That didn't last long.

The Obama Revolution is over. Instead of vast change, there will be management of the ongoing enterprise and a few big ticket cosmetic papering overs. Maybe a few new minority friendly scholarships or some other bauble.

the voice of humility believes this is the way of big movements anyway. In our Short Dictionary of Politics we defined Revolution as

A method by which one elite manipulates the masses to transfer power from another elite due to real or perceived oppression. The success or failure of the revolutionary party, once the ancien regime is overthrown, depends on how well they manage their transition from belief in ideology to practical management of the entity they have stolen.

Now, I'm not sure this was a revolution at all, maybe just a different lineup for the same team, but no matter. The Obama transition is distancing itself from its agenda.

How do we know this. The vaunted involuntary servitude national service proposals have lost the stick and the carrot has been enhanced.

I was actually shocked at the quick abandonment of the force aspect of the proposal. That was nothing compared to the disappearance of the whole agenda as reported by Veritas over at Daily Burkeman1. Obama's Change.gov website's agenda items have all been removed and just a two paragraph statement saying how cool the changes are gonna be remains. It's worth a trip over to the Daily Burkeman1 to check it out.

NBSAOB*

*New Boss Same As Old Boss.

It's Over

and I'm glad.

My usual saying on the day after is the good news is one of them lost, the bad, one of them won. In truth, I was a little less scared of Obama than the bomber. Of course, I voted third party.

I think anyone would have to be crazy to want to be president now. Coming into office in the current situation of an endless war and a broke country does not augur well for the newly anointed. Obama's messiah message also is a problem. To date, no one has seen him walk on water. It's easier to advertise yourself as a god than be one. Let down time in the real world.

Still, I wish the President-elect good fortune if only because I wish it for myself.

What will redistribution mean?

So segments of the press are atwitter with statements by Obama that suggest he wants to take the earnings of people who make a few pesos more and scatter them amongst the folks who make less. The polls seem to imply the fear mongering is not working.

It does appear from the evidence that the great Himself once annointed would love to give a few farthings to his constituency. Nothing new there, it is warmed over New Deal which the children of light think to be change.

I suppose one should quake with fear, but as a man who believes everything reduces to its absurd in government, I've long thought the tension in the springs of the machine would eventually snap. I do not know the day nor the hour. And for all of my poor powers of cognition, the president apparent may even usher in a golden age.

Of course, this is the Democratic Party we're talking about here. They are ruthless about attaining power. Once in, they can be a bit incompetent about its exercise. I suspect a redistribution program will go something like this:

Mr. Disingenuous

As mentioned before, Dan Kennedy's Medianation blog is not a bad source for Boston media news and some national stuff as well, Were it were a boat, You would notice a definite list to port. Fair enough, no one should have a problem with that.

When I saw the comment he left on the SaveWrko site, I almost fell off my chair,

Brian: I am not an Obama "supporter." If you guessed whom I plan to vote for, I'm sure you'd get it right. But that doesn't make me a supporter. I vote, but I support no one.

Posted by: Dan Kennedy at October 15, 2008 09:36 AM

The man might not endorse Obama on his blog, but he has dug up every bit of dirt he could find on McCain Palin and run with it as fast as he could.

To then claim he does not support the team is embarrassing and a bit shameful. He might excue it by saying gee, I wish someone else was the nominee but lesser of two evils. Still, you don't put out that much effort to blacken the other side and say I'm not a supporter.

After all, is there nothing he could report a little negative about Obama. Nah.

I don't really see how any thinking person can back either cargo cult, but Dan is a man of no balance and to me that equals support.

From the voice of humility business and finance desk-This just in, Iceland purchased out of bankruptcy

The Republic of Zimbabwe has purchased the nation of Iceland out of bankruptcy. There were no other bidders.

