(Diarist's note: Satire)
In a comment attached to a diary I ran a week or two ago, a user said my Obama impression was spot-on.
I thought, hey, cool, but it can't be that hard to do a good Obama. You listen to a few speeches, get an ear for the phrasing he uses in press conferences and interviews, then put it all together by knowing his public stance on issues.
After talking to my brother about this, I'm thinking maybe he's right about the difficulty in doing it. So I decided to test myself.
This mock interview is the result. And if it works, I'll try my hand (mind) at some others.
Me: Mr. President, as someone who voted for you in November, particularly because of your progressive stance on issues of importance to the gay community, I'd like to ask you some questions about issues of importance to gay Americans.
POTUS: Well, first off, thank you for voting, and thank you for voting for me. ::laughs:: I hope you'll be saying that again in four years, and I also hope that there will be less need, if that's the right way to put it, for some of the work that a lot of people in the gay community have been working toward.
Me: On that note: Mr. President, various in the gay community, including me, have said that your recent attention to gay issues came only because a gay Democratic fundraiser was looking like it would be a political embarrassment -- that if so many big-dollar gay donors hadn't pulled out of the event, you wouldn't have made the one announcement you've made on the gay rights horizon. You've said you'd work to repeal DOMA -- the Defense of Marriage Act -- and Don't Ask, Don't Tell. What more can the gay community do to stress to you that human rights issues, issues like adoption, visitation rights and hate crimes legislation, are as important as any other issue?
POTUS: Well, first off, let me say that, as you know, I ran on a platform of doing away with some of the hateful rhetoric and division of the last eight years. One of the most notable parts of the last administration was its attempt to write discrimination into the Constitution. That had never been done.
On the gay rights front, I would say that we're working behind the scenes on a lot of these issues. Let's talk, just as an example, you talk about Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Colin Powell -- General Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had an instructive story on the issue of discrimination in the military. He and I were talking about the military, and he said, "Barack, people talk about how President Truman desegregated the military, but it was actually President Eisenhower who enforced that. He would go around to various commanding officers and ask if they would have a problem serving with or under a black man, treating that man the same as he'd treat a white man. And Eisenhower would do this having already gotten letters from soldiers' wives, people like that, talking about how their husbands would come home from work and not want to talk about the indignities they were suffering because of their race. So he would invite the black soldier and the white superior to talk to him, and he'd treat them as equals. And Eisenhower noticed that if you assumed equality, and you displayed equality, you'd slowly teach equality."
Now, is it perfect 60, you know, I guess, 64 years after Truman started it and Eisenhower enforced it? No. It's not. General Powell and I talked some about discrimination in the Army and how pervasive it can be in general. But he told me that in his experience, the people who were in the Army first and foremost because they wanted to serve their country would ultimately want to serve with the best people America had to offer. And I think the vast majority of men and women in our armed forces feel that way, and I think that's going to help tremendously with ending sexuality-based discrimination.
Now, you'll ask, or someone else will misinterpret and say that I'm saying some people join the military not because they want to serve but for some other reason. And that's not what I'm saying. I think there are people who want to defend our freedom, but they were also raised to believe certain things about certain people — and that's their right to believe it. But then you have to say to them, you have to make sure they understand that away from the job, sure, they think whatever they want. But at the end of the day, a gay soldiers is just as effective in the firefights, in rescue efforts, in any kind of military operation, as a straight soldier, and they have to accept that despite whatever other opinions they might have because that's the fact of the situation.
And most of them, in fact, most of our heterosexual troops have served with gay soldiers. And many of them realize it and it's not an issue for them, and some of them realize it and it becomes a problem. And that I think is something we need to deal with and address those things they were taught, and that I think is where the most progress will be made. Because I can say, hey, any gay soldiers, you can be open about your sexuality now, but then you're going to have some servicemen and women who will say, sincerely, hey, Mr. President, why did you betray me by making me serve with these people? And so you have to win the hearts and minds and make sure you won't make people feel like you don't have their interests at heart.
Me: Is that why you're opposed to an executive order ending DADT?
POTUS: I think the thing we learned from Truman and Eisenhower is that you can sign an executive order and have people serve together, but you can't realistically sign an executive order that will make people be nice to each other, I guess is what I'm trying to say. In other words, what I have to look at as president is not only what's right for the military but what will foster an openness in accepting people for who they are, not for whatever they might have heard somewhere.
Me: So it's a matter of having it be an effective policy, not just something you can point to and please a bunch of rich gay donors.
POTUS: ::laughs:: But they should still attend campaign fundraisers.
To be continued tomorrow.