Vers de Barack

The first poem written below comes from Obama's high school in Hawai'i. The other two are from the Occidental Weekly, a publication of Occidental College in Los Angeles


OLD MAN

I saw an old forgotten man
On an old, forgotten road
staggering and numb
pulls out forgotten dignity from under his flaking coat,
And walks a straight line along the crooked world.


POP

Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken
In, sprinkled with ashes,
Pop switches channels, takes another
Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks
What to do with me, a green young man
Who fails to consider the
Flim and flam of the world, since
Things have been easy for me;
I stare hard at his face, a stare
That deflects off his brow;
I'm sure he's unaware of his
Dark, watery eyes, that
Glance in different directions,
And his slow, unwelcome twitches,
Fail to pass.
I listen, nod,
Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,
Beige T-shirt, yelling,
Yelling in his ears, that hang
With heavy lobes, but he's still telling
His joke, so I ask why
He's so unhappy, to which he replies...
But I don't care anymore, cause
He took too damn long, and from
Under my seat, I pull out the
Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,
Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face
To mine, as he grows small,
A spot in my brain, something
That may be squeezed out, like a
Watermelon seed between
Two fingers.
Pop takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine, and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem
He wrote before his mother died,
Stands, shouts, and asks
For a hug, as I shink, my
Arms barely reaching around
His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; 'cause
I see my face, framed within
Pop's black-framed glasses
And know he's laughing too.

UNDERGROUND

Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs.
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch.
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water,
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.

Big online support, but how effective?

Skeptics of Barack Obama's online popularity ask repeatedly whether the phenomenon will translate into real world votes.

It's one thing, they say, to get people to add the senator as a friend on MySpace and another to generate votes for a candidate.

To Barack's credit, not only can he draw the crowds online but he gets them to show up at his live events. Any politically-savvy person will tell you that's no small thing. Many rallies, even for high-profile offices like this, are packed with inside people -- political aides, lobbyists, etc.

However, it's not difficult to see how a smaller group of experienced politcal backers can outwork a much larger mass of supporters consisting largely of people who've never been involved in politics before.

In a self-organizing scenario, you will have many disparate local groups of people spending time and energy reinventing the wheel just to get up and running.

Without a lot of self-starters and direction from the center they may be minimally engaged and active early on, while the "pros" are already doing focused work identifying supporters, persuading swing voters, setting up get-out-the-vote, etc.

When the novices do activate, the approach may be unfocused most of the time, and they may not hit many of the voters they should be targeting. It's like scoring only one of 1o jump shots, while you're opponent may be sinking 50 percent.

However, at the same time one can't discount the euphoria of stardom. We've seen many times how a first-time candidate Hollywood celebrity can enter the political world and wipe out established campaign machines.

Old-fashioned canvassing and even paid tv campaigns are no match for the viral qualities of true stardom.

While no one doubts Obama's star qualities, there are still many people who don't know him. His supporter's challenge is presenting their candidate to these people.

One good thing about a mass of grassroots support is you can activate it many times, while you can generally spend any quantity of money only once. Obama supporters need to reactivate themselves repeatedly over the whole primary season.

They need to master the art of publicity -- the conduit of their candidate's star appeal -- but at the same time they must learn how to identify and focus on targeted voters particularly those who are undecided going into the latter weeks before election day.

Fund not sun for Obama in South Florida

Candidate Barack Obama lamented his staff's refusal to allow him a round of golf or some beach time in South Florida during his fundraising visit there Sunday.

"Every time I come to Florida, I meet wonderful people and have a wonderful time, and it's always too short," he said. "I keep on thinking that I should be able to bring my golf clubs down and my swimming trunks and somehow my staff doesn't let me do that."

Obama is expected to attend a series of fundraising events in South Florida including some in swank private homes.

Barack leads Thompson who leads Hillary

A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that potential Republican candidate Fred Thompson slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton by 44 to 43 percent (statistical tie).

However, Barack Obama clearly leads Thompson by 49 to 37 percent.

Grassroots support vs. Machine money

Barack Obama refuses to accept funds from lobbyists and political action committees -- two traditionally strong political contributors. The decision was part of Obama's campaign to bring a new politic to Washington.

Instead, Obama depends on grassroots action -- volunteer time and work -- to offset the loss in hard cash. To be sure, Barack has his share of wealthy donors, but these are mostly considered "outsiders." More likely most of Obama's funds will consist of a large number of relatively small donations similar to the pattern seen in the Howard Dean campaign.

For the Obama campaign, one of the big challenges will be to leverage the huge popular support of their candidate in ways other than simple cash donations. Many of the senator's supporters are too young to offer much monetary help, but they can work if provided enough bottled water.

Organizing the throngs of Obamaites is now mostly a do-it-yourself thing and will remain so until later in the campaign when the voters are thinking about their choices.

at official barackobama.com website

Hillary targets MySpace

From the looks of her website, Hillary Clinton might be focusing on the slightly older MySpace crowd while conceding the younger Facebook and YouTube sites to Barack Obama.

The voting profile of MySpace users probably looks better and she's not so far behind on that site although Barack's MySpace page still leads her in friends by more than 10 to 1.

More into Obama's youth

Barack Obama's childhood and teenage years continues to fascinate people, and is the subject of intense research by journalists, friends and foes.

The latest exploration of this subject: The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth in the Chicago Tribune, delves into Obama's possible fuzzy memories of the past and has many new pictures in the accompanying slide show.

Photos from the Chicago Tribune


Obama with mother Ann and grandfather
Stanley. His half-sister Maya can be seen
between Obama and his grandfather.



Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng teaching class at the Univ. of
Hawai'i.


Obama is hugged by his grandmother Madelyn during high school graduation c
ceremonies. His grandfather is at right.



Ann Dunham with her second husband, Lolo Soetoro, Maya and Barack.


Barack Obama Sr. during his only visit to his son while growing up in Hawai'i.



Barack with sister Maya during high school
graduation.