When did we become the 51st state?

[Ford Fairlane]

I enjoyed the discussion thread we had on the US Presidential race, the hope of Obama, occasional mocking of the Wasilla hillbillies, watching the US system at work. When Obama was elected, the surge of new hope, the back of Dubya, all that.

But seriously the way the local media has carried on, anyone would think we've just appointed our new head of state. The Advertiser keeps running front pages, today its the Obamas tripping the light fantastic on the Presidential seal. I caught a bit of the early morning infotainments yesterday with anchors on the spot cooing how their kids could dream of being President, well Primi Minister anyway. Are we ready to add another star to Old Glory?

Anyway as I wrote, I know people have been swept up in the wave of optimism, and American culture has impacted heavily on us over the years through a range of media as well as collaborative efforts, but seriously, overboard much? Has Australia shut down for business that we can't have our own front pages? Do we have any real idea about how his government's policies will affect us?

 

[MP_]

am i the only one who really doesn't give a fat rats clacker about the USA and who is running that country?

 

[Natman]

I guess it is the ultimate endorsement that we are indeed a Global Village (country) which was fuelled by the communication and internet ages and the domination of a few (Murdoch in particular) in the media empires.

It's so much easier to deliver the "news" these days and so many stations and air time to fill it's a matter of quantity and not necessarily quality or relevance to us- remember when there was only 3 TV stations with telecasts for a few hours each day.

We are unavoidably linked in many ways to the US whether we like it or not and when the "US sneezes we get the flu". Really, the US influence (historical) in worldwide culture and business is ridiculous when you see the strength of the USD (realistically is at an unsustainable level - but supported by sheer weight of big o/s money) considering that their economy is a basket case and the government running trillions $ in deficit.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Yeah well the global village if you count the US as pretty much the globe. I think I can count the number of times Gordon Brown or Vladimir Putin have appeared on the front pages of the tiser on Captain Hook's left hand. If not for Nicola Bruni, I doubt I'd know Nicolas Sarkozy is President of France and current head of the European Union. And if 3,000 die in an earthquake in Kyrzgystan, it'd be lucky to make News in Brief.

None of this is really a new issue, but it's just the OTT coverage as far away as Australia that's been just a bit breathtaking. And it's not as if he hasn't revelled in the adulation either. The rock'n'roll President.

At least all this coverage has introduced me to the concept of "word clouds".

http://blogs.news.com.au/starsnsnipes/index.php/news/comments/how_obamas_words_have_changed/

 

[missionpossible]

Yes the media has gone over the top.

HOWEVER, this is huge in world politics and actualy has a fair amount of interest amoungst jo-blow for a political event.

1 - a black man becoming president - absolutely huge for such a racist country.

2 - a young man becoming president

3 - he actually appears as though he is not a puppet.

4 - Unlike previous presidents he actually comes across as a leader.

5 - his wife is realsonably good looking

6 - he actually behaves like a human being.

7 - they have to good looking children

8 - they dont talk down, they talk like normal people.

9 - he has that great preachers voice.

10 - he has the rags to riches story

11 - he is not dumb, unlike Bush

12 - he has an insane amount of fanatical followers, not just the black and poor but the rich and famous as well.

Other than that it is the nice easy story this week.

 

[KingsCrow]

Yeah it really is sickening.


Just shows how ridiculous America is. $1,000,000,000,000 in debt.


Then they go and spend $200m on a ceremony.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

That's what happens when you were part of an empire and then another country takes over the empire which you have close connections to and speaks the same language. The media and rulers still want to be close and associated to the most powerful.

Obama is a cool, modern, young, savvy, celebrity type politician. The media can't help itself and jump on the bandwagon. Plus most of us are shit scared what is going to happen and wants a saviour from the impending financial and economic disaster.

If you want a fair and balance coverage you have to watch Fox News Channel.

