Grok
Is Barack Obama nothing more than a Odyssean siren's call?
... Last year Tim Noah at Slate inaugurated the "Obama Messiah Watch," asking: "Is Barack Obama--junior U.S. senator from Illinois, best-selling author, Harvard Law Review editor, Men's Vogue cover model, and 'exploratory' presidential candidate--the second coming of our Savior and our Redeemer, Prince of Peace and King of Kings, Jesus Christ? His press coverage suggests we can't dismiss this possibility out of hand." A year later the idea that Obama is the messiah shows no sign of dissipating... My friend Tom Watson has alerted me that there is even a blog called "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" dedicated to collecting numerous messianic references to Obama in the press. "This is the New Testament," said his most devoted fan Chris Matthews. "The atmosphere at his events is such that one wonders if Obama is about to walk out with a basket with some loaves and fishes to feed the thousands," wrote Geoff Elliott in The Australian. "It's almost like the Messiah, you know?" said a young woman at one of his rallies, according to WCCO in Minnesota. "It was raw, naked, complete, worship, love, heart-whole passionate stunned and almost unbelieving but desperately wanting to believe him adoration," writes someone who attended an Obama rally in Virginia. "He is their Messiah. It's a cult. And they are going to be so disappointed."
Privately, many Obama advisors are also worried about a voter backlash if Obama does not manage to walk on water or raise Ronald Reagan from the dead before they go to the polls in November, and his advisors are already trying to dial back expectations just a little.
Jon Swift
The more I read, the more I wonder about Obama's candidacy and (eventual) presidency. I have few doubts that should Obama win the Democratic Party's nomination, he will win the presidency. McCain's blithe acceptance of 100 years of occupation of Iraq will seal his fate. No one wants another four years of war, much less 100, so McCain will not be elected.
What we'll get in turn, I fear though, is another Carterian presidency, rather than the Obamalot of histomemory, or the Rainbow Land of Dreams. No one, not even a man as intelligent and well-meaning as Obama, can live up to the expectations that are being heaped upon him. He's just a man, his wife reminds us, with stinky feet.
I too, see the messianic attributes with which his supporters - no, believers - are endowing him, and that very "doe-eyed worship" makes me more uncomfortable than I can say. I'm not looking for a savior, a messiah, a preacher, a visionary, or heaven on Earth. I'm looking for a President, one that will give back the rule of law, and the honor of the presidency and the country, to the American people. I'm not convinced that Barack Obama has both feet planted here on earth, or that his intellectual, liberal vision can translate into reality - much as I wish otherwise.
For all the martyrish comparisons that have been made, there's one that struck me today just as powerfully as the (shhh, don't say it out loud) ones of Jesus, Kennedy & King, that of Valentine Michael Smith from Robert Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land."
I'm not convinced, either, that his ascendence won't end the same way. Grok?
Obama president election grok valentine michael smith stranger in a strange land