When asked to comment, the Zimbabwean Finance Minister said there was a natural synergy. "We have much experience dealing with hyper inflation, getting banknotes printed quickly and all that. Our people know how to cope, a skill those Nordics are going to need. We know many rat recipes and how to make poisonous roots palatable. Trading on those skills, we could use Icelandic foods to vary our diets. Still, I don't know if I'm ready for pickled herring.

You Have to Fight for Your Right to be Apathetic

I have no grand philosophy of life. I wish I did, but at the end of the day, all I can deal with is simple concepts like "ownlife" as expressed by George Orwell,

In Principle a Party member had no spare time, and was never alone except in bed. It was assumed that when he was not working, eating, or sleeping he would be taking part in some kind of communal recreations; to do anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous. There was a word for it in Newspeak: ownlife, it was called, meaning individualism.

1984 page 82

Yeah, go ahead and hit me with concepts like how horrible atomistic life is. Sorry, kids. If you are thinking for yourself, then a certain amount of the atomistic life is inescapable. This does not mean I'm in some ashram by myself. I get on with people, not many. There is a family I'm happily part of. I have served my time in unpaid community work. Still, at the end of the day, it's all part of ownlife if I can choose or reject it.

Ah, but there are people out there who believe the idea of being a separate independent person is pernicious. John McCain wants you to participate in "a cause greater than yourself." Gee, nothing he has ever expounded has grabbed me as a cause greater than myself, humble and worthless wretch that I am.

Obama is worse. While McCain was once for a military draft, he is smart enough to realize that whatever chance he has to be El Jefe Maximo would be gone if he uttered such sentiments now. Obama would also never give voice to the idea that he wishes to compel people to serve. No, he is smart enough to put it in terms such that you lose if you don't submit.

Per J.D. Tuccille

In fact, Obama's national service plan is "voluntary" in a technical sense -- nobody will be arrested for declining to participate. But non-participants also won't be allowed to graduate from high school, and without those diplomas, life could get a bit rough.

Obama's national service plan (PDF) says:

Schools that require service as part of the educational experience create improved learning environments and serve as resources for their communities. The Obama-Biden plan sets a goal for all students to engage in service, with middle and high school students performing 50 hours of service each year, and college students performing 100 hours of service each year. Under this plan, students would graduate college with as many as 17 weeks of public service experience under their belts.

But schools set their own policies, don't they? Well ... sort of. You see, as the saying goes, "he who takes the king's coin becomes the king's man." And most public schools depend on federal dollars. As Obama elaborated in a speech last December, "At the middle and high school level, we'll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities."

I know that the word fascism is overused when accusing others of something you don't like. Heck, I do it (only in the right way, of course). Still, what else can one call the forced service of youth.

Let's use the words of Benito,

everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.

We can quibble about whether the above quote is applicable, but a state that will reach down to compel its citizens to service comes close enough for government work.

Both candidates, as J.D. puts it,

seem to think that donating your time to a soup kitchen, a clinic or a church is less valuable than participation in a grand-scale scheme managed by the state.

We all know how it will work out. Brad and Brooke, just out of Amherst will get some chi chi gig that will resemble a policy internship and Tyrone and Crystal will be handed mops.

One of the reasons I homeschooled my kids was the clicque that ran our region were for mandatory service. There are not many ways to resist this, but you should if you can.

In the end, the lesson any kid should get out of this is might makes right. Being forced to do good is extortion.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin. Not Holy Mother State's.

Have a look at national service as it has been practiced elsewhere.

Why am I always so behind?

I just can't keep up, I just can't keep up. I feel less than because of it.

Here I thought Fair Market Value was what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.

I wasn't paying attention. There is a new definition,

FMV is what a willing government department is willing to pay a willing well connected less than competently run financial institution.

The Dems are giving the Republicans the election. Will they take it? Nah

I do not have a dog in this race. Still, just for fun, I'd like to see something interesting happen in this race. Most of the things that are happening have been done before. A national savior? Germany pioneered that in the Thirties. A war hero come to fight special interests, that also happened amongst the Deutchies in 1932.

