The last 8 years have been disastrous. No one can argue against that. Saying all politicians are flawed is not a lazy way to deny differences, but rather a statement that all human beings are flawed. NO ONE IS PERFECT. And human beings who are in the public eye and get scrutinized at every turn can look even more flawed. Of course there are differences between politicians…just like there are differences between all people.

As for the notion that all politicians are equally corrupt or flawed or likely to screw up — that’s always struck me as a facile and lazy way to avoid dealing with the fact that there are genuine differences between politicians. It’s appalling that anyone who’s lived through the last eight years could actually say such a thing with a straight face.

Seriously, has any other President-Elect been put on a comic cover or had a batch of Topps trading cards of them made (and I say President-Elect to convey the fact that he hasn’t even taken office yet; it’d be another thing to have actually already accomplished great things in office).

It’s just disgusting when we start treating politicians and government leaders like celebrities (and this doesn’t just apply to Obama for me, it was just as bad when Palin and Clinton were getting that treatment); at the end of the day they are just politicians with real responsibilities who are still supposed to be held accountable. I understand that his being elected is a huge precedent and very inspiring based on the last eight years that we’ve had to endure, but I hope the spotlight on him won’t cloud our judgment of his actions. That being said, I look forward to the next four (and undoubtably eight) years. Oh, and that clerk is just a dick.

Mightygodking and Scott. I think I wasn’t clear now…it’s not all the media attention Obama is getting that can be infuriating, but rather just the people who are hailing him as the next Messiah. I don’t mean CNN or anything…I mean much lower level…I guess I shouldn’t have used the word ‘media’ because that implies certain things I didn’t mean. As someone embedded in the political world, every day I hear people talking about how Obama is going to ‘save us all’ like he’s some kind of superhero. When you hear this every day, you can get a little spiteful, even if you really like the man like I do.

I’m not arguing that this clerk wasn’t racist (he obviously is), I was just trying to say that criticism of Obama is not necessarily a racist rant. This was a racist rant, so really, the point is kind of dead. But I hope it’s understood that people can not like Obama and not be racist, right?

In addition to mightygodking’s entirely correct “He’s the President-Elect!” may I also point out that, after the past eight years of conservative worship of George W. Bush, with accompanying declarations that anyone who doesn’t agree with Bush’s policies, is guilty of actual treason… Well, I’m not really a bit sympathetic to anyone who whines that Obama is getting favorable attention from anyone.

His initial complaints about Obama seemed to me to be based on the amount of attention he’s getting in the media.

He’s the President-elect, for fuck’s sake. He’s going to be pushing huge legislative initiatives practically from day one. He’s newsworthy. And given how the press have jumped on content-free “scandals” like Obama’s non-connection to Rod Blagojevich, quite obviously hoping to find something to jump him with, any suggestion that he’s getting entirely worshipful attention is not only misguided but outright ignorant.

I didn’t get that out of this. His initial complaints about Obama seemed to me to be based on the amount of attention he’s getting in the media. There are people who are still hailing this man as the second coming of Jesus, and while Obama seems like an honest man, he is a flawed human being and he is just as likely to mess up as every other president we’ve ever had. I mean, this is stuff that’s even getting on my nerves…and I know I haven’t been immune to having thoughts of him fucking up badly just to shut everyone up…but I also know that these aren’t racist thoughts. It has nothing to do with the color of his skin, nor his religion, nor his political party, nor his state of birth nor anything about him…it’s just due to the media’s reaction to him.

I guess that’s how I would be able to read the first half the other way. But this is all moot anyway, because this clerk was obviously racist, and his initial rant was just a racist argument in disguise…but I wouldn’t have assumed that until the end.