heard of them?
Oct. 22nd, 2008 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacA common remark made about both Obama and Palin is that they're little-known; people don't know much about them. This is silly; if you care, there's plenty about both. Obama has been the subject of intense media attention for at least the year-and-a-half he's been running, and they're trying to catch up with Palin: the revelations keep coming.
But it does raise the question: when did you first hear of them?
I know exactly when I first read the name Barack Obama: in a news article surveying the Illinois Democratic senatorial field before the March 2004 primary. It said that rather surprisingly, for he'd not been initially tipped to have much of a chance, he was poised to win the primary. That gave him a good chance to be that unusual thing, a black US Senator. After he won the primary, his Republican opponent imploded in June (remember the sex club scandal?), so by the time he gave his keynote speech at the Democratic convention, to call him "the next Senator from Illinois" was not just hopeful thinking. That speech on TV was the first time I saw or heard him, and from it I learned the details of his interesting background. I figured even then that he could run for President some time. So he's been a familiar figure to me for four years.
As for Palin, I hadn't been keeping a close eye on Alaska politics, but it didn't surprise me at all when I came across the fact sometime early last year that the previous governor had been bumped off in his primary. (I'd visited Alaska a couple years earlier and he was wildly unpopular even then.) The new governor was a woman, which was interesting, and a first for Alaska; she had an unusual and memorable surname; and she had a good reputation for a Republican. But I didn't look any further than that, so though I had heard of her, I was taken as off-guard by McCain's choice as everyone else.
But it does raise the question: when did you first hear of them?
I know exactly when I first read the name Barack Obama: in a news article surveying the Illinois Democratic senatorial field before the March 2004 primary. It said that rather surprisingly, for he'd not been initially tipped to have much of a chance, he was poised to win the primary. That gave him a good chance to be that unusual thing, a black US Senator. After he won the primary, his Republican opponent imploded in June (remember the sex club scandal?), so by the time he gave his keynote speech at the Democratic convention, to call him "the next Senator from Illinois" was not just hopeful thinking. That speech on TV was the first time I saw or heard him, and from it I learned the details of his interesting background. I figured even then that he could run for President some time. So he's been a familiar figure to me for four years.
As for Palin, I hadn't been keeping a close eye on Alaska politics, but it didn't surprise me at all when I came across the fact sometime early last year that the previous governor had been bumped off in his primary. (I'd visited Alaska a couple years earlier and he was wildly unpopular even then.) The new governor was a woman, which was interesting, and a first for Alaska; she had an unusual and memorable surname; and she had a good reputation for a Republican. But I didn't look any further than that, so though I had heard of her, I was taken as off-guard by McCain's choice as everyone else.
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Date: 2008-10-22 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-22 11:34 pm (UTC)I actually saw Obama's original Republican opponent, with his then-wife and their young son, on a visit to University City Studios on my 45th birthday (that's, ahem, ten years ago). I have no recollection of what any of them looked like except for the then-wife, who was jaw-droppingly beautiful.
As I recall, Alan Keyes was persuaded to step in as a replacement nominee, even though he had to move to Illinois from somewhere else, after having just criticized Hillary
RodhamClinton for having moved to New York to run for the Senate. And interestingly, as you may have noticed, Mr. Keyes is on the ballot as the presidential candidate of the American Independent Party.As for Palin, I may have seen some mention of her having been elected governor of Alaska a couple of years ago, but I haven't paid much attention to Alaska ever since "Northern Exposure" ended its run. Although yesterday I did get three Alaska quarters in change, and upon arriving home immediately put one of them into my State Quarters album.
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Date: 2008-10-22 11:55 pm (UTC)I too received an Alaska quarter recently. Holding it gingerly by the edges, as if it smelled slightly, I inserted it into the album.
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Date: 2008-10-23 07:32 am (UTC)I had never heard of Obama until his convention speech, but I certainly paid attention to him after that.
And I never heard of Palin until she was picked by the McCain campaign. However, if I had gone to the Anchorage Bouchercon in 2007 instead of deciding very late to pass on it, I'd have seen her deliver a welcome speech there. The attendees liked her -- even in her pre-Caribou Barbie clothes.