Barack Obama spoke at a fundraiser at my neighbor’s house last week, and my other mother decided that she had already seen enough of him in the city last time around, allowing me to take her spot and tag along with “the crutched one” to the event (Joan is still on crutches from her ACL surgery). I was very pleased to hear I would not have to serve mushroom caps and smoked chicken tartlettes as a way to see him speak again.
With a few hours until the event, I decided to put my boredom to good use. I remembered that guests at the last event were given the opportunity to ask Senator Obama questions. Most of the questions asked seemed to only interest the guest asking them, or could easily be answered by opening a news paper or visiting a website, so I decided to formulate a question that I thought had not been asked to the Senator before.
I’m not sure why he didn’t end up calling on me. I would like to say that he was ageist in some way, and that he patronizingly ignored my hand, but I’m sure that it was just a fluke, and had more to do with luck than the disproportionate lack of wrinkles on my face compared to the other guests raising their hands.
After his remarks, I ended up speaking to him very briefly. I’m sure I totally embarrassed myself – after he walked away I realized just how awkwardly, serial-killer-style-wide I was smiling and that while we were speaking, I had actually been rubbing his hands with mine. I’m still not sure why I did this (I swear, there is no Monica in my blood, Ms. Obama), but I think it had to do with my nerves, as well as how surprisingly soft his hands were. In all seriousness, I would be very interested to know what lotion he uses.
While I did not get to pose it directly to Senator Obama, I decided not to throw my question away. So, I will ask each of you:
2008 will be my first election, and I feel that it will be an election filled with firsts. The contrast in the diversity between the Democratic candidates and the Republican candidates is jaw dropping. However, I believe that there are still a lot of racial and gender based prejudice in this country. And given current events, I believe that if Don Imus had simply called the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “hoes”, he would still have his job. I believe the country as a whole has made tremendous efforts to battle racism, but I think it can be easier to get away with sexism in today’s world.
What do you think:
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