Baltimore Sun: Obama mania, too, will pass

[Bluebear]

There's a noteworthy theme in a lot of the political reporting and opinionating recently that goes something like: Sen. Barack Obama has almost been deified by many of his supporters who have taken on the aspect of cult members.

Writing on the op-ed page of today's Los Angeles Times, Joel Stein says:


You are embarrassing yourselves. With your "Yes We Can" music video, your "Fired Up, Ready to Go" song, your endless chatter about how he's the first one to inspire you, to make you really feel something -- it's as if you're tacking photos of Barack Obama to your locker, secretly slipping him little notes that read, "Do you like me? Check yes or no." Some of you even cry at his speeches. If I were Obama, and you voted for me, I would so never call you again.

Obamaphilia has gotten creepy. I couldn't figure out if the two canvassers who came to my door Sunday had taken Ecstasy or were just fantasizing about an Obama presidency, but I feared they were going to hug me. Scarlett Johansson called me twice, asking me to vote for him. She'd never even called me once about anything else. Not even to see "The Island."...

Clearly, Obama is charismatic. It's hard even for a reporter not to wonder when he stands in a scrum of reporters as the senator answers their questions if the sense of cool and ease coming off Obama isn't similar to what other reporters experienced more than a generation ago in the presence of presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.

But Obama's dealings with indicted businessman Tony Rezko and the way Obama navigated through Springfield during his days as a state senator indicate that he is a very real Chicago politician, capable of "boneheaded" (his word) misjudgment and compromise to the point of disappointing his natural progressive allies...

So while Obamaphiles may currently have their man on a pedestal, it's almost a certaintly they will be seeing less of a messiah and more a pol a year hence, or if he becomes president, a few years on, than they do presently.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/by_frank_james_theres_an.html

..

[sunonmars]

1. I'm predicting there will be one point soon where something.......

just gets revealed and the whole thing goes boom.

He's being built up to a level that cannot be sustained, soon something will go bang and it will make Obama look just like your average joe politician and it won't be pretty.

[alarimer]

8. I agree and I hope it's sooner rather than later

Not because I prefer Clinton or anything. I just cannot stand the messianic fervor. It makes me want to puke. And certainly it does not make me want to vote for him.

I just think it is not possible to be too cynical about politicians in this day and age. If you are not at least a little cynical, you risk being monumentally disappointed.

[griffi94]

23. man i'm having that same problem

i'm finding it hard to want to give him my vote...i know it's probly not fair to blame him
for the weird vibel his supporters put off...but he reminds me of friends i had that supported dubya
didn't matter what you said or what part of his record you pointed out they just kept on telling me that he was a great guy
they'd like to have a beer with him....and in the case of some of my more devout acquaintances he was a godly man...they could just tell

[Sapphocrat]

27. Right, I don't blame Obama (entirely), either...

...but (you knew there was a "but" coming): You have to ask what it is about Obama's campaign that sparks this fever in the first place. My first inclination is to blame the most "slain-in-the-spirit" Obama supporters for reflecting badly on Obama, and to excuse Obama himself -- but in truth, these "movements" don't gain this sort of traction without something -- or someone -- inciting them. And since Obama supporters readily admit to being "inspired" by Obama himself, well... I don't believe in spontaneous combustion outside the world of physics. There's always a spark to a flame.

And, welcome to DU -- hang on tight. :hi:

[butterfly77]

48. I agree ...

but I believe that the media is waiting until he gets the nomination and then BOOM there will be no turning back...

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

10. The media set this up, He is going to explode during Rezko Trial.

[candice]

13. REZKO?

[Thrill]

37. Nothing there

The Rezco thing is weak.

[desi]

22. The rethugs went through much the same thing in '00 that we are

going through now with Obama. He * who shall remain nameless was also a rather lesser known, untested entity who even mangled the King's English. I remember that we called him the "Stealth Candidate." Well this "charismatic" individual had the repukes swooning and falling all over themselves to "have a beer" with. Seven years later you'd be hard pressed to find many people on the street who will admit to still want to have a beer with him. The new JFK? Not hardly. More like the old Jesse "The Body" Ventura. Remember him?

[Sapphocrat]

31. Bingo.

I tiptoe around that very comparison myself (I've said it, repeatedly, but believe me, I've gone easy - LOL), simply because I expect a lot of people to completely miss the point, and twist it into: "You're comparing Obama to BUSH?!?!?! You Hillbots/shills/oids will stop at nothing in your smear campaign! Blah, blah, blah...!"

I hear exactly what you're saying -- and you're spot-on.

If the level of vitriol weren't so far off the scale, I might feel sorry for those too swept up in the mania to have a clue. Not so strangely, though, I now feel some genuine pity for Bush supporters who didn't see their big fall coming, either -- because now I am observing exactly how it happened, only within my own party. It's quite an eye-opener... and it makes me far less inclined these days to call all Bush supporters braindead idiots -- or I would be compelled to call Obama supporters braindead idiots as well. And (despite what the BO lovers here will think), I don't think Obama supporters are stupid -- just swept away.

Now, Obama could get elected, and he could become a terrific president. (I don't believe that for a minute, but let's just say it could happen, for the sake of argument.) But no matter what he does, his supporters have set the bar so high that the first time he doesn't walk on water, they're going to be as crushed as... well, teenyboppers who were practically suicidal when Paul McCartney got married (or Donny Osmond, or whoever the Flavor of the Decade is).

