Man, the woman who runs the London Obama meetup is a fucking looney toon.

I went to an early meeting and met some people I liked, but the whole organization was really kind of a turn-off; for every useful person there, there were also two addled weirdos who had invested too much of his or her identity into being Barack’s number one most specialist supporter in all of England. This woman flipped out on some of the smarter folks there when they told her they would be setting up a Facebook group for organizing- well, if you want to start your own group, you don’t need to be here, do you? There was a conference call with the Chicago office that was downright cringeworthy, full of her asking questions about what exactly the guy on the other end of the line did right after he explained it. Embarrassing and weird and I never went back. Call me apathetic.

But I still get her emails, and the latest is a doozy.

Obama is in London tonight and early tomorrow, the wrap-up of his big world tour. Since he did that huge rally in Berlin yesterday, he’s not doing any public events here- which is a little disappointing, if you want to see the guy, but fully understandable. It would be downright poor judgment for him to spend too much time actively campaigning in numerous European cities. One is cool and historic; two or three (because I’m sure the Paris supporters would have wanted some face-time, too) smacks of running for President of the EU. Mostly he’s here to meet Gordon Brown, the current PM, and David Cameron, the next one, while getting his picture taken with Tony Blair, because most of America probably still thinks he’s the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, I received this email from the meetup server:

We’re told Sen. Obama won’t be seeing supporters while he is in the UK and that the UK newspapers have it wrong.
Are we going to let that stop us?
No No No No No
Some fearless members of the UK Obama Meetup are going to get together, and figure out where is the most likely place on Sen. Obama’s route.
The plan:
Hold up signs, banners, and wear Obama gear.
We’re going to show Barack Obama that we love him here in the UK!
We’ve been contacted by TV networks who would like to come film us and interview Obama supporters.
If you’d like to come and show Obama we love him here,
please keep an eye on your email and watch this website for an announcement of where we’ll meet and when.
We’ll be meeting near Westminster, probably mid-morning Saturday.
YES WE CAN!!!

Note to very weird meetup lady- appropriating the yes we can slogan so it means yes we can stalk the candidate is strange and creepy. But whatever- I mean, it’s weird, but harmless. Except that apparently she really can’t get over the fact that she and Barack Obama could be in the same city at the same time, and he would somehow still not make the time to hang out with her. So a few minutes ago, I got another email from the group’s leader:

The campaign has been keeping mum and not wanted to arrange any meetings with supporters. We’re going to try!!
Here’s the movie we’re imagining:
Barack drives by.
He sees a group of supporters and our signs.
"Stop the car!" he orders.
He comes out to greet us!
It could happen.

It will not happen. But further down, check this out-

Bring materials to make signs:
Signs that say,
"Please Barack, Just Say Hi To Us"
"Barack, We’re Working for You. Come say Hello"
"STOP, BARACK! PLEASE SAY HELLO TO SUPPORTERS!"

And here’s the thing. On a successful tour of the world, which has found Obama overwhelmed with support from every sort of person he encounters, the last thing anyone who wants to see him elected needs to do is provide footage of a bunch of supporters who feel snubbed whining about the fact that a guy who’s running for President has the gall to not make it all about them. If the goal of the group is actually to try to get Barack Obama elected President of the United States, getting the TV cameras to film you holding signs that make it sound like your feelings are so hurt that he’s too busy to have a chat is a Bad Idea. It will show up in American media- maybe just on a couple blogs, but if they’ve decided they need to balance things out because of how well-received Obama’s been thus far, maybe TV, too. Is Obama too arrogant? Some of his snubbed supporters think so! It plays into an emerging narrative, and it’s retarded. A guy who’s running for President is not required to meet a handful of (frankly) socially awkward, embarrassingly flaky goofballs just because they’ve started a website.

Normally I try to avoid being too specific online in stuff like this, because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or start any drama, but if you’re googling yourself tonight, Carole- quit it. You look like a spoiled kid who can’t believe someone might ignore her specialness. Spend your morning registering voters, if you feel like being productive. This helps no one.