Go now!
From President Barack Obama:
As many of you know I’ve spent much of my first year in office watching, and re-watching, episodes of My So Called Life on Hulu.
What a great show.
The difficult realities faced by 15-year old Angela Chase as she comes of age are just as true, and just as relevant today as they were in 1994. I didn’t watch this show when it originally aired, perhaps because it was too real for me back then. Maybe I wasn’t mature enough. Now that I’m president maybe I’m more ready for the lessons My So Called Life has to offer.
I see so much of myself, and my presidency in Angela and what she’s going through. Like Angela Chase, I too am conflicted about who I am at any given moment. I maybe president, but I’m also trying to find my place in world. Maybe I need to change the way I look - I could dye my hair Kool-Aid red. After this week something needs to change.
I guess what I’m saying is; what happened in Massachusetts hurt, you know? It hurt so much. I wish I could hug Angela’s mother, ably played by TV veteran, Bess Armstrong, and cry.
Like Angela narrates in the episode titled The Zit from season 1:
"The worst feeling is suddenly realizing that you don't measure up. And that, in the past, when you thought you did, you were a fool.”
That’s how Martha Coakley made me feel on Tuesday night…
Only I don’t have Ricky or Rayanne or even straight-laced Sharon to comfort me, and make me see that this is not the end of the world. All I have is Rahm and he’s more like one of Jordan Catalano’s bonehead friends. In other words - no help at all.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that Martha Coakley is kind of like the zit Angela finds herself confronted with in that episode. This is what Angela has to say about that zit during one of her inner monologues:
"It had become the focus of everything. It was all I could feel, all I could think about. It blotted out the rest of my face, the rest of my life. Like the zit had become... the truth about me."
OMG it’s like she’s reading my brain.
I can’t be too mad a Martha - it’s not the zit’s fault that it ruins your life. It’s not like the zit has a brain or feelings and is intentionally trying to embarrass you in front of Jordan Catalano and the media. But sometimes… Whatever. I’m so over Martha Coakley.
Maybe the truth is that it’s not the zit’s problem, maybe it’s my problem. Maybe I should stop running the country like I’m a 15 year old girl who is more concerned about the way other people see me than I am in thinking about the future and what’s best for me, or the country, or something… whatever. You know?
Maybe I should at least stop watching 6 hours of My So Called Life a day when I should be Hillary-ing up and acting like I want to be here.
You know what’s weird? In 1994 Bill Clinton was two years into his presidency, and even though the sex scandals hadn’t ruined him yet, he still was looking pretty ineffectual, kind of like I’m looking right about now.
If Angela Chase were 15 in 1994, that means that she would be 31 right now. In those 31 years she would have a memory of just that one Democratic president before me, and if I turn out to be the same kind of place-holder, a man who accomplishes nothing more than a mild slowing of a further descent into socially and fiscally conservative policy, than it’s almost like, not even, a two party system. If you think about it… it’s really just like a Republican system that calls a time-out every now and then to catch its breath.
Woah, I just totally blew my own mind, and like totally depressed myself. I’m gonna go cheer myself up by watching the Christmas Episode with Juliana Hatfield. That episode is sooo sad but it makes me appreciate everything that I have. Like an 18 seat majority. Besides Juliana Hatfield makes Barack Obama happy even when he has a zit.
Or as Angela might say:
"People are always saying you should be yourself, like yourself is this definite thing, like a toaster. Like you know what it is even. But every so often I'll have, like, a moment, where just being myself in my life right where I am is, like, enough."
Or:
"There's this dividing line between girls who have had sex, and girls who haven't. And all of a sudden you realize you're looking at each other across it."
I'm a toaster who wants to cross that line. Right again Angela. Right again.


Salon.com
Comments
Totally.
Rated (and laughed mightily at) as usual.