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The Prez and the Hocker

On 11.07.08, In Barack Obama, Don't Miss This, Election, Golf, Hole in One, Life, By Mike

I thought I would call your attention to two completely unrelated items that caught my eye this week . The first one is a photograph of Barack Obama that appeared on the Huffington Post the day after the election. When I saw Obama take the stage in Grant Park in Chicago after being elected I noticed his bearing seemed completely different. I noticed relief and exhaustion on his face. The authors of the Huffington Post story saw power, joy, grief and fatigue. It’s a powerful image of Barack Obama’s finest moment to date. Here’s what the authors had to say about Barack Obama as he took the stage after being elected President of the United States.

When Obama took the stage, we saw a man embodying a complex array of feeling. He looked tired, of course, and who wouldn’t be? A ten-year-old in the room, who hadn’t heard of the death of Barack’s grandmother, said “He looks sad.” It takes a deeply integrated person to let his grief be visible on a night of overwhelming victory. This is a key to his personality, and bodes well for the future of his presidency. It takes enormous strength to let your vulnerabilities rest so comfortably in yourself that they can be readily seen.

There was one emotion we’re glad was missing from Obama and the crowd in Grant Park: any sense of triumphant glee. We couldn’t help wondering if it would have been present in McCain’s supporters had the tables been turned. John McCain had to silence a few boos and jeers from his audience, but by and large they just looked sad, tired and meek.

Finally, we were deeply moved by Obama’s body language at the end, in the easy way he brought forth the other members of his and Biden’s family to share the stage. He seemed to melt into them, as if he knows deep in his bones that none of this is really about him as an individual ego. There’s a huge difference between needing to be the center of things and simply being in the middle of things. Somehow, despite all the adulation and glory (as well as the relentless attacks mounted by the other side) Obama still knows what he’s known all along: he’s one of us.

The second item is not nearly filled with the gravitas of the first item. This week in Kappa, Illinois a young golfer named Curt Hocker had…wait for it….5 holes-in-one in one week, including two in one round. According to a Golf Digest study, the odds of making one hole-in-one range from 5,000 to 33,000 to 1 but making 2 in one round the odds skyrocket to 67 million to one. Unbelievable. But here’s where the story gets a wee bit sticky for me. Hocker, also recorded 2 double eagles in the same round earlier this summer. A double eagle is three under par on one hole. For example, in order to score a double eagle on a par 5, one would need to hole out in 2 shots. It’s not impossible but check out these odds. Getting 1 double eagle is quoted at 6 million to one. There is no quote for two in one round. Here’s more perspective…Between 1983 to 2003, there were 631 aces on the PGA Tour but just 56 double-eagles – and never more than 6 in one year. Curt Hocker, congratulations but I hope you don’t mind if I am a little bit skeptical.

Possibly Related Posts:

Tagged with: Adulation • Barack Obama • Biden • Body Language • Boos • Chicago; • Curt Hocker; • Ego • Exhaustion • Fatigue • Glee • Grandmother • Grant Park • Grief • Hocker • Huffington Post • Illinois; • Jeers • John McCain • Kappa; • Overwhelming Victory • PGA Tour; • Power Joy • Presidency • President Of The United States • Relentless Attack • United States

Boris

On 10.30.08, In Eccentric, Government, London, Politics, United Kingdom, By Mike

If James Spader and Donald Trump were British and could somehow procreate (crikey, what am I saying here), their male offspring would be the spit and image of Boris Johnson. Johnson is the Mayor of London. I will spare you the details of Johnson’s resume but it is broad and deep but it hardly gives you any sense of the man. If one said that Boris Johnson is quirky, it would be akin to saying Usain Bolt is speedy. Usain Bolt? He’s really fast. Boris, and he hates being called by his surname because he doesn’t want to be perceived as likeable, was in the news this week. As usual, he was in the news because the man just doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut and for Johnson, political correctness never applies.

Johnson, a former journalist, still likes to write though he is a busy mayor of one of the world’s largest cities. He always has something to say and he still likes to memorialize it. On Tuesday, Johnson scribed a piece for the (London) Telegraph about the financial crisis. On one hand, his words look commonsensical, on other hand he misses the point that we are in the soup because we spent our way into it. The consumer cannot get us out of this problem given what has happened to real estate, retirement plans et al. But this is Boris at his best.

I don’t want to seem indifferent to suffering, and I don’t want anyone to accuse me of minimising the likely effect of the recession, because the coming months will very probably be a lot tougher – for millions of people – than the boom times we have all recently enjoyed.

But after reading the BBC’s special market crisis website, complete with its jagged red arrow pointing at the floor, and after hearing the pornographic glee with which we are told that another small country has gone up the spout, and after Mr Bean, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, has informed us that this could be the worst financial crisis in history, I am afraid I want to thrash my FT on the table and shout, Whoa! Come off it, folks! This isn’t the Black Death. Pinch yourself. Are you still there? Got a pulse? Thought so. Look out of the window. Those aren’t zombies. They are men and women engaged in the normal business of getting and spending.

This isn’t some disaster movie about a virus from Mars. It’s a recession, a downturn, a correction of a kind that is indispensable to any kind of human activity, and it does not require that we all go around under a special kind of credit-crunch pall. It does not mean we have to cancel all parties and talk in hushed credit-crunch tones. It doesn’t mean we have to line our rooms with newspaper, get in the foetal position and live on tins: in fact, it means the opposite.

Classic Boris. Have a read of the rest of Johnson’s bylined story here.