It's gotta be something different. Not really different, that not going to happen. Even if it's a contrived diff, let's have it.

Therefore, a message to Sarah's handlers; let Sarah be Sarah. No, I mean really.

Here's the scenario,

The handlers say to La Sarah, "Mrs. Palin, what do you think about the bailout. Not as a candidate, but as the real human being you were a few weeks ago.

Her reply, "Scam"

"Okay, Sarah you can tell America that, if you can just bring yourself to say I love and respect John McCain, but."

Outside of Washington, no one thinks this not a scam. If the Republicans let her go off the reservation and the next day say something like the disagree but respect her independence and candor blah blah blah, it could work.

After all, one out of four actually appearing real could work.

This campaign season has been so ridiculous, I have not feared the Large Hadron Collider would cause a black hole. I was looking forward to it.

Something I don't get?

Up until the bailout vote, stocks were plunging.

The bailout looked sure to pass.

The bailout vote fails.

The next day stocks rise.

They are said (saw the headline on bloomberg.com)to be rising because there was hope the bailout plan that saw stocks tanking in anticipation of it passing would be resubmitted.

Now, the voice of humility claims no special knowledge and his life's financial success is reason enough for him to continue in the modesty he is so justly proud of. Still, something here does not seem to follow. We are grateful to anyone who can set us straight.

Also, Upon the demise of the proposed legislation, the Fed injected 600+ Billion to little comment in our free press, the tribunes of the people. What's up with that.

Actually, I've found someone to instruct me in the intricacies of current financial news. Darn the Brits. I don't think anyone in this country could have done this. Maybe Colbert, but I doubt it.


Hat tip to the Ambler.

Man Bites Dog, well not really

Sixty percent of the party of the working man voted to protect the perks of Wall Streeters.

The rich man's party voted to not take the money of working class Americans.

I could come to some conclusions, but let's just quote the words of Lily Tomlin, "No matter how cynical I get, I can't keep up."

The World is Out to Lunch

In the movie, Men in Black, Tim Meadow's character, in a strac bemedaled uniform is asked why he is in a room taking a test he does not know the purpose of. Meadows pompously shouts in a drill field manner, "Because we're the best of the best of the best, Sir." Will Smith's starts uncontrollably giggling. Smith is asked why and reply's that Captain America "Has no clue why we're here."

So you've got Dan Kennedy, Medianation and The Guardian writing about about who thinks it was a tie and the comments of other pundits. Where Kennedy became Captain America was in the Guardian article title, "McCain's style undermines substance." Dan, there was no substance.

Full disclosure, I listened on the radio as long as I could take it. We don't have TV, so the next night, on youtube, I watched talking heads on Fox and CNN talking around everything. Colmes was much less goofy than Hannity, if only because it's impossible to be more. Hannity's McCain cheerleading was mentally aberrant.

Here's the take away; about the bailout, these guys don't have a clue. They can repeat a few facts and a few bullets someone wrote for them on how it will work out, but a real understanding, clueless. It's like my knowing, say the formula for gunpowder. I may be able to tell you the ingredients and maybe even a text book explanation of the process, but understand it, no. My brother-in-law, Professor Dave does, but he's drunk deep at the Pierian Spring with post docs in chemistry related subjects.

A hundred pages plus, the ecomomic version of the Patriot Act is about to be passed and for the same reason. They scared everybody.

We're too Humble to Claim We Called It

the voice of humility is too modest to claim to have called the meltdown over six years ago. In truth, it wasn't a prediction with precision. Rather a general pronouncement on the progression of government action,

The Iron Law of government: Everything eventually reduces to its absurd. If this is an actual law of physics that exists in nature is not known. In politics and government, it cannot be denied. Whereas in business a company can go bankrupt (unless it is publicly favored), in the realm of government, if (actually, when is more appropriate) a program attains absolute failure, it becomes a candidate for increased funding (e.g. DARE,).

