Op-Ed: Obama-mania both inspiring and nauseating

Another day for the ages. Another one, you ask? Well yes, for you see, we recently had one when Barack Obama defeated Hilary Clinton and so became the first ever African American to lead one of the major parties in a bid for the White House. Then we had another one when he inevitably defeated the hapless John McCain back on the first Tuesday of November. At long last, the trilogy was concluded today with Mr. Obama's inauguration as President of the United States, and it is finally time to get on with the business of existing in this dreadful old world. But oh what an exciting and inspiring few months it has been. In the midst of anemic economic times, various wars abroad, and trying to deal with a planet that seems to be on the verge of rejecting us like a bad kidney, something happened to awaken our comatose optimism and faith in social progress. How long it will be before we lapse back into the nihilistic gluttony that is our nature is another story, but for now, there is no shame in surrendering ourselves to the moment, in being joyful and reflective, and in trying to absorb all that we can from this momentous occasion - no, there is no shame at all, though if media coverage is any indication, there is quite a bit of stupidity and bombastic sentimentality about the whole thing. If it wasn't at all predictable, I'd be tempted to give the media a mulligan on their treatment of Obama-mania (I'm resisting the temptation to go with 'Obahmadan'; too early for bad taste, I guess). But from a mile away, anyone could see that on this day, the media was going to douse the proceedings with distilled schmaltz and open up an all out assault on our intelligence by unleashing their 'correspondents', whose sole mandate is to at all times be saying something - anything - lest the public start forming their own thoughts and cultivating their own emotions. It was strangely reminiscent of the coverage of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, when sombre music played in the background to make sure nobody got confused or forgot to feel sad (or worse, just didn't care). It would be an overly ambitious task to go through all of the ridiculous things that were spouted on TV and radio throughout the day, but I will cite a couple of examples. On CNN, Wolf Blitzer (or some other of their talking haircuts) tried to earn his salary by offering his thoughts on the apparently unprecedented phenomenon of the new President escorting the old President to the helicopter that was to take him away from Washington for good. To paraphrase, he said, with a tone of nauseating importance, that while Obama disagrees with a lot of George Bush's principles and policies, he nevertheless has a lot of respect for his predecessor. Is CNN's audience really that naive? Does anyone believe that Obama has any respect or admiration for Bush whatsoever? Like almost everyone else in the world, Obama probably thinks Bush is halfwit who, much like a boy pushed into the girls bathroom, was coerced into the oval office by his friends for their own benefit. In fact, he was probably walking him to the helicopter to make sure he didn't get lost and also to slip the pilot an extra hundred so that he would get him out of their in a hurry. Earlier, on a radio call-in show, the host was asking his loyal listeners to share any personal stories they might have that relate to this historic occasion. One of the callers passively spouted something about how wonderfully multicultural and tolerant we Canadians are. Rather than provide his listeners with a reality check, the host seized upon this bit of ignorance and said, and again I'm paraphrasing, "Isn't it nice that the Americans are following our lead for a change?" Following our lead? So every Canadian Prime Minister ever elected hasn't been a white male? I am not suggesting that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves, and that we wouldn't elect a minority Prime Minister, but technically, if we were to elect one in the coming years, wouldn't we be following their lead? Furthermore, do we not have our own demons? Is our inferiority complex so prevalent that we can overlook our own history of racism towards Natives, the Japanese, and yes, even Blacks? Apparently so (who am I kidding, we do it all the time). But in spite of the excessive inanity, this truly has been a special day. For once, an encouraging precedent has been set. But on top of that, Barack Obama actually seems like a politician with an inclination to do something good. He could prove us all wrong, but a lot of us have a really good feeling about this guy, and it is not just because he's black. So remember this day fondly; I only hope that the media coverage didn't ruin it for you. ******************************************************************* Some interesting trivia to pass your way. Watching Barack Obama signing his name with his left hand piqued my own left-handed curiosity. In fact, I couldn't wait to get home and find out if Obama is, on top of being the first ever Black President of the United States, also the first ever left-handed President of the United States. And after about three seconds of intrepid googling, I discovered something even more astounding: Barack Obama is not the first southpawed President, but the eighth. Interestingly, 'the button' was pushed by a finger on Harry Truman's left hand, who was the third lefty Commander in Chief after James A. Garfield and Herbert Hoover. But what is astounding is the fact that of the last six Presidents from Gerald Ford up to Barack Obama, only George W. Bush was right handed. You can draw your own conclusions about that. Oh, and in case you're wondering if any overly proud lefties out there voted for Obama merely as an expression of sinister solidarity, worry not, for John McCain is also left-handed.