The President of the United States

History was made this past Saturday when Obama visited the University of Minnesota's campus for the first time ever as our President. The way this event is represented however is infinite and is determined by the author and the audience of why it mattered and what it impacts.

For the past few weeks there had been a lot of talk and commotion about President Obama coming to the U of M campus. This was about as much as most people who surrounded me would say. "Our President is gonna be here soon /next week,/tomorrow/ can you believe that?!". Now maybe this is because I don't hang out with a lot of hard core political people who voice their opinions constantly or have friends with extremely radical or ultraconservative views, but in some ways it seemed strange that no one mentioned why or anything specific other than the fact that he would be there. Our Presidents job is being a politician of course however I didn't hear a single thing about why just the cool fact that he would be walking in the places we all have walked before.

I had many people in my life attend this event where Our President, THE BIG GUY, was speaking in the place where we all live, walk, hangout every day of the school year but for some reason I didn't have an urging desire to go. I thought it would be really cool to see him but not once did it cross my mind what he would be talking about not to mention I had a paper to get done. However as friends and acquaintances witnessed this rally and speech they created this image of what he did and said and made me believe that all he spoke of was true and good without really knowing the context and that it was the coolest thing of their life period. I just kept hearing "I was THIS close to Our President" or "Oh my gosh that was amazing". My belief and representation is however that although yes this person who controls our country would have been pretty cool to see in person, I had no interest or idea of what this rally would be about. And if I wasn't passsionate or interested about the issues at hand why would it be exciting? The way we represent things is the way we then go about our lives and it influences all of the things we do and say and want to be. The interesting thing about someone who becomes our President or anyone famous for that matter is the way we worship their existence once they hold that position or light and create them to be more than "normal" or better than the "average Joe". Our society has brought us up and shaped us thinking that there are more powerful people than others in the world and that these beings are worth more, more valueable and need to be acknowledged for their skills. Therefore a handshake, autograph, picture, is worth something, but taken a step back or out of this idea it seem kinda crazy that we look at humans who are imperfect as the rest of us like god or some higher being. Barack Obama is just a person like you or I who is skilled at speaking, intelligent and persuasive and obviously good at what he does, but so is my dad and no one asks him for autographs. Our society put looks, voices and some talents above maybe a great carpenter or amazing marketing associate. Yes there are famous people who all types of things like authors and business men but at a core we have a could be presented as a skewed vision that some people in this world are worth more than the next. This then leads us to believe that although we have no idea the point of the visit or why or what he is doing here simply going to an event where our President was is downright the "coolest thing ever".

Onto the point. The source I used in order to talk about one representation of this event other than my opinion and friends representations was Minnesota Public Radio. I listened and read their account of this rally and slowly created the presentation that the author and speaker of/for Minnesota Public Radio wanted me to believe through reading or listening to this! The article and audio clip can be found here: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/10/24/obama-rally/

The article is titled "Dayton Hopes to get Big Boost from Obama Visit", which right away lead me to believe this event truly wasn't about our President, as many students around me had made it seem to believe, it was really about Dayton and his hopes in winning HIS election which was actually the important factor. This reinforcement of politics for someone like me who doesn't really know what I believe yet can be intimidating. Right away this article turned from being something about the President of the United States coming to visit my school two simple and exciting concepts, to a construction of images like debating, rallying and arguing over state, nation and worldly issues. This article begins by constructing the even from when and where it took place to how and why the venue got changed. Slowly after that it got into the true reasons and actual words exchanged throughout this event. Because Minnesota Public Radio does not have a given side that is shown to the audience be it democratic or republican it is important for them to relate to the reader no matter what their political stand point is. "Obama stood in rolled up shirtsleeves against a background of students wearing the U's gold and maroon colors. Dayton stood by his side, nodding, smiling and clapping. Obama told the crowd to defy conventional wisdom by refusing to buy into political ads and scare tactics." This sentence although seeming to represent the obvious argument that voting for Dayton is what the President wants us as Minnesota Citizens to do, it's arranged in a way that shows the reader that it is just about facts which is important when analyzing an argument to know what the intended audience is and the goal behind the authors intentions. The construction and light that the President is put in through this article is all about what happened, what he said, and what can be taken from this event. Of course as most news articles try to make their sources and information just as presented there, most of the time if not always there is an opinion tossed around or just by the style of writing in order to prove a point. I was surprise within this article though that there is no debate on whether what he did was good or bad or how he fulfilled his job or not, that it was simply about the facts and the facts were Obama came, he talked, he persuaded and he left. The light the article created Obama to be in was a much different light than the worshiping one of my friends. The facts now lay that there is an election coming up and for our Presidents sake he is hoping along with all the democrats in Minnesota that Mark Dayton is elected, however there are two other great candidates running and for now no one truly knows what the fate of this election will be.