It was real
The Mrs. and I stumbled across "The Way I See It" on cable last night, quite by accident. On its face, it's a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza and his eight years with Obama. There's a little bit devoted to Souza's time photographing Reagan as well.
Obama did a damned good job as President, as can be seen in Souza's classic images. But the real point seems to be for the viewer to contrast this with the sociopathic idiot who took over when Obama and Souza left the building. Below the surface, ever so close to the surface, the film is a stinging indictment of the current President. Hence its playback on MSNBC last night.
Anyway, it's gorgeous. You'll laugh, you'll cry. And unless you're a fool, you'll feel some serious nostalgia.
As a professional comedy writer I always watched the White House Correspondents Dinner for the comedy. Some years I had a legitimate chance of having a joke in the program, but the closest I came was in USA Today when they asked Leno what kind of thing he might say at the dinner and he used my joke. In a setting like that President Obama killed. He was absolutely brilliant in his comedic delivery and his material - provided I believe by some SNL writers - was strong. One year though Seth Meyers zinged him and for me it was a bittersweet joke that captured the entire Obama presidency. Seth turned to the President seated around 10 feet away and said, "You should have met Candidate Obama. You would have loved him."
ReplyDeleteBack toward the end of the tragic Bush/Cheney administration, Candidate Obama came along and he was spectacular. I had that cable access show called "Born to Slack" with the late great James Shibley and I used it to get press credentials so I could set up my high def Canon video camera on the riser directly in front of the stage. I got the candidate's appearance at the relatively small room at the convention center in the beginning of the campaign, and much later I got still shots from a general admission seat at Memorial Coliseum, but the highlight of the whole thing was being on the press riser for the incredible rally at Waterfront Park that drew 70,000. That was the moment everything seemed possible. Michelle and the kids were there and then Barack dropped the speech. Afterwards they played Stevie Wonder's recording of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" blaring from the loudspeakers. It worked perfectly especially starting with the line "Like a fool I went and stayed too long." The man even showed a great sense of humor.
I wasn't as thrilled when Hope and Change turned into the same old, same old with our foreign policy destroying Libya and Syria and firing drones at little kids half a world away. If memory serves at one point we were bombing 7 different countries at once. But that severe disappointment was yet to come and for that day on the Waterfront everything was perfect. George W. Bush and his handler Cheney were going to leave and this person in front of us was probably going to take over. That was enough to generate some real joy right there. The line to get into the rally wound through downtown for blocks and blocks. It was at the time, the biggest crowd Barack Obama had ever drawn if memory serves. What an exhilarating feeling. We had been waiting for years for America to self-correct and here was our chance. Unfortunately we're still waiting. Sigh. Anyway.....this is what I get seriously nostalgic for with the Obama Years.
Too bad he had to deal so long with a Republican Congress that only wanted to lower taxes for the rich and not help the average American in any way. If Obama had a Democratic senate for eight years, Garland would be on the court, too.
DeleteThat may be true but before it was over people were referring to Obama's foreign policy as the third term of George W. Bush. I was hoping for a step back from our military adventures and I still am. I believe the greatest threat to America's financial solvency is our out of control military empire - the vaunted military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about. At one point our "defense" budget was bigger than the defense budgets of the rest of the world combined. Whenever someone comes along to challenge this - someone like my candidate Tulsi Gabbard - they are pummeled into submission. Hillary started calling Tulsi a Russian asset complete with a handler from the Kremlin. By the way, Tulsi is someone who served in Iraq. Hillary was despicable. If you're keeping score the Russian assets are now Trump, Giuliani, Tulsi and the computer repair guy who took in Hunter Biden's computers. Anyone see a pattern? Meanwhile I'm beginning to think Joe Biden is a Russian asset sent here to hurt Joe Biden. No wait, he would be an asset of China.
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