So, I've been reading over 250 pages of Martin Gelin's "The American Promise" since I last wrote about it. Quite a bit to cover, but I will make an attempt.
When writing on Obama and public speeches, it is interesting to note that Gelin often makes comparisons to Baptist ministers, as a resemblance in style and how to address a crowd. It especially caught his eye (or ear) when he attended a ceremony, which started sound a lot like an Obama-rally. Obviously the two influenced each other, creating a movement among African-Americans; a political mobilization among this minority probably never witnessed before in American history.
One other interesting note was the one that Gelin makes on the styles of campaigning, where both Hillary Clinton and John McCain used negative campaigning and smear-tactics against Obama, which seemed to have been successful for neither of them.
I will come back to Gelin's notes and thoughts on America, the most interesting part in the book I believe, at a later stage. I will just leave with an entertaining story on David Axelrod, the chief strategist of the Obama-campaign, who is devoted an own chapter. To Gelin, Axelrod is anything but the traditional political strategist; he "wasn't very terrifying. He had a mild voice and a timid aura. His gaze seemed chronically a little sad, like a dog who had just been left home alone. Cheeks kind of puffy, like he just woke up." Axelrod also surprises by showing an incredible sense of self-distance, saying that his mother used to tell him "I looked like an unmade bed". Terrific sense of humor, among a lot of serosity that was the Obama-campaign.
Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Humor. Show all posts
Friday, May 28, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
Martin Gelin's America, part II
Though I have yet to continue reading Martin Gelin's odyssey through Barack Obama's America, I remember two quite different things from the first 60 pages of the book that I forgot to report yesterday.
The first encompasses Gelin's own feeling regarding the events of 9/11. The journalist was actually on his way to New York City mere hours after the attacks on the Twin Towers, but the plane he was on was forced to u-turn somewhere over Greenland. In that instant, Gelin immediately wanted to return back to Sweden to family and friends, but was also surprisingly overcome with the feeling that he wanted to fly to New York; "it was as if a friend had gone to the hospital after a terrible accident - I wanted to go there to make sure everything was alright". Just like more or less the whole world, the west at least, Sweden also felt compassion with America and expressed that "we are all Americans now". Gelin claims, rightly, that this sudden support for the US had nothing to do with politics or support for George W. Bush, but that Swede's shed tears for America because "the American people held a special place in our heart". In that I believe he is absolutely right. Many Swedes have, although distant, relative in the US due to the extensive Swedish immigration across the Atlantic, which have created special ties between the nations. Sweden has also accepted much of American popular culture, and many of us have grown up with American movies, TV-shows, and music, and, in Gelin's words, "fantasized about Hollywood, Harlem and Nashville". Although Gelin's very amiable knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 was not representative for the Swedish general public, the large majority of Swedes did show honest support and sympathy for the US in the immediate aftermath of the events (feelings got less friendly as the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq unraveled though).
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One a more funny note, a story about the first parody on Obama was news to me. It involves Sweden, although Obama's classmates behind the comedy has mistaken it for Norway (possibly the worst possible insult to a Swede). They made fun of his way to always talk about his complicated background: "I was born in Oslo, Norway. Son of a Volvo factory worker and ice-sea fisherman. My mom was a choir-singer for Abba. They were good people. When I moved to Chicago I realized for the first time that I was black and has remained so ever since". Despite their horrible error of mixing Sweden and Norway, it was a at least kind of funny attempt at mocking Barack Obama.
The first encompasses Gelin's own feeling regarding the events of 9/11. The journalist was actually on his way to New York City mere hours after the attacks on the Twin Towers, but the plane he was on was forced to u-turn somewhere over Greenland. In that instant, Gelin immediately wanted to return back to Sweden to family and friends, but was also surprisingly overcome with the feeling that he wanted to fly to New York; "it was as if a friend had gone to the hospital after a terrible accident - I wanted to go there to make sure everything was alright". Just like more or less the whole world, the west at least, Sweden also felt compassion with America and expressed that "we are all Americans now". Gelin claims, rightly, that this sudden support for the US had nothing to do with politics or support for George W. Bush, but that Swede's shed tears for America because "the American people held a special place in our heart". In that I believe he is absolutely right. Many Swedes have, although distant, relative in the US due to the extensive Swedish immigration across the Atlantic, which have created special ties between the nations. Sweden has also accepted much of American popular culture, and many of us have grown up with American movies, TV-shows, and music, and, in Gelin's words, "fantasized about Hollywood, Harlem and Nashville". Although Gelin's very amiable knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 was not representative for the Swedish general public, the large majority of Swedes did show honest support and sympathy for the US in the immediate aftermath of the events (feelings got less friendly as the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq unraveled though).
-----------------------------------------
One a more funny note, a story about the first parody on Obama was news to me. It involves Sweden, although Obama's classmates behind the comedy has mistaken it for Norway (possibly the worst possible insult to a Swede). They made fun of his way to always talk about his complicated background: "I was born in Oslo, Norway. Son of a Volvo factory worker and ice-sea fisherman. My mom was a choir-singer for Abba. They were good people. When I moved to Chicago I realized for the first time that I was black and has remained so ever since". Despite their horrible error of mixing Sweden and Norway, it was a at least kind of funny attempt at mocking Barack Obama.
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