Monday, January 07, 2008

Sucker Born Every Minute Time?

The average Obama voter?
I'll admit it. The allure of Barack Obama escapes me. Sure he isn't a bad looking guy, and, when he isn't indulging his inner Jesse Jackson, he can be an effective speaker. But his campaign has had all the content of a soggy piece of toast.

This is all it takes to get liberals (and others) falling all over themselves?

In many ways the "Obama experience" is Zelig in reverse. It isn't Obama that is changing chameleon like to suit various interests, but people themselves who view Obama through various lenses. (Such as young people who see in Obama someone they can vote for AND someone who allows them to pat themselves on the back about what good and moral young people they are.)

Obama can be seen in any number of ways exactly because he is so vacuous and content-less. He is the presidential candidate version of abstract art, spouting platitudes about "the future" and "hope" that would have the New York Times set laughing up their sleeves if they had come from the mouth of George Bush.

This reaction is not confined to yours truly. Stubborn Facts has been working on the "Obama as Rorschach test" meme for awhile. But, the Rorscach test analogy is in one sense inexact. It isn't just that Obama is the subject upon which people project their own emotional needs, it is that Obama's campaign is exactly like the Seinfeld show. It is about nothing, except maybe political power and America's gullibility...willful gullibility at that. How else do you explain drivel like this:

Simply put, will America be willing to walk away from what some say is a sure thing of a Clinton in the White House and embrace a man who says we can do all things if we just believe enough in ourselves?

It all might sound like New Age mumbo jumbo.

Sound like? It is exactly the "new age mumbo jumbo" it sounds like.

Somewhere P.T. Barnum is saying "I told you so."

2 comments:

AmPowerBlog said...

You might be a litte tough on the guy. He has sounded better, for example, at the DNC convention in 2004, but his attraction is something different from the Clinton machine.

He needs to get down and dirty if his gonna beat the New York Senator.

Rich Horton said...

I'm not really coming down hard on Obama himself as much as his wet noodle of a campaign. Obama undoubtedly has the political charisma necessary, and maybe one can win with that and nothing else, but it doesn't make for a compelling candidate in my book.