Obamania: The Magical Mystery Tour
Brian Rom
With America’s most celebrated community organizer now winging his way home (requiring, some may be surprised to learn, the services of an actual aircraft),herewith some reflections on the highlight of his grand tour, the Berlin speech.
Obama’s tone was serious, offering his trademark “this is our moment” rhetoric and the accompanying visions of a world transformed.. By now, we know the formula, the “narrative arc” in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks. In this view, some problem threatens. The odds are against the forces of righteousness (read: the liberal worldview). But then good people unite and walls come tumbling down. Cue the violins, embrace your neighbor, and watch the good Teutonic dames und herren ululate rhapsodically (OK, Germans are not known for their propensities to ululate, but given Obama’s Hawaiian connections, this is really not such a stretch) as the acolytes finally get to see the light: the Berlin blockade was thwarted because people came together and walls came tumbling down. Winning the Cold War was the same. Apartheid ended because people came together and walls tumbled. The narrative arc swings yet higher: If (when?) his Oneness ascends his throne, the walls separating Jew and Arab, black and white, rich and poor, despot and victim, natives and immigrants will also all come tumbling down as their love dissolves their differences disparate interests.
Given the uncritical adulation Obama’s have received, I also suggest that the only substance free elements of this entire circus are the perorations themselves. What we have here is history on acid; the inevitable result of the Left’s incurable ‘s Bush Derangement Syndrome.
However, by trying to ride the coattails of the American presidential giants who preceded him in Berlin, Obama’s uplifting but vague rhetoric inadvertently highlights his pygmy status on the world stage by helping remind us, in Brooks’ words, “that the soaring optimism of JFK and Reagan was grounded in the reality of politics, conflicts and hard choices. Kennedy didn’t dream of the universal brotherhood of man. He drew lines that reflected hard realities: ‘There are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin’. Likewise, Reagan didn’t call for a Kumbaya moment. He cited tough policies that sparked harsh political disagreements – the deployment of U.S. missiles in response to the Soviet 22-20s – but still worked. In Berlin, Obama made exactly one point with which it is possible to disagree: his call on the Germans to send more troops to Afghanistan. The argument will probably fall on deaf ears, however, since the vast majority of Germans oppose that policy.”
One part of the speech that did garner joyful acclaim from the adoring throng was Obama’s proclamation that he was “a citizen of the world.” Excuse me, but is he running for president of the United States or secretary general of the U.N.? This pandering to European sensibilities is eerily reminiscent of John Kerry’s ill-fated 2004 debate pledge to subject American policies to a “global test.” This said, Obama’s turn toward the idea of global responsibility is actually a welcome flip-flop coming from someone who spent the primary campaign demagoguing Senator Clinton on the charge that the free trade deals her husband signed were sucking American jobs from Ohio to Mexico and Canada. If you are really a “citizen of the world,” why should it matter? It is also a welcome turn for a candidate who spent the primary campaign complaining that the war in Iraq was costing too much money that should be spent on American roads, bridges, education, and health care. If you are really a “citizen of the world,” surely Iraqi infrastructure is as good an investment as American infrastructure. I am the only one whose olfactory system detects a whiff of opportunistic hypocrisy here?
Frankly, I’d settle for a president who is a citizen of America, thank you very much. Or at least one with the humility to recognize that the president is elected by Americans, not Germans. In the meantime, it is hard to take Obama’s speech as anything more than the pandering to which he is prone. What else to make of his proclamation that “America has no better partner than Europe“? What about Japan? What about Canada and Mexico? What about Israel? Maybe he would make a good ambassador to Germany or France in a McCain administration?
What was also striking about the speech was the disparity between the grandness of the venue and the crowd, and the smallness of the message delivered. In the final analysis, despite all the grandiloquence and oratorical flourishes, he said absolutely nothing of major, or even minor, importance.
So, due in part to the willing connivance of the media*, Obama has grown accustomed to putting on this kind of saccharine show for the rock-concert masses. Again, in Brooks’ words, ”His words drift far from reality. (Although) Obama has benefited from a week of good images, but substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.”
That the bloom is coming off the Obama rose is reinforced by this week’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. In the face of the torrent of obsequious Obamacentric reporting Obama has actually lost a couple of points to McCain.
Obama retains his leads in the four ‘soft’, “feel-good” categories: Improving America’s standing in the world; Being compassionate enough to understand average people; Offering hope for the future; Being easygoing, likable.
However, most telling may be that when it comes to the ultimate attribute of a successful leader, “Being honest and straightforward”, McCain also leads Obama.
Thus, it looks like this election is shaping up to be between the wishful thinking fantasists and the realists. The long history of this great country suggests that with the occasional mistake of electing the likes of a Jimmy Carter, the serious, grown-up candidates will prevail. Thus, Obama is increasingly likely to be remembered as the silver-tongued community organizer who, like the little boy who accidentally coming upon his parents in the bedroom, thinks his dad is attacking his mom: He may get all the facts right, but ends up drawing the wrong conclusions.
*Some 67% of Americans polled this week agree that the media are actively rooting for an Obama victory. Consistent with this view are subsequent reports that the actual crowd was closer to 20,000 than the 200,000 originally reported, but as yet uncorrected in the U.S and European mainstream media. This is, of course a familiar enough refrain: “We were only following orders [of magnitude].”
