I saw Barack Obama speak tonight at Joe Louis Arena. A moment for me did capture the difference between Obama and the orthodox politician. I characterize the orthodox politician as someone who’s undergone a sort of weird transmorgification at some point in their life where they go from having normal hair to freakish plastic hair, a normal smile to a freakish plastic smile, from talking like a normal person to talking… well… like a politician. Governor Granholm, an orthodox politician herself, came out to introduce Obama, and was cheered and booed in part. At one point, she said, “So check this out…” and the crowd started laughing hilariously. See Obama can say “check this out” and “listen up” and sound like a normal human being. I’m not sure this is symptomatic of something deeper, or simply the veneer of cool.

Obama did spend the first 10 minutes at least, thanking various people, praising Hillary like he didn’t just spend the last 15 months trying to distinguish himself from her, etc. He spent like 20 minutes saying how great Al Gore is, of course as an indirect way of praising himself, having received Gore’s endorsement that night. Obama’s not a prophet for sure; he’s a mere politician.