Four Questions About Barack Obama – The MultiView

Today’s multiview stems from a questions I found myself asking just about everyone I ran into shortly after Barack Obama won the presidential election. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to ask some people who took the time to either sit down and answer into a recorder or email their answers back to us. Below are answers from people spanning generations, income levels, race, sex, political affiliations and so on. Interviews were reproduced as faithfully to the original as possible.

We also welcome you to answer the following questions in our Comments section below. Enjoy.

Question 1: Where were you and what were you doing when Barack Obama won the necessary votes and gave his acceptance speech?

“I was at Jason Gibner’s house with his lovely pregnant wife Erin and my lovely lady Mariah and I was fighting back tears as I kind of sat and took in what this meant. And then later on I was very jealous of all the stories that I heard from people of downtown Ann Arbor exploding in a huge flurry of activity and people charging the Diag and high-fiving each other and beeping at and everything like that. I thought that was great, but I was very happy to celebrate this time with very amazing friends and life-long buds.” – Jeremy Wheeler, DJ/comic artist/film critic, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at Babs’, oddly enough [where this interview took place]. Actually, I was flyering for a gig and I was out in the streets and I hit, like, seven to ten bars that night and just catchin’ the vibe that night. Honestly, it didn’t really hit me until I watched his acceptance speech and honestly, a little shit welled up in me, like I’m not gonna [cry], but — You know what it was? It was, I was proud to be an American all over again. I am so United States. I love everything this country was built on. I hate some of the shit this government does, but I love the fact that I’m able to hate it. Do you know what I mean? And I was really just choked up that I was happy to be American all over again. Like, I didn’t want to move out of the country anymore. I wanted to stay here and do something and I was so happy. To me it was a monumental thing and it didn’t really hit me until I went home and watched the re-run of the acceptance speech and I was like — I was with my buddy and both of us were kind of choked up. It was two grown-ass men watching television and not talkin’, like, ‘Dude, don’t look at me.’ [laughs]” – Brian “Just B” Alverez, DJ, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was actually in my office finishing up work that I had to do for the next day unfortunately. But, I was sort of keeping track of what was going on my computer as it was going on. Yeah, CNN.com and I was just hitting refresh while I was doing my work. I was writing a research proposal for one of my courses.” – Shawn Henry, U of M Grad Student, Mathematics, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at home in my living room and I was sitting there bewildered, dumbfounded, excited and amazed. It took me a whole 24 hours to really realize that he actually had won. Not only won, but he won. He didn’t just win by a couple of votes, he like, really won by a landslide considering that he’s a black president — and I’m black — I didn’t think that America was really ready to have a black president, to be perfectly honest. I voted for him, of course, not because he was black but just because he was better than McCain. I liked McCain. I just thought he’s a little bit too straight-laced, too conservative for what the country needed as a whole at this particular moment. I think maybe if he would’ve ran in the 80s or early 90s, he would’ve been a prime candidate and idealistic president for that era. But I don’t think with how everybody is just so liberal and more open-minded as the years go on, you know, in the new millennium. I don’t think that — I never thought that [McCain] would win and definitely, Palin didn’t help. ” – Laditra Jackson – Chef, The Melting Pot, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at home and I was just watching it on TV and I was proud! I was proud of him, not just for being the president but just for conducting himself in the manner that he did. You very rarely see, like, a lot of black young males — I consider him as young. He’s not my age, but he’s young, you know. I just took it as a movement. It let a lot of people know of the different cultures that, you know, African-Americans — it’s not just one stereotype, so I liked that because I think that because he’s president, that other people will look at other black males as positive figures, not just as drug dealers or bangers or somebody who’s trying to rob you or anything. It’s a lot of people that I know that’s black, but they’re so close to white that you wouldn’t really know they were black unless you seen them. Like, if you talk to them over the phone, you’d be like, ‘Oh, wow.’ cuz they’re into more white stuff than, you know, black stuff. It’s definitely a positive thing because it opens up doors for, you know, it might be other young kids aspiring to be a president. When I was younger, I was like, I looked at the ruler of all the presidents and I was like, ‘Ain’t anybody in my family every been president. I don’t see anybody black on here. There’s about 24 presidents on the ruler. I just didn’t even think about growing up as a president was even possible. It is enlightening. It is motivation that you can be what you want to be if you strive for it.  ” – Ralph Cheatham, The Melting Pot, Ann Arbor, MI