This was first posted in our Short Dictionary of Politics in the old Spintech and reposted here.

Now there are some people who blame deregulation for all of our problems. Were there a few rules that were loosened so the high financiers could go to town? Possibly, if not probably. There were certainly rules like Community Reinvestment that denied reality. I knew when I heard ads for no doc mortgages that this could not end well, as the saying goes.

So what if a few regulations were let go. No one in our nation can say, "You know what, I'm getting scared we are in danger of a regulation shortage." If the current crisis doesn't get us, we've got a trillion dollar war, social security, medicaid, medicare. Sooner or later the denouement.

So I would take my chances and not support this bailout. You need other reasons?

1. Nobody can prove it will work.
2. It has all the flavor of a late night commercial,"Act now, before this valuable offer disappears forever!!!!!!"
3. The people who will most benefit are the people who screwed up.
4. Almost nobody in congress voting on it will understand what they are voting on.

Are those good reasons for opposing the bailout? Don't know. I am willing to change my mind if Messrs. Bernanke and Paulson are willing to bet all the assets they own against all I own that the plan will solve the problem for good.

Update: Commenter Gavin Andresen referenced an article by Tyler Cowen, Too Few Regulations? No, Just Ineffective Ones. As suspected, there was no dearth of regulations, but "with a growing loss of accountability and effectiveness."

This Will Be My Last Sarah Palin Post, maybe

The convention is over, "But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot " just what is it I like about Sarah Palin?

I liked her speech, even though it was twaddle. I like her, sort of, even though I won't vote for her.

She starts becoming likeable due to her enemies. A local NPR (which now stands for National Palin Radio) station, WBUR, does the tag team thing on their mid day show, Here and Now. Hostess Robin Young and Ellen Goodman* try to work over a Republican woman. How open minded is Ellen Goodman? She equates not believing in Global Warming with Holocaust Denial. Now maybe Ellen understands climatology or maybe she has just chosen whom to believe. The fact that she won't allow for honest disagreement is maybe a tad, oh, naziish, if we are going to throw around the rhetoric.

At the end of the interrogation, Robin thanked the Republican woman and then gushed that Ellen would have to come back again for her valued thoughts. Surprise, surprise. Of course, we need the fairness doctrine, don't we?

Through the day, NPR and CNN (The lefty version of Fox) radio news are constant in their revelations that Sarah is the closest thing to the antichrist for unbelievers. Waking up the next morning when the dog nuzzles me to let him out, I turn on a radio set to WFCR in Amherst and guess who they're talking about?

Sunday afternoon, All Things Considered or is it Weekend Edition, we've got a woman historian talking about whether and how Palin fits into feminism. An historian of feminism, somehow, I don't expect she will be as read as Herodotus.

I've mentioned Dan Kennedy's Medianation before. Great man for the Boston media scene, but obsessed with herself and not in a healthy way. His blog is all Palin all the time. Of course he has put Obama under the microscope for Rezko in the same manner. Surrrre.

The drumbeat is delicious because the smarmy who live a life of white privilege are scared. Charisma is okay when it's the post racial guy inspiring middle class ivies to chant the politically correct version of sieg heil. When it's babe from lumpen whitey state, well, such heresy cannot be allowed. The effect of the ad nauseum attacks makes her even more attractive in comparison.

So at the end of it all, I think one can put one's finger on it. Would you rather be stuck hanging out with Sarah Palin or discussing gender theory with someone from Smith.

*A quote from Ellen, "You can teach someone who cares to write columns, but you can’t teach someone who writes columns to care." Is this woman profound or what?

Prediction!

With our vast social knowledge of the American People that we are properly humble about, the voice of humility predicts that nine months hence, maternity wards and birthing center will report a large upswing in the number of babies named Bristol.

The phenomenon will not appear in all Socio Economic Groups in the same numbers (hint, there will be less among NYT readers and more in the People Mag demographic).

