Obama Messiah

Sorry. But this is too funny to keep to myself.

All in good fun.

That is hilarious. I remember similar frenzy over Clinton (Bill) when he attended APEC in Seattle in 1993. Didn't understand it then, and I don't understand it now.

Settle down, people. It's just charisma. Jesus....

My boyfriend said he got a text message "from Obama" that nearly brought him to tears over its positive and forward-looking message.

To tears. Over a text message. Written by somebody whose name was probably NOT Barack Obama. Seriously.

I just found it. He wanted to share it with me, so he emailed it to me:

So many of us have been waiting so long for the time when we could finally expect more from our politics, when we could give more of ourselves and feel truly invested in something bigger than a particular candidate or cause.

This is it. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

I dunno. I think it's great sentiment and all, but I'm managing to keep it together. Does anybody else need "a moment"?

Some of us geezers remember when the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.

Slate's Timothy Noah has been on the Obama Messiah Watch for a while:

http://www.slate.com/id/2158578/

Also,

http://www.slate.com/id/2159132/

Yeah - this gives me great confidence in the voters of America. Change and empty slogans, no trans fats and half the calories!!! Alleluia.

Thank God my side's politicians are all mean nasty bastards or oily opportunists or people who on principle reserve this sort of thing for Sunday mornings and direct it at a dead man.

I would start getting really worried if some rightwinger evoked this sort of emotion.

On the other hand, let's remember when we were young, and naive. They'll learn.

Well, it's pretty clear McCain's not messianic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs

if you visit obama's senate website, i think you'll find papers on specific policies.

if you are familiar with the community organizing style developed by saul alinsky (obama was trained as an alinsky style organizer in chicago), you will have a better idea about obama's political style. this "messiah" business is more a reflection of some of his supporters than anything obama is doing. in reality he's organizing a community to back his candidacy (he needs a 'movement' to defeat the clinton establishment), and also needs supports to get 'involved.' this is community organizing 101. he varies from alinsky insofar as he has avoided heightened confrontational positions with clinton. here, he's more of a communitarian (if one needs to slap a label on him).

i'm not sure whether this political style will translate into success in this campaign or how it would work out if he pursued it as president. however, it helps to be clear about what he's doing rather than falling prey to the empty-headed punditocracy (which is looking for a messiah itself).

it would also be interesting to see whether this message of 'hope' for a better america would be competitive against the doom and gloom of a mccain candidacy ('kill the jihadists!' repeat...).

Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

In MHO, the representative democracy that is the US of A depends on an educated and reasonable electorate. I am hoping people will actually read some of the information provided by candidates about what they might do, or try to do, once elected. We do have a government which does not allow the President to be King or Queen or Messiah ....I hope. Please consider your vote in a careful and informed manner....

#9 "Kill the jihadist!" works for me.

#10: yes, it is all pretty silly to think that the executive branch, let alone the president, is omnipotent. It also seems like a way that people can shirk their own individual responsibilities from the local level out. Your greatest responsibility is to your community, your influence locally will have the greatest impact. Your choice of President is only marginally important, but you should be able to defend it with reality-based argument, I agree.

> I am hoping people will actually read some of the information provided by candidates about what they might do, or try to do, once elected.

i'm hoping to win the lottery.

Me, too. One of the candidates also hopes for miracles. I, unfortunately like this candidate, continue to spend money on this long shot. I must go buy lottery tickets, today! Not all of my actions are so carefully considered but I do try to tell myself the truth. The lottery may in fact be a tax on stupidity. (-;

I'm about $2500 up in playing the lottery.

It happens.

#14: Any net profit?

On the obamaphiliacs, I agree with Joel Stein of the LA Times:

"You are embarrassing yourselves."

Good God, I'll take a weeping Hillary over this nonsense. Once women start throwing underwear, we'll know that the Oprahization of American culture is complete.

The Obama fans are starting to sound like the white guys at CPAC do, when they talk about Reagan!

$2500 IS the net. So all ya'all should play.

OO: I don't yet hear the Obamans talking in those hushed, reverent voices, and haven't seen them cross themselves when saying his name.

#17: so you only played or paid for one ticket over the course of your life and won $2500? Wow. Can I rub your sleeve?

#16: Yeah, but those guys keep their boxers on. (I hope).

I've spent about $50 total on the lottery in my life. Won a $2500, a $40, and a bunch of smaller ones.

And, please, I don't need those mental images.

Where's Obama's paper trail?

Sen. Obama is a highly gifted writer who has published two large books. We can assume that the first, his 1995 autobiography, wasn't ghost-written because, although it's very well-written, it's also quite boring due to his monomaniacal focus on the topic of "race and inheritance." A professional hack would have insisted on punching it up with more funny stories to make it more entertaining.

So, here's a man with a major talent for expressing himself in writing, and who has been obsessed with social change and politics for his entire life. Yet, where are the articles commenting on current affairs written by Obama before his focus-tested emergence on the national stage a few years ago?

>1 codyed:-19 The size and significance of the "emotional wing" of Obama's movement is dramatically overstated by cynics, Clintonistas and Republicans. One would have to be blind to not see why an optimistic, progressive and inclusive candidate with no serious political baggage is exciting a significant number of Democrats and left-of-center to centrist independents: it has been a long, long time since the Democratic party has had a working coalition on Capital Hill.

>20 codyed: "Where's Obama's Paper trail? .... Can anyone do a Lexus Nexus search?" = 'Stop the presses! I'm going to break a story I haven't fully investigated. And I'm going to pretend that my unsubstantiated finding is significant!'

This is not France: the only people who are required to publish frequently are individuals who are shooting for tenure. As such, if Obama was not writing serious journal articles on a bimonthly basis, then it is clear that he was keeping his options open. Given your close proximity to a number of adjunct professors, I would hope that you would willingly concede the fact that Obama was neither the first nor the last adjunct professor to keep one eye on the private and/or public sphere.

It's my understanding that Obama's an adjunct professor in the law department - and based on that, I would say that his trial cases as an Equal Rights lawyer would be more than equivalent to publishing articles. It looks to me as if he was too busy making changes, and inspiring his students to go do the same, to sit around writing about it.