Recently sorting through my little collection (nothing like this) of Obama magazine covers memorabilia, I started to wonder about the reasons the campaign resonated with me unlike any other in my adult history. I've not been able to put my finger on the reason, yet as I thumbed through the magazines and re-read the articles I highlighted, I came to a better understanding. Funny, though, my magazine collection was never intended to define the reasons I gravitated toward Obama. It was just suppose to be my way of creating a time capsule keepsake for my children and grandchildren. Some cool stuff they could one day look at .. probably when magazines no longer exist.
So follow me below the fold, not only for some eye candy, but for the discovered reasons which made the campaign meaningful to me .. none of which, BTW, have to do with defining policies or running the Free World. Like many, I suppose, that is the journey I'm on now.
Rolling Stone March 20, 2008
This has got to be my favorite magazine cover of Obama. Ever. This was the Stone's endorsement issue, and it outlined Obama's people-powered revolution just brilliantly. My teenage sons usually take the Rolling Stone issue down to the basement when it arrives, yet I snatched this one up for myself.
At the same time, the campaign was developing a new high-tech toolbox to enable its supporters to keep the momentum going — both online and off. With the help of one of the founders of Facebook, the Obama campaign created, MyBo, its own social-networking tool, through which supporters could organize themselves however they saw fit. Today, the network claims more than half a million members and more than 8,000 affinity groups. Some are organized by state (Ohioans for Obama), others by profession (Texas Business Women for Obama) and still others by groove thing (Soul Music Lovers for Obama).
"We put these tools online as a public utility," says Joe Rospars, the campaign's twenty-six-year-old director of new media, who served as one of Howard Dean's chief online organizers. "We said to our supporters, 'Have at it.' "
That move unleashed supporters to mobilize on their own — and they did, in unprecedented numbers. Before long, the campaign had transformed hundreds of thousands of online donors into street-level activists. "Obama didn't just take their money," says Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000. "He gave them seats at the table and allowed them to become players."
Equally important, Obama didn't build his machine by sucking up to the online activists who had been courted by Howard Dean — he built it from scratch. "I kind of admire that he hasn't wasted a lot of time kissing ass to make a bunch of bloggers happy," says Markos Moulitsas, founder of the influential blog Daily Kos. "I can't blame the guy. He's got other ways to reach people."
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Rolling Stone July 10-24, 2008
Not so much a favorite photo of mine, I still enjoyed this issue's reflection of Obama's musical style. I especially related to his recollection of favorite artists because it took me down my own memory lane. The same age as Obama, I listened to the same tunes he did. Tunes that helped me get through the tough time of young adulthood. Looking back, it seems like music has always helped to make sense of those struggles we all go through as we say goodbye to the carefree years of adolescence and college before starting out in the cold, cruel world.
Barack Obama is a Stevie Wonder geek. In the Democratic presidential candidate’s new interview with Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Jann S. Wenner, Obama waxed rhapsodic about his favorite artists, many of whom — Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Jay-Z — have shown him love with endorsements.
“If I had one musical hero, it would have to be Stevie Wonder,” says Obama, who grew up on Seventies R&B and rock staples including Earth, Wind and Fire, Elton John and the Rolling Stones. “When I was at that point where you start getting involved in music, Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’, First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life. Those are as brilliant a set of five albums as we’ve ever seen.”
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Newsweek July 21, 2008
What made sense to me after reading this issue that focused on Obama's faith journey is why the conventional, 'politically-correct' religious folks cried the loudest. And why the Jeremy Wright hoopla became a focus in trying to bring Obama down. Having traveled extensively around the world and experiencing all the great religions up close and personal, I understand what Obama was trying so carefully to explain .. that there can be a common ground between different faiths and it is at that place that we need to begin a dialogue of respect and understanding. Not at the place where differences exist. That comes after we've reached across the aisle in acknowledging that we have an equal purpose .. that first and foremost we are our brothers' keepers.
Obama has spoken often and eloquently about the importance of religion in public life. But like many political leaders wary of offending potential backers, he has been less revealing about what he believes—about God, about prayer, about the connection between salvation and personal responsibility. In some respects, his reticence is understandable. Obama's religious biography is unconventional and politically problematic. Born to a Christian-turned-secular mother and a Muslim-turned-atheist African father, Obama grew up living all across the world with plenty of spiritual influences, but without any particular religion.
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Rolling Stone October 30, 2008
When this issue arrived in the mail, my kids started laughing as they said it looked like one of those funny greeting cards that magnify puppy and kitten heads. But seriously, this issue helped me to understand the unique blend of Obama as the politician with Obama the person. Neither one exists without the other, in my opinion. And perhaps that is what makes him such an extraordinary figure in our day and time. He brings himself to what he does best. And that genuineness has not often been found in other American politicians. Plus, the excerpt below gives a glimpse of his mischievous side .. which I find refreshing.
In what way will people underestimate you as president?
[Long pause] Because I tend to be a pretty courteous person and I don't lose my temper, I think people underestimate my willingness to mix it up. I don't know if they'll continue to underestimate that after this campaign, but I think you'll still get columns saying, "He's too cool, he's too soft." [Laughs] That's OK, actually.
You like being underestimated in that way.
Yeah. No point in having them see you coming.
