Obamanaut Heads to Denver

The Democratic National Convention rolls into Colorado next and tightwad conservatives all over the metro area are complaining. "The leftist media spurns McCain and only focuses on Obama." "Obama is an elitist." And my favorite complaint of all: "The traffic will be horrible let's head for the hills."

First off, complaining about media slants is like having an argument about if someone counted to six or half a dozen. If you like hearing Dan Rather do the news, listen to Rather. If you prefer Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, then get news content from them. Sure people perceive political leanings, but news sources are in near infinite supply online, on television, on the radio, or even still in print, so get your news from whatever source you prefer and shut up about slants.

Secondly, some people may consider that Obama's prevalence in the media and current momentum to be because of a biased media frenzy, but those people should consider that it may actually be because Obama participated in a primary race. Obama had to run against the Clinton machine while McCain breezed through the joke that was the Republican primary with the major competition coming from the likes of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Somehow stories about McCain running against NO ONE did not have the appeal of reporting on actual campaigns, debates, and election results.

As for all this business about elitists, the presidency has been a position for privileged old white men for more than two-hundred years now. Our incumbent president comes from a wealthy oil family in Texas and was handed baseball teams and oil companies to manage before getting into politics, and yet Obama has been the one who gets nailed with the "elitist" catch phrase. If Obama speaking out against the voting habits of gun happy Americans, the bible belt, and rural America in general makes him an elitist then I guess I am one too. Of all of the American people who have not been earning an annual income over six figures in their household and voted red in 2004 and 2008 how many of them are really better off today than they were eight years ago?

Back to the local perspective, for those in the Denver metro that are crapping their pants over DNC traffic and making plans to spend the week visiting the Kobe Bryant suite in Eagle County, enjoy your time in the mountains, but know that events like National Conventions are part of being a world class city. Despite the persistent fight against decent public transit in Denver waged by all of the automobile lovers, light rail will be coming to the greater metro area over the next seven or eight years. Imagine if we had just started the project seven or eight years sooner. Public transit would be there to carry the burden of bringing large events to Denver and working class everywhere could hop on a light rail car instead of getting gouged at the $4 a gallon pump on a weekly basis. Maybe one day soon Denver will have decent mass transit and be able to host large events without Coloradans freaking and, like the Pinocchio of metropolises, Denver can declare "Now I'm a real city!"

Finally, I should not stop without saying that Obama's meteoric rise is inspiring. The undermining of the media, Obama's background, and the DNC itself is a tribute to the fear that Obama already inspires in the hearts of his opponents. I am only in my 20's and lack the perspective to appreciate the political climates of decades gone by, but I know that I feel a desperate need for change under the leadership of a transcendent figure. Is Obama the one? The DNC is the perfect opportunity for Denver to try to find out.