Like a character out of a Harlequin Romance, Barack Obama sauntered into our lives one day, and the pitter-pat of our hearts began. Deeply, he gazed into our eyes; his like  dark black pools that hid the path to his mysterious soul. His words were poetry, music to our cynical hearts. He whispered into our ears his voice cool and confident as he offered up hope that we wanted to believe, needed to trust. Vulnerable, we opened up our spirits to this virtual stranger. Is there anything more euphoric than the beginning of a new love affair?

He became our Svengali, so captivated were we. His power over us grew with each passing day. Charm is seductive, and didn’t we all want to be seduced? The stranger who emerged from nowhere had ridden in on his white horse and would rescue us from the terrors that assaulted us in the night.

“Escape me? Never….Beloved! While I am I, and you are you, so long as the world contains us both...”

Barack O Barack…

“How little we understand what touches off that tingle,
That sudden explosion when two tingles intermingle.”

He promised us health care, he promised us jobs. He promised us change, he promised us hope. He promised to love, honor and obey, his words titillated, our hearts went thump thump…we the citizens of the United States of America a collective metaphor for the damsel in distress fallen for the fairy tale even when our Daddy Bill Clinton warned us not to fall in love with that dreamer.

There were a few who listened to their Daddy. They were the less emotional types, more conservative in their thoughts and ideals. Flourishing gestures and lyrical words weren’t what they were looking for in this their hour of need. They wanted straight-talk, they wanted reason. They would choose Ashley Wilkes over the dashing Rhett Butler, ironically, Ashley the true dreamer who believed in honor and dignity above all else.

But these are no longer honorable times; these are the days of gypsies, tramps and thieves. And honor will not put bread and butter in our children’s mouths and straight-talk is not the lullaby the citizens needed in these odious times.

“Who cares to define what chemistry this is?
Who cares, with your lips on mine, how ignorant bliss is?
So long as you kiss me, and the world around us shatters,
How little it matters, how little we know.”

And so America’s citizens dismissed the gentlemanly John McCain and entered into a four year relationship with the dashing stranger, Barack Obama, because love is blind. Even when forewarned by our Daddy, even as we learned of nefarious friends of our darling Barack, we didn’t care. Barack’s voice felt like velvet touching our souls, his promises of a better tomorrow the sweet nothings we wanted whispered in our ears.

“How little we know.
How little we know.”

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Halli Casser-Jayne/The CJ Political Report