Brand Barack: Top 10 Barack Obama Revelations

10. Obama Vows to Try to Get Out of Iraq, Sort of Does

Throughout the 2008 election, one of the main topics was the U.S. presence in Iraq and which candidate would provide the best plan for withdrawal. Obama was commonly viewed as the best man for the job; he seemed to have a strong desire to remove troops from Iraq as quickly as possible. However, Obama’s foreign policy adviser Samantha Power told TV interviewer Charlie Rose in February 2008 the most Obama actually pledged was to “try to remove all combat brigades within 16 to 18 months” (Street 144); key word “try”.

Here is a clip of the interview. The "try" quote comes in around 2:12.

More alarming than the alleged timetable and false presumptions, there was also great debate over the actual definition of “withdrawal”. It turned out their tactics of withdrawal were more along the lines of retreating into the Green Zone (massive American military section of Baghdad), shifting blame to the Iraqis, and reducing ground troops and focusing on air attacks (Street 144-145). For someone who was elected largely on his supposedly liberal standpoint on the Iraq War, Obama did not live up to his expectations in this regard.

9. Obama's Education Reform Promotes Segregation: No Child Left Behind*

*Except for all you underprivileged, inner-city kids over there.

Source: Greg Palast

Obama has long supported the expansion of charter schools and their growing presence in communities. Charter schools generally resist teacher unions, which leads to uneven pay in schools and pay based on merit, which he fervently supports. When he needed to appoint a secretary of education, Obama turned to a former Chicago Superintendent of Schools named Arne Duncan, who closed seventy schools and put six-thousand Chicago unionized teachers out of work in his previous position (Huff 103)…perhaps not the best choice, but we’ll give him a chance. Well, in the 2010 fiscal year, the government appropriated $256 million to the federal charter school program.

Obama’s overwhelming support of charter schools is a bit baffling, considering they are notorious for cherry picking students to build higher test scores, thus increasing their pay based on merit (merit pay is based on test scores), and leaving lowly-educated students in poorly-funded schools. Personally, I think the merit system is a failure to human rights because it deprives communities who have never been provided with adequate education of ever having a chance at receiving proper schools.

8. Goldman Sachs Becomes Obama's Top Campaign Contributor: Obama & G.S. get friendly

Obama greeting Goldman Sachs execs... or thanking them for their generous donation?
Source: Degreesofmoderation.blogspot.com

When Barack Obama campaigned for a presidential bid, he made sure to repeatedly note that he would not be accepting funding from major corporations. Presidents and candidates before him did frequently accept money from large corporations, but voters thought Obama would be a welcomed "change". However, in his book Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, Paul Street quotes a Wall Street veteran, Pam Martens, as saying, "Seven of the Obama campaign's top 14 donors consist of officers and employees of the same Wall Street firms charged time and again with looting the public and newly implicated in originating and/or bundling fraudulently made mortgages" (Street 14). As we all know, Goldman Sachs would later become a major benefactor of a costly financial bailout plan from Obama. Needless to say, this is a major aspect of Barack's presidency that has not brought about "change", and the issue began even before he became president.

In Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), Michael Moore does a good job of painting both Big Business and Barack in a negative light…and it’s funny! Whether you love or hate his methods, Moore is never afraid to reveal a big secret:

7. After Nearly Two Years in Office, Obama is Still not Hitler

One of the stories we covered in class this year that I found reflected poorly on our American culture, rather than on Obama, was the oddly common misconception that he was Adolf Hitler. It appeared several times since 2008; on FoxNews, at Tea Party rallies, and even in a book by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Huff 172-173). Obama's policies are not Fascist in any way, and there is little foundation to any argument that he is Hitler. In all fairness, the liberal group MoveOn featured an anti-Bush ad online comparing Bush II to Hitler, but the Obama-Hitler comparisons have been significantly more frequent.

The all-powerful Congressman Barney Frank was even forced to defend Obama's non-Fascist self when confronted at a town meeting:

Barney - 1 Crazy lady - 0

6. Blackwater(Xe) in Pakistan: A Whole New War

Source: InfiniteUnknown

Dating back to at least 2007, an organization of mercenaries called "Blackwater" has led a secret program in which they plan assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives. There have also been air-strikes in the area, in addition to the predator strikes led by the CIA. Obama plays into the Blackwater scandal because bombings have increased in Pakistan under Obama's administration. In fact, the number of air-strikes in Pakistan have already surpassed the number during Bush's presidency (Huff 37).

Blackwater is still employed by the CIA to bomb Pakistan and the public has shown great disdain for the connection. All the while, Blackwater just wanted to be a secret mercenary group, so they did what anyone would do if they were trying to disguise their identity...

