Conversations with Obama

There is no context for this situation. There never was and never really could be. Regardless, President Barack Obama had the pleasure of sitting down with yours truly. In other words, there were no cameras and he didn’t know about my hidden tape recorder.

No matter your political ideology, he was exactly what you’d expect. I wish I could say he scratched his ass and belched, but he didn’t. By the same token, he wasn’t surprised when I did.

“Mister President,” I started.
“Barack’s fine.”
“You’re the leader of our country,” I began to ask. “Members of three separate generations have claimed you are the leader of their generation…” I slowly lose the words.
“Do you know what you want to ask?”
“I do, but I don’t know how.”
“Is this about your reGeneration?”
“Yes. I don’t remember having an idol growing up. I didn't look up to anybody I didn't know personally. Sometimes I want to blame my journalistic predecessors. Every famous person of the last century has been dug up, analyzed and tossed aside. Every idol, role model and ideal has been deconstructed to their cynical roots. It seems that anyone with any social respectability, admiralty or power can be dragged through the mud; yet I feel like there’s pressure to find a role model. Someone somewhere must be the worth the status.”

Obama formed an L with his hand and rested his head so that his index finger paralleled the side of his face. He thought for a moment, sacrificing a quick response for a deliberate one.

“You can’t ask people to be perfect--”he began.
“Even if they are trying to be?”
“Is that a shot at me?”
“'Afraid not, Daniel Webster. But I am curious: Are you afraid of being an elitist?”
“That’s a good trick question.”
“Have you ever read the Trial of Socrates?”
“Yes.”
“According to Plato, Socrates was executed because he tried to teach reason over mysticism,” I paused, letting Obama start to put together the rest of the linguistic and historic puzzle, before continuing, “More importantly though, Socrates had a chance to escape his execution but refused. He died willingly so that he could be vindicated by history.”
“Was he?.”
“Not completely.”
“It’s dangerous, if not inaccurate, to call people’s religion mysticism.” I knew what Obama met. Always the politician. But that doesn’t mean he was wrong. Socrates wasn’t vindicated in the last 2300 years, so it didn’t seem likely to happen in the next five minutes.

“I heard at one point that your favorite show was ‘Entourage’,” I asked without asking.
“Yeah. Are you fan?”
“Yeah but I haven’t watched much of season sixth; stuff just keeps coming up.”

He smiled. “I know exactly how you feel. I think there’s more to the show than a lot of people give it credit for.”
“I’d agree, sir.”
“The show is a dichotomy of an aimlessly ambitious group of multi-talented best friends. Their Hollywood ambitions aren’t exactly noble in nature, but it’s fun to watch. They all have such strong and different personalities that they can cover all spectrums of a situation.”
“That’s good writing” I quipped.
“That’s a good group of friends” he quipped back. “You think my political advisors don’t have different personalities?”
“I suppose so, sir. But now I can’t help but picture you and Joe Biden trying to sneak into the Playboy Mansion.”
“Okay, so the comparison wasn’t perfect.”

I smiled, but it faded as I realized I forgot what else I needed to ask the President.

“Nick,” Obama said, instantly getting my attention, “I’m curious what it is you’re doing. Not many people ever talk to me without ever talking to me. Or at least they don’t get a response.”
“Is it too weird?”
“No, not at all. You learn through experimentation, right? Take your time, keep an open mind. When you have the opportunity: take it, because you don’t always have it.”
“You can’t get real experimental with the Afghanistan War, huh?”
“That’s right. But you, and your generation does have the opportunity.”
“School kind of takes up a lot of time.”
“I know,” he said smiling, revealing that he had a had a flip remark up his sleeve, “Too often schools get in the way of a proper education.”
“So we need a better education?”
“You and your friends will be plenty educated before long. Just like your parents. But what I want to see is the younger generations, your reGeneration, not only find the faults in society others can’t see, but to fix them. Or at least put the even younger generations in a better position."

I considered this. "I think that's your job, too, sir."

"It is. But we're not talking about me. We're talking about you. Maybe I’m asking too much, but that's the way it should be. Don't get discouraged. If you hit specific goals and always see the bigger picture for society, we might just have a generation full of the role models you said you were looking for.”

Game on.