HALLI CASSER-JAYNE - bio
RED, WHITE 'N TRUE™
HAPPY TALK
Posted, August 29, 2008,  12:01 p.m

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That happy talkin’ boy borne of the island of Hawaii in the South Pacific, that man of mixed race who has captured the hearts of many gave the acceptance speech of a lifetime last night before a crowd of 85,000 in Denver’s Invesco Field.

Long accused of too much “happy talk” and not enough substance, perhaps the least qualified presidential candidate ever to secure his party’s nomination, Barack Obama stood before the happy crowd in Denver and those watching across America and the world, and talked about a dream “because you’ve got to have a dream or how ya gonna have a dream come true?”

Rogers and Hammerstein must be smiling from their graves. The two men who tackled the issue of race in their 1950 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, "South Pacific" and penned that snappy little tune, "Happy Talk," and others such as "There is Nothing Like a Dame" and the intense “You’ve Got to Be Taught”, dared to dream of a world free from prejudice and in that time of global turmoil following World War II and moving into the Korean conflict also reminded the war-weary world it must dare to dream again.

Barack Obama embodies all that Rogers and Hammerstein spoke to. He is a man of mixed-race, but a post-racial man. He dares to dream in a world weighed down by one war that has gone on too long, and lost in the turmoil of more global conflicts.

In Obama’s  acceptance speech given on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s altering “I Have a Dream Speech” it was not Martin Luther King who I was thinking of while I was watching Obama, but that extraordinary 1950 Broadway musical, broader themed than American racial issues; tackling instead the issue of world prejudice.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic musical, "South Pacific," the story takes place on a South Pacific island during World War II. The story centers around Nurse Nellie Forbash, "Just a Girl from Little Rock" who falls in love with The Frenchman, Emile De Becque, the rich mysterious island planter only to end their relationship when she discovers he has fathered two bi-racial children. The story also tells the tale of tall, handsome American lieutenant Joe Cable who falls for a beautiful island girl but leaves her because she’s of a different race.

"South Pacific" was a world story. So is Barack Obama. As I watched him in that enormous arena standing on that bigger than life stage set, I thought how Barack Obama is the stuff of which Broadway musicals used to be made.

This is not a bad thing at this time in world history.

The United States has lost its standing in the last eight years. George W. Bush’s great misadventure in Iraq is only a small part of the reason. There is a virus that has hit this country and it has infected the world. It was unleashed on 9/11 when Osama bin Laden murdered thousands in New York and depressed the world’s spirit.

But  there was Barack Obama last night talking happy talk, offering up pie-eyed promises to Americans under economic duress, and sweet coconut promises to the world and everyone was loving it.

Last month many poo-pooed Obama’s speech in Berlin, a speech meant to inoculate Barack Obama against charges of foreign policy inexperience. Indeed, his foreign policy establishing credential trip backfired. Obama actually took a ratings hit when he returned to American shores. His rival John McCain took advantage of Obama’s world tour and effectively hurt him with his accusation of celebrity.

Americans tend to see America as separate from the rest of the world. America has been the leader of the free world for a long time, and geographically America is isolated. But as Bill Clinton said in his defense of Obama in his Wednesday night speech,

“Everywhere, in rich and poor countries alike, hard-working people need good jobs, secure, affordable health care, food and energy, quality education for their children and economically beneficial ways to fight global warming.

“These challenges cry out for American ideas and American innovation. When Barack Obama unleashes them, America will save lives, win new allies, open new markets, and create wonderful new jobs for our own people.”

Times have changed. We no longer live in isolated bubble. The South Pacific Islands are a hop, skip and plane ride close. Americans are privileged to be able to elect the Leader of the Free World. Most Americans vote for the Leader of the Free World thinking they are voting for the President of the United States, and maybe that’s a mistake given the international forum in which we live.

Obama had been goaded into forgoing the poetry of his rhetoric for a more meat and potatoes speech. He delivered, running off the typical litany of promises candidates tend to make, the “I will do this, I will do that,” construct.

But he also said: “… the promise of a democracy [is] where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort. I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk.”

A bi-racial man, Barack Obama has lived the story of South Pacific. Racial injustice might have held him back, but it didn’t. Maybe when life was tough for the young bi-racial boy growing up on that South Pacific Island called Hawaii he had a mother who sang a lull-a-bye in his ear, “Happy talk keep talkin’ happy talk, talk about things you like to do. If you don’t have a dream, you’ve got to have a dream, how ya gonna make a dream come true?”

Happy talk, maybe that’s exactly what the world needs now. Maybe all that experience or lack of it isn’t worth a pupu platter. After all, look at the world today. Doesn’t it make one wonder just how great an asset all that experience is?

Maybe what we should be looking for in our leaders is more a dreamer, more an inspirer, more a leader who likes to engage in “happy talk.” It couldn’t be any worse than it is.

On the other hand, “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” Sarah Palin.