PrintAugust 29, 2008
The Obamababble Showman plays Ronald Reagan
Last night we saw the Obamababble Showman as Ronald Reagan. He put on a great show. He talked tough last night. But to get the nomination, he talked weak. He ran like Carter and now he expects us to think he will govern as Reagan.
Which one is he? Tough or weak? He's a "blank slate," as he wrote in one of his autobiographies. But where's the record that will make his words believable?
We've had showy politicians before, but we've never had a president who was nothing but showmanship. Obama has no visible record of achievement compared to any other candidate in living memory.
Charles Krauthammer nailed it:
"Barack Obama is an immensely talented man whose talents have been largely devoted to crafting, and chronicling, his own life. Not things. Not ideas. Not institutions. But himself.
Nothing wrong or even terribly odd about that, except that he is laying claim to the job of crafting the coming history of the United States. A leap of such audacity is odd."
At some deep level the Obama campaign seems to think that politics is nothing but showmanship. That's why they think they can flip on every major issue of substance and the voters will never notice. That's why, at the other extreme, they hired Britney Spears' stage designer to convert Invesco field into a heroic Leni Riefenstahl film set. It was the The Triumph of the Shill.
Look at the campaign so far: The thin resume. The Speech. The coverups of Obama's history and associates. The 75,000-fan rock concert, after Obama won the primaries. The Berlin speech, which one wag called "Ich bin ein Beginner." Last night's Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circular blue step pyramid for The One, The Zero to climb to the top. The Greek Temple in the background, evoking Martin Luther King's historic speech at the Lincoln Memorial. The Reaganesque accceptance speech. 80,000 Obots going wild about Barry.
But those are just the good parts. On the down side we have the suppressed biography of Obama's life, and his belated dumping of Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, and even teenage mentor Frank Davis. The "bitter clinger" sneer at Pennsylvanians. Smearing Bill Clinton as a racist. Trying to intimidate the Milt Rosenberg show on Chicago radio station WGN, just because the host was interviewing Stanley Kurtz about the Bill Ayers alliance.
Two nights ago Michelle O discovered her inner Jackie O, but not before revealing her entrenched anger for all to see. It was a great performance, but nobody who's been paying attention to the lady believed it. When this campaign gets in trouble it becomes Stalinesque and starts to stamp on its critics.
This campaign so far has been one long expression of Obama's contempt for the American voter. With the Reaganesque cadences of Obama's acceptance speech, his campaign has told us that in their eyes, we always get suckered by our elected leaders like George W. Bush --- so now they will sucker us even better than ever before.
They gave themselves away, while trying to hide their real feelings.
American voters might not take their contempt kindly. You can sneer all you want at the people in private; but don't let it show. Like so much of our contemporary Left, the Obamanoids have far too little substance, and far too much arrogance.
Lincoln said that you can fool all the people some of the time.
We like to believe that in the long run, the Big Lie will be found out.
The question is whether that is still true.
James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com
