Say Cheese

Sunday afternoon. Yuppie parents, pretending they’re in Critical Mass, aggressively block aisles with their baby carriages. Ah, Fairway.

After sneaking a few olives from their bar, I spied in the cheese display: Barick Obama from the Lazy Lady Farm in Westfield, Vermont. It was a square-shaped cheese with a dull orange rind. The sign explained: “Organic pasteurized cow’s milk, washed rind. Golden pate, soft. The sweet taste lingers in your mouth. A truly great American original.”

I was too afraid to ask for a sample.

I have nothing intelligent to say about today’s primary. When it comes to electoral politics, I am totally clueless, unable to interpret or even predict wisely. I know that the Democrats are deciding today between a woman and black man as their candidate. Who will be the most appealing for the vast red-state country, sick of a declining economy and a cheap talking president who leaves a stinking pile of steaming deficit behind?

I wish I could point to Obama and say, “he’s the man, because…” but, honestly, what does the man stand for? For “change”, and then what?

Paul Krugman says the only substantive difference between Hillary and Obama is their stance on individual mandates in health care reform: the former for, and latter against. I’m mixed about this: our healthcare system is broken; politically, I have a real problem with the onus of healthcare moving from the backs of the state to the shoulders of the individual, and ultimately the pockets of private insurance companies.

David Leonhardt this Sunday looked at Obama’s economic platform, and places him slightly to the left of Clinton but firmly within the center of the Democrat party:

He has called for shoring up Social Security by raising payroll taxes on very high earners, while she has not. He also favors a permanent tax credit of up to $1,000 for families in the bottom 90 percent or so of the income distribution, which makes his package of middle-class tax credits significantly larger than hers.

Obama’s economic advisers come from a school known as “behavioral economics” which tries to reduce the opaque bureaucracy and mystifying jargon of policy into lay terms.

Mr. Obama sometimes talks about an “iPod government” that can achieve its aims by presenting choices more simply.

Obama, the iPod generation candidate. Simplifying for us the complicated. But simple is meaningless if there’s no substance. We won’t be satisfied with just a sweet lingering taste from a brick of cheese. Step up, and give us something real to chew on.

Sighted at the Fairway Market in Red Hook, Brooklyn on January 26, 2008.