the code names because they knew people like me would write about it and even link to them.
Theory number dos: They want to follow the crowd. If the Chicago Tribune did it, why shouldn’t they? They are lemmings, after all.
Number C: These code names for the Obamas, and the Bidens are not real. They have deliberately been leaked to the media so that the press would not try to find out the code names, while actually having other code names for the two families.
And finally, the most extreme case which is probably not true: The media would like to see someone get shot or at least almost shot. Now this is very cynical and messed up, but I can understand why it would be done. And it’s not just because of the whole race issue. If someone was shot (even one of the Bidens), there will be more news to write and people will buy papers. The Wednesday after election day lead to a very large shortage of news papers because something incredibly historic happened. Alex Navarro-McKay even wrote a great article (with one of the best leads I’ve ever read) on Room 8 about the lack of papers. Even an attempt would be front page news.
With all the nutty people out there, the Secret Service sure has a lot of work to do for the next 4+ years. Good luck to them.
Note: I would love my code name to be Pixie Muffin Dust the Third.
This election had the biggest voter turn out of all times (64.1%). It could be the because of the massive youth appeal of Barack Obama. It could be the need for change in our troubled economy. Or it could be the free cup of coffee from Starbucks or free ice cream from Ben & Jerry’s.
This election also showed how the younger, non-voting generation got involved and really interested. One example is one of my favorite blogger’s 5 year old son. The child who is not even in 1st grade realizes the impact that Obama has on him and his generation.
The children really are our future. They will be voting soon. Our votes now really affect them. As Americans, we have failed our children in the last two elections, which is why they are rebelling against anything that even looks Republican. It’s the reason Obama was the Democratic nominee. It’s the reason he won with such high percentages.
At the end of the day, the children today will be able to vote tomorrow. They may go radical if need be. That’s why we need to make sure they are taken care of and not just tossed aside.
My younger sister, who is only 14 years old, has written an essay for her class. Her essay is below:
Vote McCain
By My 14 year old sister Jennifer
As you all know, the most important and influential election of our time is coming to an end. If you are one of the few people left undecided and plan to stay home on Election Day, you may want to consider John McCain.
As an undecided voter, you may not like the idea of change. The sure way to help things stay the same is by voting for George W. Bush again, I mean John McCain. He has served our country and is full capable of killing all of the terrorists single handedly. He will also be able to solve our dependence on foreign oil by taking over every country so it will no longer be foreign.
He has a lot of experience in office. He has been part of this great democracy at the same time as some of our greatest leaders, such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He also has an old-fashioned sense of principles. If you really think about it, those are the best principles to live by. Things like being polite and courteous to people before sending them to the back of the bus is a quality you just don’t find in Barack Obama.
But now that times have changed, he has adapted. Now he has learned to manipulate women to vote in his favor as opposed to beating them, as he was accustomed before. Now he uses women like Sarah Palin to do his bidding for him. She does this by giving women a chance to feel equal to men but to diminish their credibility for years to follow.
This is your chance to be the true American you are. Vote McCain or let the terrorist win.
For as long as I can remember, I have been always been an advocate for voting. I felt like everyone should vote as soon as they had the right. I’ve been registered to vote since I became a US citizen, and I vote in every election, including primaries. I have made sure both my parents were registered (my father is a blank and my mother is a Dem.) and encouraged them to vote in every election (even though they really don’t).
That’s why I felt so disappointed in myself when I went to my polling site and saw that both my parents voted in the morning. My father refused to vote for Obama. He instead voted for the Democratic Party. But I knew that my mother, a registered Democrat, would not be following his lead.
On Monday night she said that she would not be voting, since it was futile in New York, yet there it was on Tuesday morning, in black ink, her name was signed in the book of those who voted. Although she did vote for Democrats for the judges and other uncontested and unimportant races, she voted for McCain for president.
He vote was fueled for many reasons. First, she’s a closet Republican and has been for some time now. Second, she believes that Obama is a Communist. As someone who has lived in the former Soviet Union, she hates Communists. She also believes he is a terrorist. She is completely certain that he is a Muslim, and as a Jew, with family in Israel, she is convinced that he will destroy Israel (despite it being our only ally in the Middle East).
When I got home last night, after campaigning in Long Island for a state senate race, I was really happy to see that Obama is my president. I hugged my little sister who can’t vote for another 4 years. I high fived my dad. Then I went into my mom’s room. She told me to go away and that we were going to become a communist country all because of me and people like me. Then she kicked me.
The children really are our future. They will be voting soon. Our votes now really affect them. As Americans, we have failed our children in the last two elections, which is why they are rebelling against anything that even looks Republican. It’s the reason Obama was the Democratic nominee. It’s the reason he won with such high percentages.
