Even these days, as unpopular as President Obama is, it’s pretty much impossible for a reporter to get 30 seconds with the commander-in-chief. But back in February 2008, when he was an upstart senator from Illinois campaigning for his first term against Sen. John McCain, Obama gave CityBeat a whole five minutes (a campaign aid timed it with a stop watch) to chat about the future of the country after a rally at the University of Cincinnati.
CityBeat’s questions, and Obama’s answers, are as pertinent today as they were six years ago. Editor John Fox asked about the importance of independent media in an age of big media consolidation. Obama called the issue “very important,” giving a shout out to Chicago-area altweeklies and traditional African-American publications that covered his early political campaigns. The interview also touched on net neutrality, race issues, access to education and keeping faith in America’s democratic process.
Fast forward a term and a half. Obama’s a lot greyer around the temples, America’s wrestling with racially charged police shootings like the one in Ferguson, Mo., a pitched battle is still being waged over net neutrality and large news organizations like Gannett continue to prune daily papers like The Cincinnati Enquirer. Oh, and the country’s more divided than ever, partially in response to the Obama’s six years in office. Recently, Republicans routed Democrats in national and state elections around the country, which makes something Obama said near the end of his interview especially poignant.
“Our job is to make sure 100 years from now people will look back and say we kept on making progress,” he said, responding to a question on cynicism about the political process. “But it won’t be perfect.”
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2014.