<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UIMcctTU2YQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UIMcctTU2YQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Barack Needs to Get Dangerous
for release 03-02-08
Dallas, Texas
by Lighting Rod
If Senator Obama wants to assume the mantle of John Kennedy, he needs to display the danger of genius. What he needs is a little cachet of scandal. He's too squeaky clean. He needs to have some financial improprieties, extra-marital affairs or something.
Most modern presidents who have enjoyed great popularity have had extra-marital affairs. Roosevelt had a mistress. So did Eisenhower and he wasn't even a democrat. Kennedy had notorious peccadilloes. There were women in Lyndon Johnson's life who didn't have 'bird' in their names. Clinton was living out his JFK fantasies with Monica and the Cuban cigar. Americans prefer a leader with a healthy sex drive. It demonstrates power.
Even John McCain got a boost in the polls when the story broke about his involvement with the pretty lobbyist. It said, "There's still some life in the old man."
It's hard to discount the power of sex appeal in almost any area of life, school, business, careers and politics. It's equally difficult to put your finger on exactly what makes sex appeal. Sure, there are the obvious things, good looks, intelligence, humor, prowess. But The Poet's Eye also sees that one of the ingredients in the recipe for sexiness is imperfection. Consider Marilyn's mole.
When John Kennedy ran for president he carried a bag of heavy wrenches. He was a Catholic. He was from a rich and privileged family and had a playboy image. He had little experience. But he had presence, was an inspiring speaker and he was sexy.
Barack O'bama is such a gifted speaker that if he added an apostrophe to his name he could convince you that he was Irish. But he's too perfect. To be a real rock star, he needs to be a closet queer or have a crack habit. Something. He needs an imperfection, a beauty mark.
If the 1960 election had been determined on the basis of the experience of the candidates, Nixon would have won hands down. He was vastly more experienced than Kennedy. But in that election, the American people chose not on the basis of experience, they chose on the basis of hope and inspiration and the risks and possibilities of change. And sexiness.
Barack has a native sexiness and he speaks the same JFK message of change and hope and inspiration. But The Poet's Eye wants to see a little more of the bad boy. Sure, Barack busted a move on the Ellen show the other day but it was slightly reminiscent of white boys trying to break dance. Get naughty, Barack. You will be a shoo-in if you do.
I and mine do not convince by arguments, similes, rhymes;
We convince by our presence.
--Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman.
