Hillary and Barack invade the real dreams of millions

Over these past eight busy political months, loyal Ticket readers have come to expect the unexpected here. We've had nearly-naked hotties 4 Ron Paul. We've had Republicans voting for Hillary Clinton. And the usual boxers vs briefs question. We've even had a U. S. Senator tapping his foot in a men's room.

But this morning's opening primary election day item may top them all. It's about how our presidential politicians literally reside in our subconscious.

Let's say you're in the mall and Hillary walks up and says she's had another argument with Bill and needs a hug. So you hug and she asks if you voted for her and you say yes, even though you didn't, because she looks sad.

Suddenly, you're at the railroad station, but the train is just....

departing and Barack Obama is standing at the back door, waving. Behind him is your mother. And she's not happy.

Sheila Heti wants to hear from you. She's collecting such dreams, real ones from your sleep, about Hillary and Barack. No, seriously. On a brand-new website she posts your description of the dream. Don't worry, dreamers remain unidentified.

She got the idea only a few days ago from an American friend who lives two blocks away in Toronto. She had a dream about Hillary. And Sheila got to thinking maybe many Americans do too and wouldn't it be interesting to read them? She's got a few dozen so far, but they're coming in daily from around the world. It seems the American election resides in the subconscious of many nationalities.

Sheila's a novelist. So symbolism intrigues her and so do the patterns emerging:

"One of the questions of the project definitely is: how does the American collective unconscious understand a prospective female president? Because a female American president is an absolutely new symbol. The same goes for Barack and his being black.

"What sorts of projections and hopes and fears do people have as a result of their race and gender, which are unprecedented in the presidential context in the States?

"I don't actually have any answers, but if you look at the site, some trends become clear: with Barack there are a lot of anxiety dreams about him being assassinated. With Hillary, people turn her into their mother -- and there are a lot of dreams in which the dreamer finds her to be more beautiful than they expected.

"Why do people need to dream her as having shining eyes, beautiful skin? Sometimes they see her emasculating a powerful man -- or the dreamer. This is all pretty interesting to see."

But Republicans need not apply. Sheila doesn't find them as interesting, unless they're having nightmares about the Democrats.

There's one dream from an English professor who's watching Obama give a speech that the professor wrote but Obama's voice is the professor's. There's one from a woman helping Obama run errands because Michelle is in the hospital, but they drive down a deadend street in a huge SUV and the woman gets very anxious but Obama makes all the turns perfectly and they get out safely.

A man and his girlfriend are talking to Obama near a school and as they start to leave, the man turns to a nearby woman and says, "We're going to dinner if you want to join us." And the woman says, "I'm not Michelle."

Clinton seems to be running behind in the dream department too. There are noticeably fewer dreams posted about her so far and most seem to have an edge to them. A young California Obama supporter dreamed about making cold calls for Hillary's campaign when the candidate walks by and laughs mockingly at her afro hairdo.

One woman approached Clinton to thank her for running. Hillary rolled her eyes and the woman turned to her mother in puzzlement and her mother remarked what nice skin Clinton had. And the daughter agreed.

And then the alarm went off.

But before you go running online to Canada, please take a moment to share with us below the short version of any dream you may have had about any of the presidential candidates. We're a bipartisan blog. Or maybe you've even had a dream about what's-his-name the rich mayor from New York.

You're on the honor system here. No making up dreams. Because, remember, we're a major news organization. So if we get suspicious, we have ways of checking your dreams.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[dave]

one dream that seems to be frequent these days is that of not having your mind censored, regardless if dreaming or wide awake. another one is that of spectral appearances talking as if prompted while dreaming, in voices that might or might not be their own, talking about dreams of children becoming future realities. now you might wonder about things like, whose sweet dreams might be your nightmares, or what would it be like to wake up in your own dream?

[mketcher]

I had a dream about Hillary. Actually, it was a nightmare... she got elected.

For a great satire on the president, the mainstream media, and the war on terror, see this YouTube music video from the international award-winning zombie musical feature film, "Song of the Dead." (www.songofthedead.com)It' stars horror movie veteran Reggie Bannister (Phantasm, Wishmaster, Bubba Ho-tep) as the president of the U.S. The filmmaker, Chip Gubera, is giving a share of his profits from DVD sales to the Ron Paul campaign. Go to:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qQmkkoxSKYw

[Dave]

If people start voting based on their collective subconscious, we're in trouble.

People don't understand complex tangible issues. Like how the majority of our bonds are now held in sovereign wealth funds. These are government holdings of foreign countries. The two biggest holders are China and, believe it or not, Saudia Arabia. Bond holders essentially back our currency and finance our government. It is a national security convern when you have Alan Greenspan telling Saudis to drop the dollar.
Unfortunately, most of the candidates either don't understand this, or don't care.

Except of course for Ron Paul.

