I've been on the Obama train longer than I thought

Looking back through my Obama entries because I want to savor this moment, I'm embarrassed that I complained about President Elect Barry-O a lot on this blog at the beginning of the primaries... but in my defense, just because he wasn't being enough of a badass for my hopeful tastes. Still, he's changed a lot as a candidate and again, somewhere along the way I became utterly besotted. Plus, the history of this blog reveals that I've long had a soft spot for him. Here are my fave Obama posts.

• In March '07, I blogged about how much I liked his book and how impressed I was with him, even though his writing left much of his personality guarded. I think I understand now that that is his personality: he is a consummate listener, a peace broker by nature, not design. I'd imagine this very presidential personality trait has a lot to do with his dad's abandonment, his long separation from his mom, and his biracial identity, and I'll leave the rest to Freud :) It's a lovely book, folks, and now is the time to relax and read it. A president who's a great writer and required no ghost-writer or co-writer to pen his books? Awesome.
  

• In May of last year, I blogged/bitched about the Times's portrayal of Michelle Obama, from Maureen Dowd to the news analysis page, and set off a mini flame war between two readers, a rarity for this intimate blog.
  

• I kicked off my Monday Morning poem segment with Claude McKay's brilliant The White House, which now seems [partially] a relic of another time. It's funny how literature--from this poem through Tupac, reveals how much a black president has been a particularly potent symbolic dream.
  

• BRUCE + Barack = progressive woman's fantasy come true:) And now we hear that the Boss is releasing a new album in time for the inauguration? Too awesome. If this is true, and the album is good, then The Rising+Magic+Hopeyhopeful album #3 will be this amazing trilogy that sums up the entire decade in song. Damn.
  

And that's it, folks. Back to book-blogging (and reading, and watching TV that's not cable news, and not tripping over my own two feet) next week.