The BAG Prepares For The Second Coming (Of Obama-Mania)

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Back in the cold of January, when Alan Chin was up in New Hampshire shooting for TheBAG, he and I had absolutely no clue whether, come fall, the Obama story -- still electrified at that moment by the post-Iowa buzz -- was going to play out more like this or this.

Fast forward two months, and Alan (having spent another overnight on the lip of the Ohio primary, developing film) sends me the shot above as part of a basket of pictures.  Of course, I dismissed it immediately.  "And what didn't you like about the Kennedy-esque one?" Alan asked the next morning from a roadside Bob's Big Boy somewhere, I think, between Columbus and Cleveland.  And in phrasing it that way, he pegged the source of my problem, knowing that, as dramatic an image as he had recorded, it in no way reflected how a struggling Team Obama had given up the pep rally in favor of the townhall.  (And so, this is the "more representative" pic I went with.)

But today, today.

Today, just 24 hours after the results from Indiana and North Carolina, at the moment at which the Democratic race apparently reached its tipping point, I saw as quick and dramatic a flip in the visual tone as I've ever seen before.  For the past few week, Obama has been largely portrayed in tandem with his controversial former pastor, or with not the friendliest looking white blue-collar workers, or standing alone on both the literal and metaphorical "other side of the tracks."  Looking at the images flying off the wire the past few hours, however, it seems suddenly like none of those other moments and picture were ever made.

So, before turning the focus to the return of Obama-mania and the visual media's tilt-on-the-dime purification, glorification and idolization of the man who just a few days ago was fighting the shadows, I felt (although it's hardly a digitally-appropriate description) like dusting off that Ohio image.

Our Man in Ohio (March 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)
Our Man in New Hampshire (January 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)

(image: ©Alan Chin. Westerville, Ohio, outside Columbus. March 2, 2008.  Used by permission)

Comments

[Cactus]

I have the feeling that Obama is a much more complicated person than the media is willing to admit, for that would mean they would have to work to understand him. I keep thinking of Whitman's "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself." Not one to shy from his ego, he went on to write, "I am large, I contain multitudes." Obama seems unconcerned what the media think of him, whether he wears a flag pin or bowls a 37. He will do what he will do and methinks he somewhat enjoys a bit of toying with them. If he wants some quiet time, he will take some quiet time and the media can call it what they will.

I am partial to this shot over the one from March in which he looks separate and isolated, while surrounded by the crowd. This one is more intimate. The shot (telephoto?) makes the crowd look closer, more engaged. And he's engaging with the crowd in a more or less informal way.

[black dog barking]

Out of many, one: e pluribus unum.

The graceful light that catches the candidate's edges, lifts his figure from the mass is subtle. It's what I really like about this image — the difference between candidate and crowd is ethereal and fine.

For most of my life I've misread our national motto. The "one" in Chin's photo is not the candidate, it is everyone. Unum as in unite as in United States.

[Books Alive]

A printout of the transcript for Bill Moyers Journal for May 2 combines the BAG's consideration of the media's handling of the candidates, with its flips in actual and visual tone, and Cactus' verbal pictures from Walt Whitman. Moyers ends this column on Southern black preachers whom he has known, and the travails of Obama and his relationship to such a preacher, by musing that "All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said 'beware the terrible simplifiers.'"

What is most despicable to me is the amount of deliberate distortion presented by anchors and "guests" on the cable news that I watch. Obama's interview yesterday was parceled out over the afternoon, which has been done previously. Even that moderate, low-key interview was mined for whatever controversy could be found in his statements.

[Megalomania]

Many argue that caucuses are less democratic because not as many people can go to the caucus or know the rules. Here, the Mainstream Media know it and is currently exploiting the issue to the max. First lines Journalist are leading the electorate and the public into a massive confusion on the delegate process.

Talk about deliberate misinformation, get this, Voters expect a pledged delegate to vote for the candidate represented in the primary election or caucus; the pledged delegate is not required to do so. So, all this pledging is bullshit till the convention.

Worse, a super delegate is not pledged to any candidate at any time in the nominating process. He can change his preference for one candidate or the other at any time. Did you get that!! Hello, a super delegate can change at any time.

Here is the kicker not reported candidates can use any legal means at their disposal to persuade super delegates to vote for them; for example, they can, and do, give thousands of dollars to super delegates to support them. Did you get that? Here I truly am a rookie at this and there are a lot of real Journalist out there that don’t talk about this part at all.

Well folks here it is our true to freedom liberty first line Journalist knew it and don’t bother to tell you folks.

Barack Hussein Obama has a lot of cool cash to buy those votes don’t you think? If I was a super delegate I would hold out to the end to get the best price don’t you think? Actually if you read about Obama’s political history in Illinois you will find out he is well connected to the mob of the Syrian born Rezko who seemed to be able to come up with cash from Iraqi and Iranian billionaires. Likely your tax money anyway.