I like most of what I’ve seen about Barack Obama.  I really do, and I’m hoping he does well in the primaries, though to be honest, I’ve not made up my mind on any one contender.

But the wife and I were surprised and impressed at first with the latest fund raising gimmick from the Obama camp: Dinner with Barack.  Donate in any amount you can afford and be entered into a contest to win a dinner with Barack Obama to talk about the issues.  Seems everyone in the Democratic camps is coming up with some gimmick another to glean the netroots, and Barack had come up with one that played to his charm.  After all, who the hell wants to sit in stiffled silence across from the She Dem, Hillary Clinton?  She’s better sticking to the Sopranos references, as befitting her.

But then I got the list in an email, and oh boy.  A MyDD’er got the list and published it.  I can’t say anything for sure, but I mean really.  Just look at who got picked:  

MyDD :: Got this from the Obama Campaign: Dinner Guest

Margaret Thomas-Jordan, Gonzales LA

Margaret is a working mother of two boys, age nineteen months and eleven years, and she is attending school to become a nurse. Margaret’s husband was shipped to Iraq last month and he is currently serving a fifteen-month tour. Health care costs have grown especially difficult for Margaret, and she is struggling with access to health care because she does not qualify as a traditional student. She writes, “I have not always been where I am today. I encountered a lot of struggles when I was a single mother with one child on my own trying to finish college.” She supports Barack in part because “he has faced some of the everyday struggles that a lot of Americans have faced. He’s looking at the whole picture.”

Read the whole list and see if you see what I see.  We have a working mother with a husband in Iraq, a community and charity worker from New York City, a firefighter from Florida whose lost faith in Bush, and a guy with problems paying for health care. . . .

Jesus, could they possibly have picked a more schmaltzy group of key voter tokens if they tried? Could they possibly have been more obvious, less sincere? The Florida vote, the ex-Bushie vote, the veteran/vet families vote, the Katrina vote, the health care vote, white, black and hispanic (sorry, Asians.  No free rides for you.).   Its a shame he could only have five of them, because he could really use a 911 surviver to even out the mix.

Tell a bunch of people that they’ve got a chance to win a dinner with the candidate, and the least you could do is make it a random drawing. But no, instead they went for straight political posturing. Hardly seems like there’s a chance in hell anyone is going to be listening to anyone; you probably won’t be able to hear a thing over the snapping of the cameras, anyway.  And why bother?  This isn’t about them, it’s about the groups they represent seeing Barack with them.

It is a shame that a guy who inspired such hope in 2004 should now remind me of George Bush now, but he does. Perhaps you recall Bush parading the Yearly Cavalcade of Human Suffering in his State of the Union speeches for lo, this past seven years.  Not because they’re anything really special.  Not because he cares.  Simply because they are emblematic of some cheap political tactic.

Hey, maybe Barack Obama really does listen to them.  Maybe he sits right down and asks question after question of them, probing their experience.  They all look like they might have a story to tell and wisdom to impart.  Maybe he just yawns and makes and excuse to leave the dinner early. Important call from important people, of course you understand. . . . Who cares at this point? For me, this is a major score for Barack on the wrong side of the card. From a guy that seemed legitimate for a time.

Mr. Senator, Mr. Candidate, Barack Obama, if you or your camp bothers to read a bunch of crap from long-haired freaks in New York State: do yourself a favour and don’t pull an Al Gore 2000. Don’t get so focused on the posturing, the messaging and the focus groups that you negate any positives that seemed to have come so naturally for you just a short while ago.  At least Al Gore just made us all feel like we were in Catholic School.  This makes me feel all dirty.

And I feel about as shitty providing fodder for Righties to attack him with.  But damn.  I’m not going to let my own base political weaknesses prevent me from pointing out when our politicians are so obviously playing to their own.  I don’t want a Republican in the White House, but I’ll be damned if I’ll have another political song-and-dance man.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Democrats, Dinner with Barack

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