Beer Diplomacy and Evil Overlords

Today, the President of the United States had a beer with a couple of guys.

That sounds trite and inconsequential, doesn't it? It would seem, under any other set of circumstances, that this would be beneath the notice of ... well, just about everyone. Even in this day and age of up-to-the-second reports on Twitter (does the President have a Twitter page? If so, it's unlikely he uses it directly), it seems odd for the press to be so absurdly focused on this one event.

Granted, there are mitigating factors. The President was asked about this particular case, and he slipped. He called the policeman involved "stupid," and that word resonated so deeply in a culture of racial difficulties and mistrust that he's felt like he needs to fix everything.

But it all seems so trivially small. This is an event between two citizens. Well, a citizen and a policeman. OK, so a black citizen and a white policeman, with all the interpersonal conflicts that seems to engender. But shouldn't the President of the United States be focused on other, more important issues?

Or maybe not.

You can tell I'm divided on this. On the one hand: yes, there are other things going on in the world that he should (and probably is) pay(ing) attention to. On the other hand, the platform on which he was elected was all about change. Not just political change, though he's been fighting for that, too. But the very fact that a black man got elected as President of a nation that has a serious racial identity crisis says something about the change welling up in the hearts and minds of the people. It says that maybe we're almost ready to move on beyond race, and accept each other as human beings.

Maybe. Almost.

And on the gripping hand, it's just odd. Like the President of the United States is trying to prove to someone, anyone, everyone, that he's just a common man. "Hell, sometimes I just want to sit down with a beer," he seems to be saying. Which is all well and good, I suppose, for those people who want an Everyman to be President. But I am not one of those people. I don't like everyday people. They're dumb, they're irritating, they have issues with common decency and sense. I want someone to be a bit above that, and that's why I voted for Obama. Because he championed change, and seemed like maybe he could deliver.

All of it is odd, though. Part of my mind - the scared, confused, conspiracy-laden part that I usually tuck deep within where it cannot affect anything - says that there's a hint of the Evil Overlord about Obama.

Two strange things have happened during his presidency that have been bugging me. First was the death of his grandmother. Just before the election. Isn't that interesting timing? I certainly don't have any proof of any wrongdoing, and I'm not suggesting that Obama would do such a thing, but ... odd. And it's something a person of less moral stature might consider in order to win some sympathy votes from the undecideds. Heck, maybe the grandmother offed herself in an effort to get her grandson some votes. Maybe not. Maybe it was all a coincidence. These things happen beyond our keen.

The second strange thing is more of a series, a spate, if you will, of resignations from the opposing party. What are we up to now? Three Republicans? Four? The two most compelling have also been the two most publicized. One was his opponent's running mate, who said she wanted to spend some time with family. The other was a governor in a middle state who decided, seemingly out of the blue, to confess that he had been having an affair and wanted to air his dirty laundry before it caught up with him. Other resignations have cropped up here and there, as suddenly they decide it's time to pack up and go home.

These are both things an Evil Overlord would do. He would take out family members if it served his nefarious purposes, and he would find a way to eliminate opposition in such a way as to curry favour with the general populace.

An Evil Overlord, mind, who has read the list. So this isn't some run-of-the-mill villain who exists purely to be defeated. This is a man with vision, with sense, with drive, who may very well win out in the end.

And I think that's awesome. I'm glad I voted for him.

I wonder what else he'll do next ...