...They renamed and rebranded:

Source: Huffington Post

5. The First Black President's Blackness is Called into Question

Artwork by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh considers the idea of whether or not Obama is "black enough" for the American public.

Source: RedefineMag.com

Paul Street draws a lot of contrast between Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. He says the following:

Many whites who roll their eyes at the mention of the names of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - former presidential candidates who behave in ways that many whites find too African American - are calmed and 'impressed' by the cool, underplayed blackness and ponderous, quasi-academic tone of the half-white, Harvard-educated Obama. (Street 82)

There is such a stark discrepancy between Obama and the others because he doesn't necessarily do stereotypically black things...but you know what? I realized that I can't count on one hand the amount of times I have seen Obama playing basketball or commenting on the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. I wonder if this was him trying to convey a friendly black stereotype to appeal to black voters or . Oh, there are also a slew of YouTube videos that question, or outright deny, Obama's blackness. Needless to say, I don't feel the need to share them.


4. America™

This is a powerful image...perhaps one that could become a reality if the government continues to sell out.
Source: AdBusters

There is a growing sense amongst the American public that the government is closer to big businesses than the citizens. Honestly, it has been that way for a while, and Obama has not brought about much change in that department. As previously mentioned, he has taken enormous amounts of money from failing companies like Goldman Sachs and he also wants to privatize schools. In fact the charter school revelation reminded me of a connection to the book Feed by M.T. Anderson. Here's a brief excerpt from the book in which the main character, Titus, is talking with his girlfriend, Violet, about school:

"My friends and I are all home-schooled, so we're a mixed bag. Bettina's mother has us come over and weave ponchos." [- Violet]

"You don't go to School™?" [- Titus] (Anderson 78-79)

Titus's inquisitiveness makes it seem like attending School™ is a sure thing. Barring major changes, isn't it reasonable to believe that our world could resemble the feed world someday? After all, it seems to be somewhat parallel to Obama's plan for charter schools™.

Feed also mentions Clouds™, which have apparently been sold to the corporate world as well. When do we see the jump from corporate sponsorships of stadiums to sponsorships of natural weather phenomena? Hurricane Bear-Stearns™?

3. Obama Embraces Technology: Let's get digital

Barack chooses interesting language in the video. Opening with "Hi everybody" is very friendly and natural, like he's walking into a knitting club meeting. This video was taken straight from Obama's YouTube channel, which revolutionized the face of the internet and politics. He placed a heavy emphasis on promoting himself through YouTube during his campaign and, fortunately, he has continued to upload videos frequently.

Using YouTube allows Obama to connect with millions of people, especially people that he may not have otherwise reached, like teenagers and young adults. The digital world is especially relevant, though, because Feed portrays it rather negatively. When Titus and Violet become reconnected to the feed, they rejoice at their rediscovered hyper-connectivity. They are flooded with news, advertisements, and the hit song "I'll Sex You In", and they are caught up with all the things they've missed. "It came down on us like water. It came down like frickin' spring rains, and we were dancing in it," remarks Titus (Anderson 70). The characters seemed dead without the feed...or was it just boredom? Perhaps it was, because it seemed like their love for each other was still there. So, I think we could live without Obama's digital connection, but I think it is still a positive thing to have that connection. M.T. Anderson would disagree.

2. Prisoners Abused at Guantanamo Bay under Barack: A Human Rights Guantana-no no

Guantanamo prisoners are brutalized, denied religious rights, and even forced to wear silly glasses.

Source: Guardian

During his campaign, one of Obama's sure promises was that the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay would be closed down. On January 22, 2009, a day after being elected, he ordered Gitmo to be closed in a year and requested a review of the status of the prisoners being held there. In fact, a Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) report found that abuses still were ongoing, including, but not limited to: beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike (Huff 126).

After nearly two years of Obama's presidency, and 2 years after his Guantanamo decree, Guantanamo is still open, less than 20 prisoners have been released, and reports have indicated that treatment has deteriorated. It's hard to write this one off with the excuse "it's the thought that counts".

For a more detailed report on Guantanamo, read an older blog post.

1. Barack Obama™: The #1 Brand of 2008

It's amazing how a blue "O" with red and white fields across the middle could become so iconic.

As we learned in class, "Brand Obama" was named the #1 brand of 2008. Paul Street addresses the idea of the Obama brand right off the bat in the first chapter of Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, saying, “The term ‘Obama brand’ suggested the commodified nature of a political culture that tends to reduce elections to corporate-crafted marketing contests revolving around candidate images and characters packaged and sold by corporate consultants and public relations experts” (Street 2). This quote had me thinking - Is it a good thing for a politician to be the number one brand of the year? I think Street nailed it by relating it to politics as a PR commodity. The branding clearly worked for Obama, but it reflects the current state of our political spectrum.