Barack Obama and The Black Eyed Peas

“When you have the mo, you go.” That’s what Josh Lynam said in
one of the episodes of The West Wing and right now, in the fight
for presidential nomination, momentum is most definitely with
Barack Obama.



This video of a song written by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas and
directed by Jesse Dylan, son of Bob, is further evidence that Hillary
Clinton is falling off the pace. What i.am has done is to take
Obama’s speech, when, actually, he lost the New Hampshire
primary and make him sound like a winner. He’s turned a passage
of the speech into the lyrics of a simple song, which he, and several
others, then sing in synch with Obama’s spoken words.

It’s a powerful piece of communication for several reasons.
Firstly, it is one man’s personal idea about what Obama means for
the future of America. Obama himself had nothing to do with it.
The dead hand of a committee could not take the idea and mutilate
it. So, slick though it is, the film has both an artistic and political
integrity about it.

Secondly, it’s inclusive. It says nothing more complicated than
‘Together we can change things around here’ but says it in a way
that is non-confrontational. Thirdly, it is a powerful endorsement
of Obama by some pretty hip characters. True I only recognised
Scarlett Johansson but the more youthful of you will probably also
identify John Legend, Kate Walsh and basketball star Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar.

Compare and contrast these with Hillary Clinton’s ageing celebs,
Madonna, Steven Spielberg and Jack Nicholson.
One-day, Obama’s team will look back and see this video as the
nudge that toppled the vote their man’s way.
It is a triumph of style over substance, selling no more than a
feeling. But what a feeling. A feeling that this is the next President
of the United States.

/Patrick Collister/