“I was at my house in Ferndale. We hosted an election party and had CNN on the TV in the living room and NBC on the TV in the dining room. I first saw it on the NBC and was like “NBC’s Calling it…” walked into the living room and CNN called it and we erupted into applause and then sort of stood around with this moment of awe and wonder. A couple of moments later I went out on the front porch and could hear people cheering on 9 Mile Road in downtown Ferndale so we started cheering on our porch too. We watched his speech from my living room. Wanted so bad to drive around town like the red wings had won, but didn’t.” – Scott Myers, Actor/Improviser, Ferndale, MI

“Lying in bed, watching the vote count. (I was not feeling well). Afterward I could hear screams of joy up and down the NYC blocks.” – Jessie Russell, New York, NY

“Salida, CO. Sleeping.” – Forest Casey, Photojournalist, Los Angeles, CA

(Continued on next page…)

Questions 2: What do you think Obama’s biggest challenge over the next four years will be?

“Uh, shit… fixing the pile of crap that is America. That’s his biggest problem. I mean, he has a lot to fix and he has a lot to shovel, but… can he do it? I certainly hope so. I have faith in him. Absolutely. Absolute faith in him. If there’s anyone in my time that I can believe in, it’s him. It’s absolutely him.” – Jeremy Wheeler

“I don’t know if its the economy because he’s inspiring so many people on so many levels that I think people are willing to fuck up with him. Every president is going to fuck up. I’d rather fuck up with that man than anybody else, you know? He inspires me. I’m not worried about that. I think its gonna be getting his politics right as far as foreign policy is concerned because there’s a lot of countries making a lot of big moves right now and while Anerica’s stumbling, this is what they’ve been waiting for. So, it’s while America’s weak that people are going to look to take a shot. I think his biggest thing is going to be foreign policy and making us [respectable] in the world eye all over again. And the world power that we are in, like, in a respectable way, rather than that fucking bully from Texas, you know?” – Brian Alvarez

“That is a very interesting question because I went to the school that he used to be a professor at so I’ve heard some very interesting things about the guy from people who have actually been in his classes. I’m not sure how true they are. That was the University of Chicago. I knew some people who took some of his classes and they said that he’s very much a Marxist and very much a Hobbesian sort of political philosopher and I think reconciling that with actually being the president of a democratic country would be very interesting for him if that’s really how he thinks, although I have no idea whether that was because of the context of the courses that my friends were taking or if it was actually what his beliefs were. I only have that second-hand. I haven’t actually had first-hand experience with any of that. Yeah, so… given that  though, he has a lot of foreign policy issues to do something with. I think, probably, reconciling himself to the people that thought he was a terrible idea for a president, of which I’m pretty sure there were many, is probably going to be his biggest issue here, but I think foreign policy might go ahead a bit. I would say that everything went back and forth so much that I don’t remember what sort of stance he came out with in the end about what we should do about Iraq but, it’s probably the biggest issue that he’ll have to deal with over the next four year. The economy is not something that the president — well, in theory, the president deals with the economy, but that’s just sort of a campaign platform. He’s not actually the guy who deals with the economy. He appoints people to do that for him, so I think probably appointing smart people to that for him is probably another one of his big challenges that will come about.” – Shawn Henry

“His biggest challenge is gonna be, and I hate to play the race card, but that is a major factor. I think a lot of the black community feels that he’s gonna be a miracle, per se;  The savior , whatever. Something that he’s not. He’s only a human being. It’s going to take him four years to rectify what’s been happening in the last eight and if he’s elected for a second term, then he’ll be able to implement the changes he has in mind. But I think that the pressure from the black community is going to be the most detrimental, so to speak, for lack of a better term. A lot of people who’s not as educated, not only black folks, but other minorities that’s not really educated on political process and how things work in a time frame expect an instant fix. I think that’s going to be his biggest pressure.” – Laditra Jackson

“His biggest — he’s got a pretty hard task to tackle, man. I’m not even gonna say just because of Bush. I’m just gonna say, because anybody who steps into that category, they know what comes along with it, but as well, I just want him to — I would hope that he conduct business in a totally professional way. Race or not, I don’t want him to be a president, a black president, just helping out black people or opening up benefits for black people. I want him to really try to help the world. It’s not all about black or white or whatever. It’s just, get your job done for America and the people who try to live their life right. It’s people who are trying to do something with theirself, more than the negative stuff. I just think that it was time for change, but at the same time I’m not saying if — even if he wasn’t president, I’m behind whoever is president as long as they conduct and do their job. It didn’t have to be a black president. Just growing up, I just didn’t see it. It just totally surprised me. That’s why I watched it down to the last minue to see. I thought, like, even if he had enough votes, I thought he still was not going to be president. Just for some reason I felt like, hey! Cuz they’ve got the power, man. You hear, ‘Vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote!’ but if you actually go to school and learn your history, the community and the public votes, they don’t vote for who will be president. You got representatives in Congress. They do the final vote. Now they take it into recognition that a lot of people are votin’ and, ok, here’s who we vote in. I mean, there was no vote for Bush, he still became president. You can have fifty million black people in line sayin’, ‘No Bush! No Bush!’ and he still was president.” – Ralph Cheatham

