Obama's first coming

I think this Oz author raises some valid questions that we should all critically think about.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23182456-28737,00.html

Obama's first coming

Washington correspondent Geoff Elliott | February 09, 2008
IT was early 1994 when Nelson Mandela gave a speech in a slum outside Cape Town and spoke in grand terms of a new beginning and how when he was elected president every household would have a washing machine.

People took him literally. A few months later he became South Africa's first black president. That's when clerks in department stores in Cape Town had to turn people away demanding their free washer and dryer.
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How does a cult figure, in the eyes of some something akin to a messiah, make the transition to a political frontrunner - president even - where disappointment will soon crush what seemed to be a journey to a promised land?
Looking into the faces of a more than 16,000-strong crowd in a basketball stadium in Hartford, Connecticut this week, the Mandela magic I'd seen before was there too. Black and white, and the youth; they appeared in a state close to rapture watching Obama speak. Here and there one could see women crying and the some men wiping away tears too.
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In the US today there are echoes of that Rainbow Revolution. Through the media and on the streets people are getting a bit giddy over Obama. In this man they are projecting a new course - one that he says he will lead - where the US buries the culture wars, charts a new course in bipartisan politics and heralds a new dawn for America. ......
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And therein lays the danger for Obama. The Obama shuttle has made it into orbit but at some point he's going to have to land this thing back on Earth.
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But the danger remains for Obama in managing the cult-like fervour. Obviously, he's no messiah and lofty expectations of his supporters is something that Obama is also acutely aware of. In stockmarket parlance, Obama's share price is soaring on expected future earnings. Clinton, 20 years in the public eye, is like the industrial conglomerate: steady share price and reliable dividends. Think of Obama as Google and Clinton as General Electric.
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"We can do this," he told ecstatic supporters on Tuesday night. "It will not be easy. It will require struggle and sacrifice. There will setbacks and we will make mistakes."
But then Obama, in the next sentence, in attempt to appeal to more voters out there, didn't even mention the Democratic Party but instead his "movement" saying: "I want to speak directly to all those Americans who have yet to join this movement but still hunger for change: we need you. We need you to stand with us, and work with us, and help us prove that together, ordinary people can still do extraordinary things".
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In his Super Tuesday speech Obama said "we are the ones we've been waiting for", attempting to make the case the time was now to get some "change" in Washington: a post-partisan world where politicians reach across the aisle for the common good. "This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different," he said. "It's different not because of me. It's different because of you."
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"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."
I hear that too in the voices of Obama's staff constantly, themselves referring to this "cult of Obama".
"Even if he doesn't go all the way, and I'm not being defeatist, I'm so thrilled to be a part of this and see the size of the crowds turning out," one staffer tells me.
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. He may well build an unstoppable momentum. And then the giddiness might evaporate and be replaced with something else. In marketing they call it post-purchase disappointment. If he gets the Democratic Party's nomination another test begins anew: how to turn the narrative which is all about striving for what is possible, to one where people are suddenly asking how are you actually going to do it?

Giddy fervor some day translates into reality. Obama doesn't appear to be promising more than he can deliver. He's actually not promising much of anything at all. Its his fans who write large on his emtpy slate what they think he will do.

obama has a long way to go to get that status. Maybe not?

He could have used FDR's "chicken in every pot".

run on "love and trust" in 76....people wanted change ford had pardoned nixon. so we got 4 years of carter....then 8 of reagan and 4 of poppy bush.

He had considerable experience and was not a messianic type of candidate. He ran on a message of restoring trust because it was the end of the Nixon administration. People were very disillusioned with the government. The president had resigned rather than face impeachment, the vice president had resigned in the midst of scandal.

Carter's campaign was grounded in experience and reality.

but carter still lost to reagan in 80....so you can't really call his term a success. my point was imho obama is a sloganeer more than anything...and should he hang on to win...then reality sets in....i think it's great obama is getting the youth vote...but i also think obamas youthful supporters think they're the first generation to discover youthful enthusiasm. jmo again but youthful enthusiasm fades pretty quick in the face of political reality

You make very good points. In fact, I'm really glad you brought up that point.

We've been down this road before, whichever Dem gets elected to office is going to have to be strong and wily. Much like Nixon and Ford, there will be a lot of problems left behind and a lot of loyal Bush/GOP followers lurking in the shadows ready to screw things up for a new Dem president.

They did it with Carter and also with Clinton. They're not going to be people Obama can sit down and negotiate with. He'll either see his administration fall victim to their traps or will capitualte and become their puppet.

Its not going to be an easy job. I'd rather see someone like Clinton as president who is familiar with the shadow govt and how it works.

I will fund the candidates well. For this forum, I am happy with a star for the next twelve months :hi:

Reagan which helped him win the election.

It's a miracle, the hostages will be released! That was the clear underlying message that was sent, just vote for Reagan and the hostages will be released. Sure enough, it took them only, what, one day? Two days?

That was the first election I voted in, but my candidate lost to a pack of media-wrapped lies and a phony rat bastard candidate.

Obama is Reagan: "If it feels good, believe it."

when they figured out that most people just don't give a shit.

There is a vast, cavernous difference between South Africa in 1994 and the US today.
There is a vast, cavernous difference between South Africa in 2008 and the US today.

someone on drugs. Makes them high and they want more. Scary indeed.

Will the people learn anything from the two-term W debacle?

Have most of the populace gone absolutely mad?