Rootlessness, America and Identity

A couple days ago the NYT had a fascinating article about Barack Obama (and John McCain), rootlessness, wandering, and the American identity. A someone who has only just passed the two year mark living in Connecticut (a tenure of residence in one state unparalleled since since the day I graduated college) I found the read interesting and engaging.

They offer a lengthy meditation on the subject, weaving together literary references, discussion of the wanderer as essentially American, but also the wander as feared and mistrusted. Towards the end they also present an alternate take, asking if Obama, who has lived in Chicago for years now, is once married, has a seemingly stable family, and wants to maintain his ties to Chicago, is in fact more rooted than your average politician.

As I think about it, I also now wonder how the Obama/Biden ticket offers an interesting sampling of wandering with rooted-ness. Biden certainly, as someone who regularly commutes home to Delaware even while the Senate is in session, displays strong roots and ties to the community that has elected him many times over.

The article is worth a read, and I'd love other peoples' reflections on it, if you have any to share in comments!

Round Mound of Obamanation

So there's clearly a good bit of Democratic Convention related stuff a person could be blogging about today, but instead of weighing into the, "Did Hillary do enough?" conversation, or the "Was Mark Warner at all interesting?" conversation or the, "What the hell was Ed Rendell thinking calling Obama Adalai Stevenson?" conversation I'm going to take up the Charles Barkley conversation. "What with the what now," you might say. That's right, former Philadelphia 76ers basketball great Charles Barkley has tended to lean republican throughout his life, but is a big-time supporter of Obama this year, and HuffPo has all the details.

Celebrity endorsements, who cares, right? I agree, but I just thought this was kinda fun, in part because of the very direct way in which the very opinionated Barkley describes what he sees as appealing in Obama, "We're a country of haves and have-nots. America needs a new leader. Someone who can give poor people a chance"