How Obamaland Has Changed

After having approached Mitt Romney’s bunker in Boston, today we approached the fort of Barack Obama in Chicago, and it was certainly a learning experience. In visiting the two headquarters, one can understand the attitude of the major U.S. political parties toward foreign news media, which is simple: Foreign media does not vote and does not donate, so we are not interested in them.

The address is 130 E. Randolph St., a few meters from Michigan Avenue, just below Millennium Park, in the Prudential Building. Without any symbols or flags, it is a modern building that could be the headquarters of an insurance agency, of an investment bank or of the Chinese Communist Party. The reception is more or less similar. As if guided by instinct, we arrived at the reception desk, where we got a puzzled look and a leaflet with some email addresses: Write here if you want to be a volunteer; write there if you want to donate money. Otherwise, go away. Well, this is not actually written, but that is the gist of it.

It goes without saying that before attempting a direct approach we wrote and made phone calls, but American politics has become impermeable. They are anxious and menacing on one side (during the recent NATO G-8 summit, demonstrators were arrested right here), while cynical and calculating on the other side.

This kind of attitude toward international media is reflected even further in regards to their own states. The number of “battleground states” contested between the two candidates has been reduced. In 1976 these states housed 60 percent of the American population — today only 20 percent. Whoever lives in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania or Nevada will often see Obama and Romney in the upcoming months, and will be bombarded by commercials. The others are “flyover states,” which means just that: The candidates will fly over by airplane.

Even the number of rallies and public meetings has diminished. Republicans and Democrats are hunting for money, and they constantly organize events for donators. They are willing to fork out $2,000 for a shrimp cocktail with Barack or Mitt, but they do not intend to do it with 2,000 other people.

The result will be shown in the United States presidential election on Nov. 6 (either yes or no for Obama), which will be preceded by an electoral campaign that plays on the fake empathy of social media and some output of advertising, in which the journalists — yes, even the American ones — will only serve as amplifiers.

Sad, I thought, while the motorized German tandem bicycle (with Karl Hoffman on the backseat) cut the streets of Hyde Park bathed by the rain. In the southern district of Chicago where the young Barack lived for a long time, they organized a Presidential Bike Tour: a visit to Obama’s barber, a tour around Obama’s university, a peek at Obama’s home (protected by green plants and colossal Secret Service agents), and a stop in Valois, 1518 E. 53rd St., the cafeteria where Obama ate meals (he prefers roast beef and vegetables, they assure us). Maybe the fierce air conditioner in Obama’s headquarters is to blame for freezing any kind of enthusiasm, but we had other expectations. Barack Obama was once a young American dreamer — now he is another unreachable hologram.