Randy Newman's I'm Dreaming: I think he is, indeed, dreaming....

Randy Newman's new song, I'm Dreaming features the line: "I'm dreaming of a white president", is full of satirical, sarcastic anecdotes about someone who votes for a president because he is white. The song features lyrics like: "He won't be the brightest, perhaps, but he'll be the whitest, and I'll vote for that."

Newman said as he wrote the song the lyrics "didn't come that easy.....It's delicate enough that I'm not going to offend people every which way, but I wanted to get it right as best I could." He is supporting President Barack Obama in November's election. He says he wants the public to find comedic relief in the song, but to also know he's serious about his thoughts that racism is well and alive in the world and in the current presidential race. He called racism "the great issue of this country.......I don't know how many people you can get to admit it. I think maybe zero."(See article and video at Slate, 18 September 2012.)

Sorry, Mr Newman, but I see the song itself as racist, serving only to further inflame remaining divisions in this country, akin to picking at a sore place.

Randy Newman may be a brilliant musician and songwriter but he's being disingenuous if he believes that anyone who isn't supporting President Obama's re-election is doing so because the President's skin isn't white. How about Mr. Newman writing a song about Prez Obama's policies - about how they differ wildly from his campaign promises? How about writing a song about the corrupt political system in this country? How about a song about this......(The remark featured on the board was one of the late, great George Carlin's). Perhaps Mr. Newman is in The Club, or at least on its periphery as an honorary member - and is no longer able to clearly see outward.



There may well be pockets of racism still existing in the United States - it'd be surprising if all evidence of that cruel and disgusting era which preceded the late 1960s were completely gone.

That's another matter. The matter of a president's record is what's important here, and what directs me not to support his re-election:

President Obama surrounded himself with conservative advisors and key figures - many from previous administrations, and an unprecedented number from the Trilateral Commission. He also appointed a former Monsanto executive as Senior Advisor to the FDA. He has extended Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, presided over a spiralling rich-poor gap and sacrificed further American jobs with recent free trade deals.Trade union rights have also eroded under his watch. He has expanded Bush defence spending, drone-killed civilians and children, failed to close Guantanamo, supported the NDAA which effectively legalises martial law, allowed drilling and adopted a soft-touch position towards the banks that is to the right of European Conservative leaders. Taking office during the financial meltdown, Obama appointed its principle architects to top economic positions. Obama's detractors absurdly portray him as either a radical liberal or a socialist, while his apologists, equally absurdly, continue to view him as a well-intentioned progressive, tragically thwarted by overwhelming pressures.(Hat-tip to a past political commenter, joe kiggy for the detail)

NOTE: More on Randy Newman, and his natal chart, from my archives HERE and HERE.