Heck, if we were having another kid, I'd name her that just to annoy my lace curtain relatives.

Does Biden Palin Comparison?

Gee, it’s only been a few days and I know almost as much about Sarah Palin as I do my own wife. Well, I know what some might call the dodgy stuff about the Guv because an army of snoops want to discover it. So far, they haven’t laid a glove on her. There are legions of voters out there in Third Millennium America who have had to deal with similar stuff and think no less of the lass for the revelations.

But, enough of that. Most of America has to think about one party’s veep choice versus the other side’s. Pas moi. I live in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. Everyone here knows who is going to win the state. Even if George Wallace was wrong and it’s a quarter or even a fifty cent piece, the difference is not enough to drive me to the polls for the major parties. As we have a foregone conclusion, it is the obligation of every intelligent citizen in the Commonwealth to vote third party. Generally, all three of us do.

Still, to the point, I’m here to help. What can one say in favor of Biden. There, assume I’ve said it. On a drive home from New York State yesterday, some talker said he “connected” with the man because of how kind he was to his mom. I grant that a fellow who savagely beat mother might not be vice presidential timber, but kindness to the old lady doesn’t speak to governance.

Joe is a goof ball. From the Kinnock theft to walking around with hair plugs for years, he’s a space cadet. He voted to go to war with Iraq and for bills that are unreadable. If doing the wrong thing and doing the wrong thing and then doing it again is “experience,” then the quality is overrated.

I wish to announce, I have enough experience to be POTUS or VPOTUS. You do too. Well, let’s give a caveat, assuming you’ve lived long enough making your way in the world. Everyone gains experience, some do not profit from it. Right off the bat, we can agree, the sixty year old in front of you in the convenience store line trying to make a choice among scratch tickets has not gained from his life’s lessons. Look closely at him for a hair transplant. You never know who you’re behind.

Let me confess, I’m not impressed with La Palin’s choice of hairdressers. Other than that, I’m not finding it easy to prove her goofier than Biden. Granted, that’s a task. The question has caused me to think about women as heads of state.

In most of history, head of state has meant king, and on occasion, queen. Queenie was rare, but the lasses that made it were often spectacularly successful. Why. Maybe it was the winnowing process. The girls who couldn’t handle it ended up in the convent or the nut house or worse. Those who made it, had proven at least an ability for political fancy footwork.

When they came into their own, the survivors had skills. Arguably, the most important is the hallmark of a truly intelligent woman, the ability to choose among men. Catherine of Russia was no slouch, and she chose for many different abilities. Elizabeth I was a women who knew her men, even if she never knew a man.

Do we extrapolate a successful reign in the event of Sarah I. I would hire her for an important job before Joey, but predicting the future is not possible. I wouldn’t have hired Liz based on her experience. Mrs. Palin seems to be able to handle the Alaskan guys with some ability, turfing out a few of them. That state trooper thingy shows some ruthlessness

The Palin choice is a shot in the dark. Biden, looks bad even if you get the lighting right. Forced to choose, I’ll fall back on women leaders of big countries in the last century. You don’t get much tougher cookies than Thatcher and Ghandi. Even if Thatcher’s hair was weirder than Joe’s.

Inauthentic is the New Authentic

Dan Kennedy is a veteran journalist covering the Boston area. When he sticks to that mission he's good.

To say he is a partisan of the Democrat Party is understatement at gold medal level if there were an Olympic event for that. When the Palin announcement came out, he was Johnny on the spot. I'm going out on a limb and say I have slight doubts that he said to himself, "Hmmmm, I'm going to research her and I do hope I only find good."

But it is older post that we are concerned with now.

On August 26 he wrote,

A presidential makeover

In my latest for the Guardian, I argue that two contrasting speeches by Michelle Obama show she understands what works in Chicago doesn't work on the national stage. Unfortunately for Democrats, the Obamas' efforts to reinvent themselves risk making them seem inauthentic and leave them vulnerable to Republican attack. (italics mine)

When the Obamas say something and get jittery, they change it and Dan is worried that mean spirited folks might notice. Noticing a contradiction in his eyes is bad form and I would not be shocked if he thinks it hate speech. He certainly feels it "wrong think" anyway.

