Why did people believe a Chicago pol was a bold and daring reformer cut from a different cloth than other machine politicians?
"Remember," Ed Morissey wrote yesterday with some nostalgia, those "heady days of 'hope and change'?"
That was Obama's argument that only he could change the way Washington worked as an outsider with few obligations to the Establishment. How voters bought that notion from a Chicago Machine politician is a matter for future psychiatrists and comedians, but Obama's jerk to the Left and the embrace of old class-warfare arguments and policies appear to have derailed any serious attempt to curtail deficits, at least for the short term.
And the longer Obama governs, the more we see that the image he and his campaign created is at odds with his record. Ed's right; that people bought into it is indeed a matter for psychiatrists and comedians.
That our journalists did not delve into his record to see if it matched his rhetoric causes one to question their competency. Sarah Palin's daughter's ex-boyfriend becomes a source of information on the accomplished Alaska reformer, but Barack Obama's minister of twenty years (about as long as that ex- had been alive, much longer than he knew the Palins) is off limits.
Today, two of my favorite sources of libertarian/conservative opinion, Glenn Reynolds and the WSJ.com's Political Diary (available by subscription) linked and/or excerpted Peter Wehner's must-read piece on Obama's Disquieting Heroic Fantasies. Wehner notes how Obama created this image of this new kind of politician out of whole cloth,about which Morrissey recently reminisced, offering an image of himself opposite to the actual politician Obama has been:
I have written before about Obama's deep, almost desperate, need to portray himself as the opposite of what he is, to conceive of himself in a way that is at odds with reality. We have seen it in all sorts of areas, including claiming himself to be a voice of civility, portraying himself as a champion of bi-partisanship, lecturing others about profligate spending, and saying he is the only responsible "adult" in Washington. Now we see this habit in a new arena – this time, the president as Obama the Stoic, a man so committed to "pressing on" for the cause of social justice he just doesn't have time to feel sorry for himself. Indeed, he has now decided to sermonize to others not to complain, not to grumble, and to "stop crying."
If there has been a president in my lifetime who has felt more sorry for himself – who has laid the blame for his failures on more people (George W. Bush, the Congressional GOP, the Tea Party, conservative talk radio hosts, millionaires and billionaires) and more things (ATMs, Japanese tsunamis, the Arab Spring, Fox News, Wall Street, et cetera) – I can't think of who that might be.
What we are seeing is a president attempt to create, almost out of whole cloth, his owncharacter, his own narrative, his own truth. That might work in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel; it works less well in an American presidential campaign.
Filed Under: Media Bias, Obama Arrogance, Obama Hopenchange, Obama Worship & Indoctrination
The Other Peter H says
The title of this entry is the reason: the people. Not the candidate. I remember him riding in to save us all from BDS. Anything but a Republican. And with the media feeding the frenzy, the people fell for it. No need to vet; he sounds good and looks good. BDS was enough.
The BDS definitely was a factor. For eight years, the American people had seen their president attacked non-stop by a vicious media hate machine. The media promised to fawn over the black Democrat and make Americans feel good about their president again. That had a powerful psychological effect on much of the electorate.
Obama the cipher is obliterated with his Marxist record of ObamaCare, Porkulus, & Frank-Dodd; he can no longer be the the every man. He never was. It was an illusion. His 2012 campaign will be a total disaster since he is pretending he hasn't been POTUS the last 3 years. He cannot disavow reality no matter how much wants to run away from his toxic record. The people will make sure Obama never forgets his record.
[Wehner:] Obama's deep, almost desperate, need to portray himself as the opposite of what he is, to conceive of himself in a way that is at odds with reality
But Obama *has* brought Hope and Change. He has changed the federal government into a vast cancer whose out-of-control growth threatens to kill its host organism, America. We're reduced to *hoping* that he can be stopped in time.
1) Because Americans are at their core generally trusting people who want to believe the best about the motivations of others
2) Because liberals have spent four decades incalculating racist beliefs into American education, media, and social mores
3) Because Obama is an unprincipled liar who will say, do, and use anything to get into power
4) Because the Obama Party and the media are unprincipled liars who believe that Americans are stupid and need to have more "enlightened" people drag them kicking and screaming into the future.
The sole virtue of Obama's disastrous reign is that the vast majority of Americans are finally waking up to points 2, 3, and 4.
The tragedy is that it comes at the cost of point 1.
And that, I think, is the most lasting damage. Regulations can be repealed, laws can be removed or struck down, corrupt politicians can be ousted, and the economy can be given an honest chance to grow again.
But Obama, the screaming Marxist idiot, has completely obliterated any trust Americans have in their government, both with his lies about Bush and his pervasively-corrupt and destructive administration, filled with hatemongering hypocritical bigots like Elizabeth Warren, Tim Geithner, and the like.
pst314 says
5) Because a lot of liberals thought a "progressive" machine might be kind of fun? 😉
Maybe you should rephrase the question, DAn, to Why did the voters buy etc. Did they not have enough information? His basic occupation before politics was a Community Organizer, following the Rule For Radicals by the communist Saul Alinsky, a friend of Bill Ayers, a 22 year member of the racist Trinity UCC, authored no legislation either as state senator where he voted present 144 times nor in his couple of years in the U:S: Senate. The MSM ignored it but the information was out there if people really wanted to know the candidate. Then add in Senator John McCain, who was not the best opposition he could have had. He spent more time reminding voters of his scars from his POW days instead of how or what he would do as the POTUS.
Also, the media covered Obama as though he spent his entire adult life in a whorehouse and still came out a virgin.