“It will be a tie between the Economy and Terrorism. I think he’s got a good team in place to deal with Iraq so I think, or hope, Iraq will continue on the path that seems to have started since Gates took over. But Terrorism has no country or home as we saw recently in India. This will beleaguer the world during his presidency. The Economic crisis here is just gigantic.” – Scott Myers

“The economy. What he does in his first 180 days in office to help the economy will determine the rest of [his] 3½ years.” – Jessie Russell

“Volatility of financial markets independent of governmental action.” – Forest Casey

(Continued on next page…)

Question 3: Do you think he’ll be able to deliver on the change he promised over the past two years of campaigning?

“Damn, I hope so! I really hope so. If he doesn’t, I don’t know who will. He feels so genuine and true and a person that really could make a big difference in my lifetime and if he doesn’t, then it’ll really be hard to get behind someone again that inspires the same kinds of feelings and hope that he does. If he fails, it’s going to be very hard for — it’s gonna make a whole generation very cynical and that’s scary and sad, so I hope he’s the real deal.” – Jeremy Wheeler

“You know what, I think he has, quite honestly. Already. I mean, there has been an air of change. No matter what he does in his presidency, he will have delivered that change just by being nominated. However, I believe that man. I don’t know whether, you know… I don’t know what is. It’s this smooth swagger, He’s got this talk that I just — I love to listen to him and I believe him. Whatever that man says I’m gonna go for it until he fucks that trust up, but I think that he has the capacity to change the United States of America in the face of it.” – Brian Alvarez

“Oh, I think things will definitely change. I’m not sure in what way, but I think he’ll definitely have a significant impact on all sorts of different things that he talked about. I lived on the south side of Chicago where he used to do a lot of his work and I’ve seen the benefits of what he used to do down there and I’ve seen of the things he can actually do something about what he talks about. He’s not someone that just talks. At least, not on all fronts. On a much smaller scale [than president], I’ve seen, within the city of Chicago anyway, a lot of the stuff he used to do actually work out to a large extent. Of course, he’s not single-handedly responsible for it, but the south side of Chicago is not the scary place that it used to be.” – Shawn Henry

“Yes, [I think he can deliver on the change he promised] but it will take him until his second term to do it. He’s going to have to backtrack and do a whole bunch of other things. I think that he can make the changes necessary, but he’s gonna need some time. He’s gonna need at least six years to put his changes into place. You know, you can’t just fix something that’s been brewing and brewing for eight years, almost a decade, and just fix it overnight. It’s just not gonna happen. It’s unrealistic.” – Laditra Jackson

“I don’t think that he’ll be able to — I’ll say I’m not sure if he’s able to conquer  that in two years, but he makes the necessary moves that he need to make, he’ll get farther than they think, so… Keep headin’ in a positive direction. I mean, as a president, I don’t think there’s no other option. Like, if you go negative, you just cursed the whole race! I think because everybody’s lookin’ up to him, everybody’s appreciatin’ — this is history, you know? So he needs to, you know, make sure that he continues makin’ history the right way. Don’t leave our history like, ‘Ohh, a black guy got in here, he got a kid outta wedlock, you know… we seen him down in Ypsi smokin’ crack or something. I don’t know. Just, you know, be structured. He believes in what he’s saying and I think things will change because I think that he knew before he got into the position the moves he was going to make. I mean, when you’re going to be president, you don’t just all of a sudden one day say, ‘Hey, I wanna be president.’ I think you make moves before you get there to be the president. I think you gotta have a plan in before you became the president. Now, if he go in there and do — just try to go with it however it go, naw. I think he’s in trouble. Definitely. It’s gonna be pretty hard to patch up the things that’s been done overseas because, like, they don’t like Americans at all. I watch TV and I see from time to time they show militia groups and they say what they will do to American soldiers. I just think, ‘Wow…’ We need to try to patch it up some kind of way. Sit down with some head of their country or something and get some kind of — I mean, I’m pretty sure we can’t patch it up that easy because we’ve killed a lot of their people, civilians and different other people, but we’ve got to start somewhere. He seems like he’s for change; that he’s trying to make a positive role but he’s in such a position that, I mean, man… I don’t know. He’s got a task above his belt. Definitely.” – Ralph Cheatham