[johndoom]

at least we have bill to entertain us and make us laugh, look at what he said this morning...
http://johnnydoom.blogspot.com/2008/03/2nd-super-tuesday-shocker-bill-clinton.html

[TR]

i had a dream that i was talking to hillary and that slowly her face morphed into john edwards. it was her body, her hair, john edwards' face. and she was wearing a green skirt-suit and pearls.

[wolf]

That, Dave, is one of the reasons, the Clintons have scared me so much --- my own personal nightmares. Their involvement in the Dubai Ports Scandal and the influence of China in the 1996 election of Bill Clinton...

I worry, that people forget these things. Hillary talks about the 'negative press', but in reality, they have barely scratched the surface about either her or her husband.

[dave]

although she informed us she likes all the bling bling.

[dave]

if people stopped voting based on collective subconscious this might be a sign there is a slight chance they could get out of the serious trouble
they're in. people tend to arrange themselves, even in their own nightmares - in the rare cases they wake up, they will hardly be able to go back there to effect any changes. and in case they don't wake up, they don't know. or they're only dreaming they do.

[Holly]

During the night of February 4, I had a dream about Obama. We were at a college campus and I ran into him while setting up for an event. He asked if he could help me carry the video equipment that I was setting up in another room. While helping out, he asked me, " As a young woman, what would you like to see change in America?" I gave him some long boring answer about my mom and my grandmother. Later in the dream, I felt bad for not "lobbying" him, since my real world job includes lobbying about the issue of hunger. He listened to me and helped set up the equipment. I distinctly remember observing some intense security around the premises of the college campus.

I woke up at 8am on Feb 5 and voted for him 2 hours later.

[rich]

And if you're intensely interested in this subject, by all means read a copy of Freud's short work The Interpretation of Dreams. It's one of the best ways to introduce yourself to Freud's analysis, which is brilliant and misunderstood, and will give you a good feel for which dream descriptions may be bogus and what the dreams are saying about the dreamer's inner state...

[edwina]

The reality is, whether Obama, Hillary or McCain becomes our new president, life will generally stay the same over the course of the decade. Ten years from now, we may see vital changes in retrospect, but for the most part during the day to day grinding of the masses nothing really changes much.

The dynamic of this campaign for the moment is the power of two symobls. An arrogant woman and an untested African-American. This is where Cyberspace and blogs provided by the L.A. times benifit the masses. We can express our -in the moment or well thought of- opinions. In reading numerous comments, Americans hands down are exercising thier right to free speech (for the most part anyways).

To see an established political powerhouse like a Hillary Clinton squirming and sweating like a convicted felon in addition of being outside of her "front-runner, I'm a invincible Clinton" comfort zone against a stunningly surging untested charismatic challenger, is the beauty of this presidential election.

Kudos to the L.A. Times for providing such an open forum of entertainment. Go Obama!

[Dana]

I had a dream of Hillary last night. She was standing on a Dias speaking to thousands and thousands of followers. She won the election by a landslide. As I scanned the background I slowly became aware that the presidential seal was replaced by a crest that had the letters HH in a wreath with a double headed eagle holding it in it's talons . The crowed was shouting " Hail Hillary! Hail Hillary! I woke up in a cold sweat and realized that I messed my bed.

[Sib in Texas]

Funny that you should post this. A few nights ago I had a nightmare that John McCain had a suspicious heart attack a few days before the convention, and Huckabee became the new GOP nominee, then president.

Oh, and while I agree with der novelist that there's something very heavy about the notion of our first black or first woman president, her disinterest in the rest of us and our trippy political dreams is pretty arrogant... independent and yes, GOP peons are also waiting to wake up from *this* long national nightmare. A minority are probably dreaming the Bush status quo stays in place.

Just call me a Republican who voted for Clinton - because I wanted to, not out of some twisted master plan. Obama's dippy ideas about science and the space program, mixed with his lack of experience, guaranteed that we wouldn't vote for him. In our household, it'll come down to a decision between Clinton and McCain, and we're still wide open on that.

Thanks for being bipartisan.

[Galina]

I dreamed Obama was president and something dreadful had happened, when asked what to do, Obama turned to Hillary and asked her: "What should I do?"

[Pete]

OK, I've ben very reluctant to share this dream, but here it goes. I dreamt Bill Clinton had a heart attack and died within a certain number of hours after. I wrote down the number, but don't have it on hand now. Though I am an Obama supporter, I think it would be very sad for Chelsea and Hillary were this to happen. On the other hand, it would be a graceful way for her to bow out. I don't think Hillary should be on the ticket with Obama, as Bill and Hillary have both advocated in recent days, because I think it is a ploy to lull voters away from voting for Obama. I think Obama's VP should be Kathleen Sebelius or Claire McCaskill.

[Sheila Heti]

Thanks to all posters who've had an interest in the dreams and the site. We're accepting John McCain dreams, since everyone seems so interested. So far, only one person has had a McCain dream:

idreamofmccain.blogspot.com