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Time November 17, 2008
Focusing on the obscene revenue the Obama campaign generated, this issue of Time helped me to more fully understand the power of marketing, organization, and solicitation. Not one to get sucked into the psychology of advertising, I did succumb to the merchandise craze with a few bumper stickers, buttons, t-shirts, yard signs, a poster (see further down), and a CD.
Barack Obama's supporters craved a piece of the Obama brand, and for that, the campaign made them pay in all sorts of ingenious ways. Want an Obama blue T shirt with the "O" logo? All yours in return for just three things: your money, your contact information and, ultimately, your vote.
The money, of course, subsidized all those TV ads and the largest staff in political history. By selling branded water bottles, cuff links, tote bags and baby onesies, along with buttons, hats and stickers, at events and on the Internet, the campaign earned a considerable profit that it counted as contributions. It took a page from the way sports teams market their brands and players. Even more valuable than the revenue were the data; merchandising became an organizing tool when customers were required to supply their contact details before they bought. That information enabled the campaign to stay in touch with potential voters by e-mail, telephone and direct mail. Beyond that, it was used to solicit more contributions, organize volunteers, keep supporters informed about the latest campaign news and, above all, make sure they turned out to vote.
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People Magazine November 17, 2008
I don't usually read People, yet my mother-in-law subscribed and so saved me all the issues with Obama and family on the covers. This issue will be most meaningful to me because my mother-in-law was a Hillary supporter. When she handed me this magazine, said she was happy for me and her grandsons and that the USA really did need someone who would change things. Sadly, my mother-in-law passed away two weeks later from a sudden illness.
The election of a new President always marks the start of a fresh chapter in the nation's history. But to many supporters, Nov. 4, 2008, felt like the beginning of a whole new volume: the election of the first African-American man as President, at last affirming the cherished belief that anyone could grow up to win the highest office. If nothing else, Obama, 47, just four years into his first Senate term, has already redefined what is possible on the nation's political landscape. But coming into office at a time of war and global financial crisis, the 44th President won't have the luxury of savoring his historic achievement for long—a sobering truth he acknowledged in his victory speech, delivered with the protection of plates of 8-ft.-high bulletproof glass.
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Time Magazine Person of the Year 2008 December 29, 2008 / January 5, 2009
Mr. Fix It is going to Washington! That is what I enjoyed most about this issue. The analysis of what Obama did to move a nation of people toward active participation within a stale, non-progressive, broken, and destructive political system just made me stop and say, "Where the hell have I been?"
He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order. Understandably, you may be thinking Obama is on the cover for these big and flashy reasons: for ushering the country across a momentous symbolic line, for infusing our democracy with a new intensity of participation, for showing the world and ourselves that our most cherished myth — the one about boundless opportunity — has plenty of juice left in it.
In the waning days of his extraordinary year and on the cusp of his presidency, what now seems most salient about Obama is the opposite of flashy, the antithesis of rhetoric: he gets things done. He is a man about his business — a Mr. Fix It going to Washington.
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Essence January 2009
So I picked this issue up when I was in DC last December .. still on my mini-magazine collection mission. The articles in this issue provided me with a better understanding about Black families and how the Obama family image and accomplishments will change stereotypes forever. Especially poignant are the words that Marian Wright Edelman wrote in honoring our new president's lessons .. that color has nothing to do with your worth.
Your victory gives us a twenty-first century portrait that our grandchildren will cherish. Wholly prepared, you transformed how political campaigns are waged and won. We witnessed an election enjoyed by the largest, best-informed, and most motivated electorate in our nation’s history.
--Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO
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I also picked this up on my trip to DC. It's actually a guide to WA DC and was created for the inauguration weekend.
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Obama Store (still open!)
This poster is framed and hanging on a wall in my home. I love it for what it stands for. It is the definition of 'American'. And it represents the paradigm struggle people have with those who may be different.
“I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story ... and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.”
It was the speech that launched him. Obama was an Illinois assembly member seeking his first term in the U.S. Senate, given a shot at the national stage when John Kerry asked him to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
He had those in the crowd on their feet, cheering wildly, even as many of them — even as many of us — wondered: Who is this guy?
He talked about hope and brighter days and standing at a crossroads in our nation’s history — themes that would become the bedrock of his own unprecedented run for the White House. And he touched on the many chapters of his life, as familiar to us now as his rallying cry for change.
There was the black father, also named Barack, who grew up herding goats in Kenya. He traveled on scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii and there, in a Russian language class, met 18-year-old Stanley Ann Dunham, the white daughter of Kansas-bred parents, christened after the father who worked on oil rigs and farms and served in World War II.
We would learn of the international upbringing, four years spent living in Indonesia after his mother remarried and brought her son to a Third World country, at once exotic and enlightening. Young Barack had a pet monkey, but he also saw poverty and disease, and his eyes were opened to a new world view.
That world view didn’t ease Obama’s own struggle with his biracial identity. He was among the few black students at his Honolulu high school, where he was known as “Barry” and met with others for a weekly “ethnic corner” discussion.
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UPDATE
The Nation
One last goody. I don't have this yet, as I ordered it after reading the fellow DKos diary by the artist. My name is on the waiting list for a poster!!
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