Get over it Dan, "politics ain't bean bag."

So I commented

I don't understand the word "seem" here. Are you implying that the Obama's reinvention is genuine or only "seems" inauthentic?

Are not reinventers ipso facto inauthentic?

If that is so, then yes they are vulnerable to "genuine" attacks even from hacks like Severin*.

Another comment appeared,

Neil said....

A week or so ago Tom Ashbrook had as his On Point guest Richard Todd, the author of The Thing Itself, a kind of meditation on authenticity. I haven't read the book yet, I think it'll be on the fall pile, but he was quite witty about the slippery, even ineffable notion of what's "authentic". One caller mentioned that some Europeans come here specifically to experience "authentic" American kitsch of the sort we dismiss as worthless trash. Another talked about taking his students to Central America, where they searched for locally-made trinkets, and Indian souvenir shops selling items from China.

Last week in Montreal I nearly bought a hollow wooden frog that comes with a stick you clack across its back. For some reason I figured it was locally made. Label on the bottom: Made in Thailand. Uck no thanks, inauthentic! Had I been in Bangkok though, such a product of a local sweatshop would have been just the thing.

In short I think it's nearly impossible and maybe pointless to pick through the layers of the global economy in the search for "authentic" objects. And even more pointless to look for it in politicians who by nature must arrange themselves into configurations that the public can accept. How authentic is Ranchman Bush, or McCain and his "cabin"? The answer isn't that they are inauthentic, it's that to even imagine that authenticity can exist among such people, is absurd.

Republicans will of course attack Obama and his wife no matter how they behave, so hewing to some imaginary line of authenticity to avoid such attacks is pointless.

Et voilà, Inauthentic is the new authentic.

*Jay Severin is a goofy Boston talk show host whose buffoonery is chronicled here.

A speech for the ages, The Dark Ages

Hilary's vapid promise of everything for everybody is still reaping the plaudits of the msm and will be pilloried by talk radio today. I want to discuss what is, in our nation ancient history, the night before.

Ted Kennedy appeared before the faithful and gave maybe his last speech. I have dealt with the man and his illness before and see no need to here. Suffice it to say, the man could not put two words together on his own and has always been the creature of his staff.

The other night, he was ill served. Granted, I did not pay attention, the radio was background noise. What jarred me were the words, "To change America, to restore its future."

The lad or lass who wrote those words no doubt had a lot of high priced schooling. His mom and dad should get there money back. A future cannot be restored.

FDR said he never aimed a speech higher than the level of a thirteen year old. Aim high was not the motto the other night.

You never hear something like, "We are called to leave alone those who want to be left alone." Pity.

O Canada

Mr. Stephen Harper
Prime Minister
Dominion of Canada

Dear Mr. Harper,

I write in the spirit of brotherhood that exists between Canada and the United States. A CBC radio program that airs here in the states unintentionally embarassed your nation. I quote the offending segment aired on August 6 of 2008,

"DATELINE: HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS
Duration: 00:01:26

Dateline: Huntsville, TexasThe message to the international community was pretty clear. Don't mess with Texas.

Last week, As It Happens brought you the story of a Mexican death row inmate who was due to be executed within days. José Medellín was convicted in the rape and murder of two teenage girls - a conviction he never contested. Nevertheless, his case became something of an international cause célèbre. For although Mr Medellín was a Mexican national, it seems that he was never informed of his right to consular assistance. Foreigners were granted that right under the 1963 Vienna Convention - something to which both the U-S and Mexico are signatories.

