Political Soap

by Shawn Strasburg

Stefano DiMera, of Days of Our Lives, has been diabolically scheming since the eighties and his political counterpart Moammar Gadhafi of Libya is now a conniving con artist attempting to thwart president Obama’s 2012 campaign, according to Whoopi Goldberg of The View. The Libyan leader whom nearly everyone agrees has a major aversion to sanity, has in Whoopi’s eyes became a reverse psychology master. This soap opera of politics has hit a high note in the last few days with a NBC interview with Donald Trump announcing his intentions of running for president as soon as this season’s Apprentice is finished airing.

           

New allegations blossom in the media as reporters and media sources, like good directors, explore and exploit the controversies. According to the Associated Press the letter from Gadhafi called Barack Obama, "Our dear son, Excellency, Baraka Hussein Abu oumama.” Gadhafi support of Obama is of course nothing new; in a 2009 speech to the UN he called president Obama as, “our Obama.” While this by no means infers anything at all, as Gadhafi is a questionable person mentally, still some media sources have capitalized on this statement to stir the political pot.

           

This Gadhafi letter was revealed the same day that NBC’s Today Show aired a clip of the interview with Donald Trump. Trump made several claims during his interview and one dredged up the question as to Obama’s citizenship. Trump claimed that his people had researched Obama’s birth and could not come up with a birth certificate or any other proof of a US birth. While many disregard this variable, it still bears some interest as Trump claimed millions of dollars had been spent to sweep the issue under the rug. If Obama was born in the US and has a birth certificate, would it not be very cheap and easy just to publicize it? It can be seen where one would not want to lower themselves to absurd claims; yet spending millions of dollars to muddle the issue seems to be somewhat suspicious.

I cannot go into detail as to who the political Hope, Bo, or even Sammy is, because honestly I only see mere minutes of soap operas a week. I just found it astounding that even though you may miss months or years of politics or soaps you can still quickly slip back into viewership with ease. It is easy to sympathize or cheer the characters or politicians you relate with, and to dislike or boo those that oppose your views, morals, or romantic ideals. In some cases you may even secretly support the shady character in soaps, yet perhaps not as much in real life. And no matter how you stand on a political subject, there will be those in media that will play upon your passions to get you intrigued enough to watch those now extinct soap commercials, and perhaps through repetition, buy the products that finance the news broadcasts.