OBAMANATING

Am I the only one? Ever since Obama won the election, I have become a shameless Obamanator. I cannot see that guy enough. I've started recording a morning news show, a prime time news show and MSNBC as well as my normal News Hour on PBS, in case there are things the News Hour didn't catch--they get all the substantive stuff, but they don't necessarily get the report on Obama's "body guy" that Diane Sawyer got on ABC News. Hey, I want to see him play basketball! It's not just about policy here.

Yes, I did get up at 5 a.m. here in Los Angeles on Inauguration Day to begin watching… after spending most of the weekend going over buildup footage--the Whistlestops on the train to Washington. The MLK Day of Service--who knew, Joe Biden can cut drywall pretty damn well, obviously knew his way around a construction site--good for Scranton! That toolbelt looks pretty good on him. He can come and fix some stuff at my house--I had some electrical he could have fixed.

Whereas Obama shows up to paint at a youth shelter in a white longsleeved shirt… uh… guess the other kid painted the dorm room when he was in college. The thing that's cool about Obama is that he's so exceptional a human being, I find his flaws, the things he can't do, endearing… He's not the Messiah, after all.

I was talking to my electrician/fellow writer yesterday (Biden was busy, I guess), and he's been doing the same thing. We thought it would be a great idea to have a station that was nothing but Obama in real time, 24/7. Watch him make a sandwich! Watch him sleep! "Oh look! he's turning over!"

I would watch it. Shit yeah.

What IS IT about this guy? When he got out of the limo on Pennsylvania Avenue to walk alongside for a while, the screams you heard from the crowd lining the roadway reminded me of the Beatles coming to America. I cried watching him dance the first dance with Michelle at the Neighborhood Ball--and rewound and watched it a few times. They looked like the King and Queen of the prom… He's so damn elegant, looked bitchin in that tux.

Especially fantastic moment for me, more than the Inauguration itself, more than anything, was after the swearing in, when he went back to the President's Room in the Capitol to sign a succession of documents. To see him sitting at that big desk, a slender young (ish) black man, and behind him arrayed six gray haired white people, watching him with the gravest respect and solemnity… I watched it about 100 times. Change has come to America.

I asked my mother, 80+, watching with me, "Mom, if they'd shown a photo of this to people back in 1964 and said, 'This is 2008. And that's the President of the United States," what would they have thought?" She said they would have thought it was some kind of joke. And if you said that the women were the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senior Senator from California? "They would have thought they were the wives of the guys."

When will I erase that recording? NEVER.

So, still Obamanating. Love the guy who carries his mouthwash and toothbrush and goes back to the hotel to grab his forgotten Ipod, takes the brownie away at the community center so he doesn't get fat--where's my "body man." ???????? HMMMMM??? Applications open.