I know this is going to sound awfully racists, but its been interesting watching a lot of Afro-Americans being interviewed. They say that they now have hope that they can be anything they want to be because of Obama. But I have my doubts if a descendant of slaves would have been elected President at this time. The fact Obama was son of a smart African immigrant, both parents professors, raised by a white family and whilst he faced his share of discrimination, mainly went to white dominated education institutions, he has a white man's approach to solving problems, as well as being very very bright, is why enough of white America voted for him. The fact he didn't come across as an angry black man helped him enormously. Hey black Americans have plenty to be angry about, but if you want to get votes from the majority they don't want to be verbally abused about past injustices they didn't commit.

What I couldn't help asking my self as I watched a lot of the coverage the analysis and the speech by Obama and how historical this was etc, was how about the native Americans?? Everyone says how historic and how much America has changed but I think the election of a native American would be an amazing thing to see. Whilst Africans slaves and their descendants were treated disgracefully and native Americans were at least recognised in the constitution, black Americans were forced to go from the stoneage to the modern world by being beaten into submission.

The native Americans have tried to maintain their way of live whilst being marginalised. The fact Afro-Americans make up 13% of the population make it a little easier than it does for native Americans who are only just a little less than 1% of the USA. For a native American to become leader of a nation that stole their land and oppressed them for centuries, in my opinion would be a truly amazing thing to see.

Obama-mania is like a bit of a cult. Like Beatlemania, I never understood how somebody could go so over the top. But the media will always lap this stuff up because it produces easy content.

I thought the best part of the day was the final bit of the benediction pray by Martin Luther King's old colleague the 87 year old by Reverend Joseph Lowery

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h4SrWpZNd-yocKSO7_9FO51iLJowD95R4RTG0

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when
black will not be asked to get in back,
when brown can stick around ...
when yellow will be mellow ...
when the red man can get ahead, man;
and when white will embrace what is right.
That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen.

 

[Relativity]

I can understand the US media doing a "Hollywood" over Obama's election but fair dinkum our media is OTT on this one. The fact that Obama has intimated a more protectionist line with US trade is alarming for Australian exporters. This seems to have gone over our media's heads. US interests aren't necessarily ours. Kym Beasley said yesterday? that Rudd won't find it easy to gain any dialogue with Obama. Obama's benevolence may stay firmly in the US, as you would expect.

 

[Eddie Dingle]

You can always rely on the Northern Territory News to put things into perspective...


www.ntnews.com.au

 

[RoosterLad]

am i the only one who really doesn't give a fat rats clacker about the USA and who is running that country?

No mate. I completely agree.

The amount of coverage we get here for the US election is sickening. It gets covered more than our own election it seems.

I could not give a **** about who they elected, that inauguration crap, and the fact Barak Obama had to repeat the oath twice.

 

[WhyAlwaysMe]

The Superbowl > Obama

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The Superbowl > Obama

More people watch the superbowl than voted for him. More probably watch than voted in total.

 

[Relativity]

You can always rely on the Northern Territory News to put things into perspective...


www.ntnews.com.au

"Breatho licked by ice cream"
I miss Darwin. Queensland without the bullsh!t.

 

[Forzaport]

11 - he is not dumb, unlike Bush

Bush is not dumb, just misunderstood - at least according to some of our pollies

I'm happily soaking up the obama craze, such a refreshing change from 8 years of George W. It actually feels like the world will become a better place under obama

 

[KingsCrow]

America will start losing millions of jobs soon. Obama will lose his aura.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

Yep over the top coverage of the sort we probably haven't seen since all the way with LBJ and look where that led to.

Hopefully Obama can achieve even a quarter of what is hoped for from him. What the media here don't seem to have considered is that Democrats are more inclined toward protectionism than the Republicans and Obama's priorities in the current climate will be to protect American jobs at the expense of our exports. There's a risk that Australian products will not have the same ease of access as before, although hopefully the Free Trade agreement that's in place will cushion the impact to a fair degree.

I'll bet the gloss wears off pretty quickly when the hard facts hit home of US indebtedness as a result of the Iraq war and other factors, plus the increasing recessionary trends that are running. Obama's in for a rough ride I reckon.

BTW REH I reckon Colin Powell would have been the first black American president but for his wife talking him out of running because of her fears he'd be assassinated.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

BTW REH I reckon Colin Powell would have been the first black American president but for his wife talking him out of running because of her fears he'd be assassinated.

