I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I think Barack Obama is following me.
The other day I was in Cleveland, east of the downtown area. As I left the city, heading southwest for Cincinnati, I turned on the radio. It was then that I heard it: Barack Obama was in the suburbs east of Cleveland.
Huh. Weird.
Today, I awoke and walked up the hill to the Geology-Physics building at the University. When I arrived in the office of one of my colleagues, to start my day before my colloquium, I found out that Obama was to be speaking in Cincinnati today.
Okay, one city is coincidence, but two? I think this guy is trying to steal my spotlight.
I, and 500 other researchers, worked our asses off on BaBar for all this data. We sweated and bled. Does Obama think that 485 million pairs of B mesons, or 122 million Upsilon(3S) mesons, just fall from the sky? No. It takes a decade of hard work, international collaboration, and a will to succeed in the face of overwhelming challenges.
But here’s Obama, whipping through this swing state and firing up crowds with his speeches and his steady political rhetoric. How am I, a simple physicist, supposed to compete with this?
It’s bad enough that the continuing resolution leaves science funding in a state of cryogenic freeze; why does this guy have to go out and personally challenge the career of a single physicist by following him around and stealing his spotlight?
OK, I’m kidding. It’s goddamn sweet to be passing through a swing state. There are so many people out trying to get you vote, so many lawn signs and stickers and banners and rallies – it’s just amazing. I know that many Buckeyes think it’s bullshit that the only time they matter is when America needs them to help decide and election. It’s a valid criticism. I say: suck it up. You’re important – enjoy it. I wish California was as much in contest as Ohio.
