Boom Dizzle endorses Obama, FTB follows suit.
It’s official, Fear the Beard is endorsing Barack Obama. We said it. We meant it. His campaign for the presidency. Endorsing it. Of course, we also believe in due diligence, so over the coming months we will explore the shallow end of the politik-slash-wonk sphere to bolster this positioning. But for now the reason for our endorsement can be justified by a chain of events that unfolded a few days back, down on the Peninsula, in the netherworld of moneyed-class interchange that exists in the hills south of San Francisco proper.
Earlier this month, at a fundraiser co-hosted by Warriors part owner and Symantec chairman John Thompson at his Woodside home, Baron Davis announced his support of the Obama campaign with a simple gesture: he presented Barack with a Dubs jersey bearing his name and the year ’08. You know there’s much more. And you know you want to click through to read it. Do it. Click.
This alone is sufficient for the collective membership of the Beard to register our support for the Obama candidacy. But—as there always is—there is more. The event was championed by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Berkeley resident Michael Chabon and his wife, author Ayelet Waldman. As reported in various news outlets, an e-mail circulated by Chabon and Waldman stated that an Obama presidency, “would repair the incalculable damage the Bush cabal has done to our country and to our reputation in the world…Talk about shock and awe—imagine the signal it would send to the traumatized, impoverished, alienated people of the world (of Africa, of the Middle East) if the face of our country was President Barack Obama.”
With Baron on board it was a no brainer. But Chabon? We been diggin’ us some Chabon for a while. Kavalier and Clay was major, and the Beard’s book club auxiliary is about to dig into The Yiddish Policemen’s Union with straight vigor. Sadly, we beards aren’t cashed up enough to be on the A-list for these calls to arms yet, but mark my words: by the time polling day comes ‘round we shall unleash a bearded army on Barack’s behalf. And we’ll see you in Woodside on the four-more-years tip in 2012 too. Believe.
In victory,
Daniel Turman
Youth Radio reports on Obama in Oakland:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddyag2zhEic
Comment by guthriedolin | 06.17.2007 | 10:45 am
howdy. i trickled over here from GSOM [http://www.goldenstateofmind.com]. like the political consciousness of this site.
wanted to raise a couple of questions about obama. i like his facilitation skills, his 21st century consciousness, his commitment to a more positive path for this country. i am concerned about his opportunism, or seeming opportunism.
for example, supporting the wall with mexico:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/176290,CST-EDT-REF18.article
or his hawkish approach to middle east politics, and his support for the USA PATRIOT act:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ali_abunimah_/2007/03/how_barack_obama_learned_to_lo.html
that is not to say hillary would be better on these issues (she wouldn’t) or that i am against obama (i am more diffident than anything). but he isn’t the savior, either, and he might not even be progressive.
Comment by mike d | 06.18.2007 | 1:48 pm
As a jaded progressive, I’m all for a candidate that can bridge the gap between my desire for bona-fide change and the status quo. In any way that qualifies as meaningful. Unfortunately, this tends to be a reductive equation, which (at best) affords us the single-issue solidarity that the right regularly enjoys. At worst, this leaves us looking fractured and inconclusive or wafflelicious in the face of unified opposition. There are simply too many platforms to endorse. Barack is the best possible option right now. At least for the bearded. Until further notice.
Comment by admin | 06.18.2007 | 11:34 pm
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