“On Iraq, yes. On Health care, yes – at least in part. On the economy, yes, but it’s going to take a lot of work. He will not be able to do it alone.” – Scott Myers

“No. I do not think any politician can deliver all what they promise. I think he was the one candidate that could do the most.” – Jessie Russell

“Well, in many respects, the change message was based on the differences between whatever administration Obama has in store and the previous administration. Even just pointing out the most obvious differences between the two men gives Obama the change he promised.” – Forest Casey

(Continued on next page…)

Question 4: If nothing else, what do you think he should absolutely accomplish during his first term?

“One thing… one thing that Obama has to do in his first term… You know, it’s time for universal health care. It’s time for health care to stop being a thing that people talk about in their stump speeches and things like that. It’s time for the American government to be serious about health care. It’s time for people with disabilities and preexisting problems to not have a problem getting insurance. To not have a problem getting covered. It’s time for a government to start caring about the people who support it and fund it. Jesus, we’re giving our money to it so why shouldn’t it support us? Why not? Fuck it.” – Jeremy Wheeler

“Probably, the best thing any president can do is set a good precedent for the next person to take that office or do a good enough job that they’re worth re-electing. He can’t guarantee a solution to all the problems that we have, but as long as he works on constructive sorts of solutions to everything that’s going on; the economy problem, the foreign policy problem, even the problem of people being very divided over political parties to the extent of hatred right now it seems, it would definitely be a step forward. I don’t think he needs to unify the parties. Democratic opposition is a good idea, but the fact that he actually sort of got hatred out of some of the opposition rather than just, ‘This guy doesn’t quite stand for what we are interested in’ is not a good thing at all. It’s not a good thing to have a president representing the people, some of whom actually not only don’t agree with him on some things, but actually despise him. That’s just not a good idea at all. That’s definitely something that he can work on.” – Shawn Henry

“Troops out of Iraq. Economy. Crime. In that order, because the economy, or lack of a good economy, causes a higher crime rate. People with no money get desperate, not necessarily criminals, but think of criminal things to do to get money. It’s survival skills. Just being a human being, you have six kids in the house and no one has nothin’ to eat, if you never stole anything, you would probably consider stealing something because your children, your offspring, somebody you gave life to, is hungry. Bottom line, does that make you a criminal? No. That just means that you’re doing criminal things for survival. I think there’s a fine line and people really need to look into that. A lot of people that are actually sittin’ in jail right now for — I know people that have stole meat out [of] the grocery store and have caught, like, misdemeanors, retail fraud and stuff like that. Definitely, a $2.00 piece of steak, you’re not going to go sell it on the street and make a profit. It’s clearly to eat, so I think once he fixes the economy the crime rate will go down and everybody will feel much more relieved. Gas has went down. Some people think it has to do with him being president. I don’t necessarily think so. I just think that Bush was on his way out. That’s just my opinion.” – Laditra Jackson

“His first term… he should accomplish… I’m gonna say health care and I’ll say definitely try foreign relations, cuz that’s the start right there. You can’t– America can’t live safe unless we’re sure that, you know, nobody’s trying to invade the country or bomb the country or anything like that. I think that starts first. Then he can work on America, cuz America can be put together. All you need is some guidance and people. I mean, he gots the people. All he need is guidance. You know, different places to go into. If you havin’ trouble with certain things, you know, you need to make things available people who didn’t know or don’t know where to go to get help. I think that has a lot to do with the problem. People, they want to reach out but they don’t know exactly how and you know, I can tell other black guys or, you know, other people period. I mean, not just other black guys but other people, period, who might be going through the same problems. He can put it some type of way or patch it  up some type of way where, you know, everybody thinks that this is the thing to do cuz he’s in such a head position that people are going to follow the whole way. I think there’s gonna be another somebody thy to be black president or in the Congress or something because they see that they got a chance. They see one person doin’ it and now they know, ‘Oh, ok, well, maybe I can try. If I get rejected, maybe I can try again.’ ” – Ralph Cheatham

“Stabilize the economy and restore the US relationship with our democratic partners in the rest of the world.” – Scott Myers

“Reform of the health care system.” – Forest Casey

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