I'm not so sure about that. Bush was very very popular with the conservative republican party base. Powell had never been in the republican party until around the time Bush won their nominee elections. He was known for his pro abortion and pro gun control stances and was from the liberal part of the conservative party just like John McCain was. They would have split that vote in the nomination process.

It might have been a different story if he ran as a democrat nominee, but it would have been very hard to knock off a sitting VP, Al Gore in 2000. If he ran in 2004 as a democrat, ie wasn't Bush's secretary of State, then that would have been interesting. But I'm not so sure he had the stomach for the grind of party politics.

 

[Carnport]

Dear oh dear. There is so much here that so completely misses the mark that I hardly dare respond.

For two years, when I was a child, I was lucky enough to live in the USA. For two years I had the great priviledge of attending Elementary School on the campus of Stanford University, California. In these years, I had the Unique Opportunity, as an Aussie, to learn from and to be indocrinated by, some of the greatest minds on the Planet. Every one of my teachers had a PhD or was a member of the US Military. For example, I have seen each of the Voyager machines in construction: they carry atoms that I have breathed out. I was taught to swim by a duel Nobel Prize for Science winner. I was also taught, by an USAF Colonel, how to fly a plane, at the age of nine. Having flown over Greenland and the north of the North American Continent, I discussed the possibilty of the consequences of GLOBAL WARMING with USAF pilots in 1978, THEY KNEW ALL ABOUT IT AND WERE STAGGERRED THAT I COULD ASK. I presented a written report on my views of the possible consequences of the melting of the Greenland Ice Shelves AT THE AGE OF NINE to the United States Air Force. I frigg you not. I predicted a global sea level rise of between zero and two metres (based on the volume of the Ice Shelf, and also warned about Antartica). It was accepted with a formal salute and from my point of view, dissappeared. Oh, as part of this, the FBI have my fingerprints.

We have been part of America for a long time,,,

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I was taught to swim by a duel Nobel Prize for Science winner.

By the physicists or the chemist?

 

[Carnport]

Pending advise

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The friggen Australian: my folks aren't answering ATM, you will have a name shortly...

There are only 4 noble dual lauretes the first 3 of which I was aware before I checked to ask which one. But none are Australian. I checked the UK guy Sanger and he was born, lived and died in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize

Multiple laureates
Since the establishment of the Nobel Prize, four people have received two Nobel Prizes:[31]

Maria Skłodowska-Curie: in Physics 1903, for the discovery of radioactivity; and in Chemistry 1911, for the isolation of pure radium

Linus Pauling: in Chemistry 1954, for the hybridized orbital theory; and Peace 1962, for nuclear test-ban treaty activism; he is the only person to have won two unshared Nobel Prizes.[32]

John Bardeen: in Physics 1956, for the invention of the transistor; and Physics 1972, for the theory of superconductivity.

Frederick Sanger: in Chemistry 1958, for structure of the insulin molecule; and in Chemistry 1980, for virus nucleotide sequencing.

 

[Power King]

A few things I'd like to touch on.

The media's continual reference to Obama as the first African-American or black president. Whilst this is correct, it's more accurate to say that Obama is of mixed race, he is both African-American and Caucasian. As someone in a similar position to him, I wouldn't want to continually be referred to as one of my ethnicities, when he has clearly had multiple ethnicities influence his life. Obama is of mixed race.

Also, Australia has had a very large stiffy over him becoming the first African-American president. Big deal? Absolutely. A monumentous occasion that deserves all the media attention it has gotten in the US. However, I'd like to see Australia relate this story to our very own doorstep. Why hasn't the mere thought of Australia possibly having an Aboriginal-Australian prime minister (or even Asian-Australian etc) in the future been brought up? If it wasn't for SBS, our mainstream media would be ridiculously exclusive of multiculturalism in terms of who we see presenting/reporting. In this light, we are very far behind the US.

 

[Toots Hibbert]

I remember there was a suggestion years ago that Bill Clinton had some African ancestry a few generations back.

Likewise during the apartheid days the irony was that over the centuries of Dutch settlement in southern Africa many Afrikaner families had acquired black ancestors.

 

[Crow-mo]

We have been part of America for a long time,,,

very very true.