Over at Time, Swampland contributor Jay Newton Small has an article up about the effects of Obama's candidacy on Oahu. It's a pretty interesting article with a lot of amusing side notes (like Japanese tourists visiting Punahou and taking snap shots of a tree Obama may have climbed). It brought my attention to something I hadn't thought much about - that if elected, Obama would not only be the first black president but also the first native Hawaiian. Hey, pretty cool.
Now, I usually cut Swampland some slack. I don't always agree with them, but I think the writing from all contributors this campaign season has been pretty good. I've never had a problem with anything Jay Newton Small has written before and to some degree, this is a neutral or even positive look at Obama.
But the article has one major problem - it's byline, which reads like this:
When Obama Goes Home to Hawaii
As he returns to his native land for a week off, the Democratic nominee will find an island that itself has felt the impact of his celebrity
Cripes, could the McCain camp have asked for anything better? Now getting further into the body (emphasis mine)
When Barack Obama was last in Hawaii to visit his grandmother and sister, it was December 2006, and he was still a relatively unknown junior senator from Illinois deciding whether to run for President. Obama was shocked, then, when a paparazzi shot of him emerging from the Pacific Ocean on one of his favorite Oahu beaches ended up in People magazine. The episode added privacy concerns to his deliberations and gave him a taste of the fishbowl that is the Oval Office, as well as the campaign to get there.
It was the sort of week that drives serious politicians crazy. Both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton ...
He may have been annoyed by the attention, but clearly Obama wasn't deterred by it. Nineteen months later Obama, now a worldwide celebrity and the presumptive Democratic nominee, is heading to his native Hawaii for a weeklong vacation, with dozens of reporters in tow shadowing his every move, from getting a haircut to biking with his daughters.
Okay. Stop. This is either intentional shilling for McCain or an example of how certain memes can subtly pollute a presidential campaign. I thought there was supposed to be pushback on this from inside the media? I thought the idea that Barack Obama was a celebrity was not to be taken seriously? Hasn't the foundation of this idea been questioned enough that it doesn't deserve reinforcement inside an otherwise benign article?
This is something we have to watch out for. We should be keeping track of where and when this kind of lazy writing pops up and making our voices heard. The more we allow it to go on, the harder it will become to question. Let's at least make it difficult for them.
**Update
For those who think I'm making too much of this (so far everybody ;) ). Imagine if she had written this about Bill Clinton in 92.
"On the trail, Mr. Clinton frequently attracts the attention of women and displays a considerable amount of charm."
Is it a casual observation? Or is it reinforcing the adulterer meme? To me, referring to Obama's celebrity is the same kind of thing.