Only in America

 “One kid dreams of fame and fortune

One kid helps pay the rent

One could end up going to prison

One just might be president”

Brooks and Dunn, “Only in America”

“Only in America” by Nashville country artists Brooks and Young often served as the musical introduction to Barack Obama’s appearances at 2008 campaign rallies. Other times his staff went with U-2’s “City of Blinding Lights,” which included these lyrics:

The more you see, the less you feel

Some pray for, others steal

Blessings are not just for those who kneel

Luckily

According to his excellent memoir “A Promised Land,” before debates, Obama liked to listen to jazz standards by Miles Davis and John Coltrane and, on the way to the site, rap songs by Eminem and Jay Z. Eminem’s “Lose Yourself begins:

Look

If you had

One shot

Or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted

In one moment

Would you capture it

Or just let it slip?

“My 1st Song” by Jay Z contains these lines:

Take advantage of the luck you handed

Or the talent you been given

Ain’t no half-steppin, ain’t no slippin’

Ain’t no different from a block that’s hidden

Pundits have concluded that Obama benefitted in 2008 from a perfect storm of events, from a brilliant primary campaign strategy orchestrated by David Plouffe and David Axelrod and animosity towards Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton to the unpopularity of the war in Iraq and the calamitous economic situation. Still, his winning the Iowa primary and carrying Indiana in the general election for the first time the state went Democrat since 1964 seemed little sort of miraculous. Along the way, Obama had to deal with criticism of his at first not wearing a flag lapel, fist bumping Michelle prior to a speech, his past associations with so-called radicals Saul Alinsky and Bill Ayers, and inflammatory rhetoric by Chicago clergyman, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In addition to ugly, racist lies and many even questioning the candidate’s citizenship, the Obamas were pilloried by the press for any misstep, such as when Michelle mentioned being proud of her country for the first time in her adult life or Barack saying that people in small towns who’d lost their jobs often become bitter, cling to their guns, and develop antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.

“A Promised Land” discusses the initial boost Republican Presidential candidate John McCain received when he selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, the so-called Blue Collar soccer mom with five kids who enjoyed moose hunting and whose image of folksy populism and ability to deliver well-aimed zingers made her a sensation initially on the campaign trial. Her ignorance of both foreign and domestic policies soon became obvious, however, and with McCain’s history of melanoma, the prospect of her a heartbeat away from the presidency became a liability. In hindsight, however, and in view of Trump’s ascendency in the GOP, Obama recognized that Palin’s candidacy, in his words, “was a sign of things to come, a larger, deeper reality in which partisan affiliation and political expediency would threaten to blot out everything – your previous positions; your stated principles; even what your own senses, your eyes and ears, told you to be true.”

In his autobiography “Valor,” based in part on interviews I conducted, Lake County sheriff Roy Dominguez recalled being a delegate at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, as was former Mayor Richard Hatcher’s daughter Rachelle. On the evening of Barack Obama’s keynote speech, Dominguez offered Hatcher his credentials so he could join Rachelle on that momentous evening. He recalled: “Hatcher at first said, ‘No, no, Roy, you should go,’ but I insisted. As a dad myself, I knew it would be a special moment for him and Rachelle.”

Four days before the 2008 election Barack Obama spoke at a rally in Wicker Park. The Lake County sheriff’s department assisted in providing security. With Senator Evan Bayh in the Wicker Park clubhouse, Dominguez was introduced to the candidate, whom he described as engaging, easygoing, and very genuine. After they posed for pictures, Dominguez asked if Obama would autograph two rally tickets for his daughters Veronica and Maria. Obama agreed, then said, “I Understand. You can’t go home with just one.” Dominguez wrote: “After he signed, ‘To Veronica. Best wishes, Barack Obama,’ he repeated the process for Maria.” Lake County voters were a crucial factor in Obama carrying the Hoosier state.

A confession: when I hear the phrase “Only in America,” I think of a bowling banquet in the mid-1980s where the Sheet and Tin League officers hired a stripper named Tanya to perform. After she squatted and removed a 20-dollar bill from a bowler’s nose, he exclaimed, “Only in America!” When a teammate died after coming down with a high fever after the banquet, we quipped that Tanya had caused him to get over-excited and killed him. Not long after that, poker games replaced strippers as the chief after-dinner entertainment.