Obamalysis

Tonight Clare Hall held an informal lecture called "President Barack Obama: Politics, Poetry and Prose," advertised as a textual analysis of Obama's speeches and books in the context of "American political rhetoric" in general. Intrigued by a scholarly "Obamalysis" (my pun :) ) when Obama hasn't even really had time to do anything analyzable yet, I left my study buddies in the library and went to the lecture.

It was PACKED. Maybe 40 people in our little common room. No seats left. Remember that Clare Hall is a tiny community of overworked graduate students and professors with small children- we are notorious for not showing up to events. Someone teased the speaker by saying "Well, Mike, it couldn't have been you who brought the crowds... it must have been Obama."

Perched on a squeaky bar stool in the sweaty room full of people dying for the speech to end so they could discuss international politics, I was swept away by the speech. The speaker read lines from famous American presidential speeches to help define the genre and the "American dream" and our "recurring values" for the very international audience. He read from Obama's major speeches, identifying "Obama themes" of hope and modest background and hard work and equality.

And the speaker, a white-haired British scholar of "American studies" in a 3-piece khaki suit surrounded by a crowded and fidgety audience, got choked up. Reading the words of presidents of a country and eras that are not his, from Washington to Lincoln to Monroe to Kennedy to Clinton to Obama, he had to pause to keep his voice from breaking.

And I got why. I almost lost it myself when he spoke of "a frosty morning, on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, Obama compared himself with another 'young, skinny lawyer from Illinois' and announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination."
Sean and me on that frosty morning in Springfield

I miss Obama. After months of the pre- and post-nomination debates, his face and voice on the news every hour, his future plans discussed from November to January, his inauduration, his 100 Days... I miss the guy. Yeah, he's all over the news websites, but I still actively look forward to his Sunday podcasts. They are only 5 minutes long, about whatever topic is big in the news that week, but his soaring rhetoric and emphatic voice transport me back to a country that he and I have great hopes for.

Earlier today, my British friend was complaining about the current well-publicized fraud among British politicians who are spending taxpayers' money on personal expenses (sound familiar?), and she was disgusted and frustrated and embarrassed for her government (sound familiar??), and she said, "We need an Obama."
Right on.