There are people on the Web defending as satire the allegedly sexy “I Got a Crush on Obama” music video that has been the talk of the political world recently.
Mainstream media, rightly, have used it to highlight how the Internet makes it that much harder for a candidate to control his image. Bloggers have done that, but also delighted in posting a video that will draw a lot of page views.
And some of them say it’s more than a mere attempt to draw attention by linking a rock-star candidate with another commodity that’s occasionally in demand on the Internet, sex. The video featuring a buxom young woman pretending to sing, its defenders say, is a pointed expose of the way the public and press have fallen for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama without knowing much more about him than you would about your average instant romantic crush.
It seems like a solid interpretation until you actually watch the video, up at YouTube and obamagirl.com, among other places.
What you find is a lame, faux-R&B thing, tuneless even by the devalued standards of contemporary R&B. There’s little spark in the lyrics: “You seemed to float onto the floor / Democratic Convention 2004 / I never wanted anybody more.” As it goes on, it lacks the wink that good satire includes to let intelligent viewers know this is something high-minded masquerading as low.
The lip-syncing is second-rate, and it even mispronounces “Barack,” singing the junior senator from Illinois’ first name like that of the title character of the recent hit comic film: “Bo-rack,” the singer says.
The candidate can shrug this one off, and we ought to, as well.