Mr Medellín's lawyers and the Mexican government argued that his execution should be put off until a hearing could be held to determine whether or not his original trial was fair. And the International Court of Justice in the Hague agreed. The court ordered the United States not to execute Mr Medellín while it was reviewing his case. Even President Bush - who could not exactly be described as being soft on crime - urged Texas prosecutors to stay the execution and reopen the case.

But yesterday, the state's Republican governor, Rick Perry, offered his definitive response to their pleas. Jose Medellín died just before 10pm after being given a lethal injection. A spokesman for the governor said "the world court has no standing in Texas". For the sake of Americans living abroad, let's hope that the justice systems in other countries are more inclined to follow international law."

Is he saying that if an American commits kid murder in another country and they execute him, it will be a horrible injustice if he does not see the consul? Somehow, as dumbed down as many of my countrmen are, I hope they do not see this as a problem. Is he implying that law abiding US Americans (as Miss SC calls us) are now in trouble because other countries will rise up to avenge the noble Mr. Medellin? The implication of international barbarism is a slander on the rest of the world.

Really, Mr. Harper, tell the CBC to get a grip.

With brotherly love,

the voice of humility

Plus ça change, all over again

That stimulus check you got from the government got more than eaten up by inflation according to Marketwatch.

I'll be glad when the Dems win the White House and we can get some fiscal sanity.

Oh, wait. Isn't the O Man planning on a stimulus packages.

Change you can, oh never mind.

How Black People Became Irish

It is 1960 and morning at Parochial School. The normal orderly routine of prayer then lessons has been suspended. We are in celebration. An Irish Catholic American has been elected president. There has always been an undercurrent of "We are the better Americans, first to serve in war, yet not really accepted." Now, the validation.

Never mind that a Mick mayor and WASP Texan had done a bit of fancy footwork. That won't come out until it is irrelevant. Forget that Kennedy is not the rosary saying family man as portrayed. That also can wait till it does not matter. Nous sommes arrivé.

Sister Lucille, our teacher had been given a bit of tchotchkes as a gift. A little letter holder in the shape of a dachsund. Gushing, she told us that in celebration of the day, she would call it JFK.

Now, in 2008, in our current quadrennial search for a fuhrer, another ethnic group has their man in the battle for chief executive. And it is their man. They had plighted their troth to another family and it had been expected their support would descend on that pretender. The crown princess had been pandering for years. Yet, when someone entered the fray who bore at least superficial similarities, they abandoned their old patrons in a trice.

There is no praise high enough for Obama. The man is being likened to a deity. Yes, it's silly, but no sillier than JFKmania of my childhood. James Collier of the blog Acting White is pretty level headed even for someone who has an affinity for Nascar and weird bounty hunters, still extrapolates, "It may be that because he was born of two ancestries, one black, one white, he reached a harmony of the two that aides his leadership ability, and just maybe the country's too." Wow, the man is one with the gods. Hey, maybe he is right, maybe not.

When Kennedy won, we celebrated in the burbs, not inner city "Dawchestah"* where I was born. Our postwar dads had moved up a lot of ladders. Vatican II was making the Catholic Church into, "Unitarianism with a Pope."** Assimilation is complete enough to make the whole thing irrelevant.

So will an Obama election change things. Don't know. Is the Black American population on the verge of assimilation? Living in exurbia in self employed and under employed Swamp Yankeeness, I would not be able to say. It is over twenty years since I had any connection to an urban professional environment. People in professions tend to get along because the consequences of non cooperation are obvious. When I was mispending my youth and driving a cab, I would observe a sea of black faces and though not universally unfriendly, hardly palsy walsy. To be fair, in the old white neighborhoods, there was oft a left behind by life ambience. How much has changed?

I doubt the cleansing effect of an Obama presidency. Yeat's line at the beginning of Easter 1916, "Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart" may not have the same import as for Israel/Palestine, Sunni/Shia, or Hutu/Tutsi, but maybe it's close enough for government work.

If he wins, he has one thing going for him. Coming after GWB is not the hardest act to follow.


*English translation, Dorchester.

**D. Keith Mano