(Taylor Marsh) Obama: Campaign, Cult, or Mirage?

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Thu Feb-07-08 04:58 PM
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(Taylor Marsh) Obama: Campaign, Cult, or Mirage?

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Spending time with voters is a good dodge, especially since debates and talking issues aren't your strong suit. Tom Watson calls it Obama's Rose Garden strategy.

Everyone knows Barack Obama and his team have run an impressive campaign. However, for quite a while something else is floating to the top of the message, and it isn't issues or answers. Oprah used it in South Carolina saying, "I do believe he's the one." Ben Smith entitled his post: Messianic rhetoric infuses Obama rallies. That was just the beginning. Inspiration is one thing. But the messianic language amidst the political reality reveals a fraud. The right-wing language and imagery of "Harry and Louise," demonizing Hillary and mandates, which is how we'll get to universal health care. The Exelon story revealing Obama telling tall tales to Iowans about legislation that passed when it didn't, with the truth being he actually rewrote that same legislation, for which he self-lauded himself for passing, for his Big Nuke contributor. Contrast this with Obama attacking the prosperity presidency of Bill Clinton, while praising Republicans for having the ideas of the last 10-15 years, and you've got quite a confused political message. I'm not sure if I'm looking at a politician, a preacher, or a charlatan. Or maybe they're all rolled up into one.

And yet there was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism — "We are the ones we've been waiting for" — of the Super Tuesday speech and the recent turn of the Obama campaign. "This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It's different not because of me. It's different because of you." That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is. ... ..

... .. Unless, of course, the next new thing turns out to be a mirage.

Inspiration vs. Substance, Joe Klein

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Obama supporter Kathleen Geier writes that she's "getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama's supporters. On listservs I'm on, some people who should know better – hard-bitten, not-so-young cynics, even – are gushing about Barack…

Describing various encounters with Obama supporters, she writes, "Excuse me, but this sounds more like a cult than a political campaign. The language used here is the language of evangelical Christianity – the Obama volunteers speak of 'coming to Obama' in the same way born-again Christians talk about 'coming to Jesus.' ... ..

And Obama Wept

James Wolcott had this to say:

"So spurn me, I voted for Hillary. ... Perhaps it's my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria. I can picture President Hillary in the White House dealing with a recalcitrant Republican faction; I can't picture President Obama in the same role because his summons to history and call to hope seems to transcend legislative maneuvers and horse-trading; his charisma is on a more ethereal plane, and I don't look to politics for transcendence and self-certification."

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