Two of My Favorite Things

Politics meets Comics.

 Sweet.

IDW released two comics, Presidential Material: Barack Obama, and Presidential Material: John McCain, last week. When I saw them in the wooden box at my comic book store, I purchased the last two sets. I'm so glad I did. I have to admit that I anticipated the comics being biased toward one candidate or the other, but I'm happy to report that was not the case. 

In my opinion, anyway.

The two biographies outline the candidates' lives, and how the arrived to the point of being nominees for President of the United States. I thought the Barack Obama comic did a great job portraying Barack's struggle as a child and young adult. Being born of a white mother from Kansas, and a black father from Kenya, he struggled to find himself. He knows what it is like to feel he doesn't fit- to be alienated, frustrated, and alone. In spite of all of that, he indeed found himself, and where he was comfortable, working with people who needed Hope the most rather than pursuing a corporate job.

The John McCain comic portrayed the horrific conditions he endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese for five years very well. I do respect Senator McCain for coming out of that hellish experience alive. Seriously.

However, his life as part of the Naval "Royal Family" has been very different than Barack's path. Senator McCain is out of touch with all of us Americans that have to get up everyday and go to work with concerns of utility bills, home repairs, property taxes, and rising food costs always in the back of our minds.

A friend of mine recently pointed out how many times Obama uses the word "we" during his speeches  compared to McCain. It is interesting once you start watching for it. The pronoun McCain favors is "I". 

There is no "I" in Team, or Change, or Hope~