the Obama phenomenon

New Car Fever

Editor's note: This piece was originally submitted for publication on February 13, 2008. I'm not kidding. This was back when I was actually a Clinton supporter. I guess things really do change. See photo essay of the Obama campaign in Warren.

New Car Fever
by Chris Lareau

I'm now on my fifth Toyota and if you know how long they last you probably have a good idea how old I am. I got 200,000 miles on the last one and the current model has only 75,000 on it.

My black, four-door Echo is not an exciting car. It is good transportation. For example, I get all my gas for half price. That's because my gas mileage is twice as good as yours.

Echo is a curious name for a car. It marketed poorly, was discontinued, and so I got a used one real cheap. It took me a year to find it. I found out why they called it the Echo--because that's about how much it weighs. But if they gave an Academy Award for practical cars in 2000 it might have won.

So why a new car now? Well, the Echo is going on 8 years-old so maybe it's starting to feel old or I have no need to feel loyal to it anymore. The problem is once you get the idea in your head to get a shiny, new automobile it is difficult to dismiss the notion. And it gets worse the longer you think about it--it seems another used car won't do. I want one that makes me feel it was made for me and me only. Half the fun is daydreaming about which make and model and color to choose.

For example, I never thought about owning something like a Buick before, but why not? It's a real fancy auto. Do I dare? This would change my whole image and could I handle that?

Buicks can't be all bad if Tiger Woods drives one, even though he strikes me as a little nerdy. On the other hand, maybe a Buick would make me look smarter.

People in our family aren't necessarily famous for being smart, but we do take pride in not being stupid. Not sure if I'm ready to look smart. It would be a big change and I'm probably getting a little old for that. It just might go to my head and then I'd really look stupid.

This new car fever won't go away. It gets under your skin, into your head, into your sleep. When I dream about cars I always dream in color. Even when I'm watching politics on TV I seem to be thinking about it as I nod off to sleep...

...Huckabee is a lot like my used Echo: dependable, economical, and trustworthy. McCain is my father's Oldsmobile and I loved that Delta 88. Hillary is more like a used Mercedes-Benz with a diesel engine that will never stop running.

These are all suitable cars, but what makes the Obama model so popular? At first I didn't get it. Why did my daughter wait in line for five hours to be one of 18,000 people to see him speak?

What makes him so different?

I think I know now what it is and I suspect Obama has always known it.

New car fever.

Postscript, May 14, 2008: this is really just a fantasy piece--there is no way I can afford a new car.

 
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois on Feb. 10, 2008 in Virginia Beach, two nights before his landslide victory over Hillary Clinton in the Virginia Democratic Primary. Photo courtesy of Louise Lareau.