The Sentinel

Issue date: 9/24/08 Section: Commentary

Watching or listening to "The Messiah" (Barack Obama) address his "followers" (supporters) feels eerily similar to a cult leader's sermon, focused on rhetoric and talking points, not substance. But, it also conjures thoughts of the local uppity Starbucks or the torture of a Jonas Brothers song. Don't believe it? Consider this; next time you visit Starbucks ask your friends who complain about a $3.50 gallon of gas, but not a $4.00 double shot mocha, why they go to Starbucks. Most won't know. Is Starbuck coffee the best? No. Is the service extraordinary? Definitely not. Why then five days a week like a herd of sheep must they go to Starbucks and Starbucks only to get their caffeine fix? Well, because everyone else is. Even Starbucks itself caught up in the craze as comedian Lewis Black jokes, "There sits a Starbucks. And directly across the street in the exact same building as that Starbucks, there is another Starbucks. There is a Starbucks across the street from a Starbucks. And ladies and gentlemen, that is the end of the universe." Starbucks recently announced the closure of 600 stores. A brilliant corporation like Starbucks lost hundreds of millions of dollars by ignoring common sense. Why? Because everyone else woke up. It turned out many people looked at going to Starbucks as a fad. Kind of like supporting Barack Obama.

Now, I've never been to a Jonas Brothers concert and God willing that will never change. And I don't think you will find many people calling their music innovative or even good. Then why do they sell out concert after concert and sell millions of records? Well, first off what else do fourteen year old girls have better to do with their time, but that's beside the point. The Jonas Brothers, like Starbucks and Barack Obama are an entity. A carefully crafted image that's larger than life. No one at a Jonas Brothers concert cares that the music might suck; 15,000 other people are there so it must be good. They could rock out with an accordion, harmonica and triangle and the crowd would still go crazy.

It doesn't matter what the Jonas Brothers sound like and it doesn't seem to matter what Barack Obama actually says, they're above that now. Obama said this at a campaign stop in Oregon earlier this year, "Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states. I think one left to go? Alaska and Hawaii." Now I'm far from a fan of the current president, the former blow-sniffing bumbling idiot GW. That said can you imagine the outcry if Bush or half-man-half-dinosaur John McCain made such a stupid gaffe? I honestly feel like Obama could stand up at the Democratic National Convention and say, "This morning my fellow Americans, I put milk on my cereal. It was amazing. You should try it sometime too." The crowd would go into its usual frenzy and all the pundits afterword would congratulate Obama on such originality and amazing ideas. All I ask is next time you watch a Barack Obama rally don't be distracted by the designer suit, his actor worthy smile, the gigantic adoring crowd or a mainstream media in love. Listen to what the man actually says. Then you have two choices; compare notes with Karl Marx or create your own Obama drinking game. I leave the choice up to you.

Anthony Peoples is a junior majoring in World Economy & Business with a minor in Beer Pong. He actually likes OSU basketball as much as OSU football, and is apparently gay because he likes Coldplay. Reach him for comment at peoples.32@osu.edu

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