As I returned home from my morning stroll I noticed that the gender non-specific postal delivery person had come unusually early. I grabbed the pile of mail and headed inside. The most obvious item that had been delivered was the Winter issue of Venus magazine, having finally arrived after what I thought was an obscenely long time from its release date. However, as I flicked through the other mail I came across another letter addressed to me that looked intriguing. I quickly ripped open the envelope and pulled out the contents. There was just a single sheet of A4 paper carrying the official letterhead of the Obama presidential campaign. There was a brief hand-written message, it simply read:
Feeling blue. Need you here.I guess after the high of winning the Iowa caucuses, the disappointment of not being able to capitalise on that momentum in the New Hampshire primary must have hit him pretty hard. Barack gets disappointed very easily. For someone who has been a wonderful success for most of his life, on the rare occasions when things don't happen so favourably for him he tends to find it difficult. When he gets like this there's only one thing that can cheer him up. So I packed up my guitar and jumped on the first available flight to the States.
- Love, B.
Barack has always greatly encouraged me in all of my musical endeavours, not just as a fan of my art, but as a logistical and emotional supporter of me and my bands as well. He provided legal advise when my militantly-vegan Swedish electro-pop band, Jag Älska Grönsaker, were being sued by some band called The Smiths over the use of the album title Meat Is Murder. He came up to Montreal and nursed me back to health when I was severely beaten by a gang of Québécois nationalists after coming off-stage at a Québec City arts festival with my pro-federalist Canadian rap group, Reste Ensemble. And he offered me much need counselling when strained relationships and cultural misunderstandings forced the break-up of my multi-ethnic barbershop quartet, Racial Harmony.
Barack and I have a unbreakable friendship, we've been through some tough times together and forged a deep emotional bond. However, I feel that I haven't been able to fully reciprocate the support he has given me and the faith he has shown in me over the years. Because of this I now felt that it was extremely important that I rectified this situation. I needed to show the man just how much he means to me. I haven't had much of an involvement in the Obama presidential campaign up until now and so I decided it was about time I started to contribute, and contribute in a way that would have the most impact; through my music.
After arriving in LA, I got a transfer flight to Las Vegas. Barack was doing some last minute campaigning in the city before the Nevada caucuses. With the time difference from Melbourne I was able to arrive the morning of the vote. I resisted the temptation to play the tables and instead went straight up to Barack's hotel room. It was 9am on morning and he was still in bed. He was having some severe self-doubt and feeling a general malaise. As soon as I saw him I knew there wasn't going to be any time for small talk. I immediately pulled out my guitar and started to play. I decided to play him some of my newer material, and although I was sure he would love the fey summertime pop of the songs I'd written for The Emergency Kisses, I thought it would be best to give him something a bit edgier to suck on, really try and jerk him out of his stupor.
So I launched myself into an acoustic version of Faggot's paean to grassroots anarchism, There's More Than Two Ways to Disrupt Local Council Elections. I was hoping that the politically potent lyrics, with the passionately repeated refrain of "The administration needs modification!", would reanimated his political zeal and inspire him to get up out of bed and recommit himself to the campaign.
I gave all I could to the performance. Even with Barack having the air-conditioning up quite high in the room I still broke a sweat. As I strummed the final dramatic chord, a huge smile came across his face and he sat up in the bed. "You still it got it", he said. "Yeah, I still got it", I replied, "But more importantly did I bring it back for you?". He didn't reply directly, but got up out of the bed and walked towards the window. A small slither of sunlight hit the side of his right butt-cheek causing it to glisten and enhance the splendor of his naked physique. He turned and faced me directly, his grin was still as wide as the rich/poor divide, and he bellowed "Obama needs to tell Nevada what time it is!" And with that we were straight back into how we used to riff in the old days. Bouncing political themes and ideas off each other, looking for the most potent message to deliver the voters. Both of us have had reputations in our time for being ferocious political debaters and people not afraid to express ourselves. As a result our dialogue was far from polite, however, we both understood that this was necessary in order to bring out the most compelling and dynamic arguments.
After about half an hour of discussion Barack felt that he didn't have a local issue to match Hilary Clinton's vocal opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and this might lose him some support with the more committed local activists. Whilst I agreed that this was an issue that Clinton has able to capitalise on in Nevada, I mentioned to Barack that it was important not to lose sight of the bigger picture. The country is willing to give Iowa and New Hampshire their fifteen minutes in the spotlight, I said, but by the time the process reaches Nevada and South Carolina they become tired of the regional pandering. I told him that he doesn't want to risk alienating voters in the rest of the country this close to Super-Duper Tuesday. Because of this it would be best of focus on issues of national significance. These are, after all, issues that effect residents of Nevada as well. Furthermore, I continued, a loss in Nevada isn't that devastating if it wins you respect in the big states. I added that he has got Illinois wrapped up, New York might be a push, but California, Texas and Florida are all easily winnable for him.
As Barack put some clothes on in order to go shake some hands and speak directly to the people of Nevada before the caucuses meet, I decided to get a few hours rest having not slept since leaving Melbourne. I told Barack that I would catch up with him later in the afternoon and we will discuss whether he'll need me to stick around for South Carolina. I have some pressing issues back in Melbourne, but I want to contribute to the campaign as much as possible. I suspect Barack will want to wait and see how the result turns out in Nevada before requesting my further assistance.
No comments:
Post a Comment