It's the ol' pinprick to the bubble of cognitive dissonance, and the results ain't gonna be pretty. I just hope I'll be able to be big enough to help them pick up their shattered dreams, and not just stand back and say "I told you so."

Hmm... No, I don't know if I can be that big. In fact, I doubt it.

[AX10]

40. As you said.

Obama-mania is getting sickening at this point.

[desi]

41. Excellent!

I can't add anything to what you've expressed here. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Bluebear]

42. I doubt it too.

We'll have to tell them to "quit whining, get over it, lighten up!"

[Wombatzu]

26. well it better happen before Hillary loses more superdelegates -->

hah

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--delegates-nj0208feb08,0,5374058.story

[rudy23]

30. Yes, right now they're building him up to knock him down. They're setting the expectations so high

he can't help but come up short. Politics 101. Set your own bar as low as you can, and your opponent's bar as high as you can. It's all an expectations game.

[Sapphocrat]

34. It's not...

...Hillary supporters who are setting the Obama bar too high. LOL

[Thrill]

36. LOl You're pathetic

[RoadRage]

56. Umm.. i'm pretty sure if there was somthing "there"

The Clintons would have let it leak by now. Iowa surprised them, SC scared them. If they had an "Ace in the hole" they would have played that by now.. Obama has a very real chance of winning this now, and that's not something the Clintons expected at all.

The truth is there isn't anything about this guy that hasn't been unturned. Part of his "CULT APPEAL" is the fact that he has a clean image that has yet to be tarnished. At Rezco is NOTHING compared to 10 minutes in the Clinton White House in regards to "scandals" and those of us kool-aid drinkers realize this.

[ananda]

2. Will the real Obama please stand up?

nt

[thunder rising]

3. All this innuendo and Hillary's snakes just can't get an indictment.

But we should vote for Billary sense we KNOW their crooked. Now that's a winning campaign platform.

[Bluebear]

5. 'vote for Billary sense we KNOW their crooked' -- Sense what their who, now?

[CyberPieHole]

25. LOL...

:spray:

[Orangepeel]

4. Cynical much, Stein?

There is nothing wrong with inspiration.

It is true that many Obama supporters will be disappointed in a year should he win the presidency. But that's not unique to Obama. All politicians make compromises and none agree 100% with all of their supporters.

[Barack_America]

18. Total cynic.

I would expect nothing less from him.

[bunnies]

6. Fine. You win. I suck. Im not worthy of your party.

I promise to leave if your omnipotent candidate gets the nomination.

[Bluebear]

9. My candidate is John Edwards, thank you.

[bunnies]

14. Since when?!

You dumped HRC why?

[Bluebear]

16. Excuse me, I proudly voted for John Edwards in the New Hampshire primary.

[Bluebear]

45. hello?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

15. It's not a question of the worth of Obama supporters

It's a question of whether the movement, however one characterizes it, is frothy and liable to deflate overnight once the media tires of the story.

Different people have different thoughts on it.

But it's a vital question, and the sort of thing it's better to weigh in the primaries.

[laugle]

44. Someone needs to

vet him soon.....I can't even watch the MSM anymore slobbering all over him......and even talk radio too.

Ray Taliaferro calling people racist, bigot, cracker and dirty traitor, just because they don't support BO....it's gotten really ugly.......

[TwilightGardener]

7. Obama can't do anything right. The slightest thing turns into a "gate"--

snub-gate, Reagan-gate, messy-loses-papers-gate...hammered away in the press. And now, people just like him too goshdarn much. Likeability is now officially a pathology. The media loves McCain, but that's OK, that's justified. Liking Obama? That's just weird.

[Bluebear]

12. travelgate, Whitewatergate, Vince Fostergate, Edward's big housegate, Gore's electricbill gate

Obama is not unique, dachshund.

[TwilightGardener]

17. No--however, some of those were real problems, some were overblown.

Just pointing out how the media builds up, tears down, builds up, tears down.

[niceypoo]

33. Messiah-gate?

[TwilightGardener]

38. John Edwards is out now, you shouldn't kick his supporters when they're down.

[jackson_dem]

43. Messiah-gate

[surfermaw]

51. we do know John Edwards paid for his house at full price

[surfermaw]

52. we do know John Edwards paid for his house at full price

[democrattotheend]

11. The Clinton research machine is among the best there is

If there was more dirt, chances are they would have found it.

[jonnyblitz]

19. k & r

:hi:

[Bluebear]

21. ...

:hi:

[cali]

20. *snicker*

this is soo predictable. Anyone with a functioning mind knew that the press would turn on Obama. He'll be fine. And of course "Obamamania" will end. Big deal. No one can expect the enthusiasm he's currently experiencing to last forever- but it just may be enough to carry him to the White House.

[Straight Shooter]

28. Yes, that's what we want, another religious man in the White House.

[Cant trust em]

24. I'd rather set the bar high and be let down

than set the bar low so I won't be disappointed.

[DemGa]

29. The breakdown will be sad

I kind of feel sorry for Obama supporters in a way.

Damn politics is a tough business.

[Sapphocrat]

32. Kickety-kickety-rec.

:)

[citizen snips]

35. K&R

[Babel_17]

39. Obama will always have massive appeal, it's just that ....

people are digging deeper into "Obama, the politician" and Obama's support will end up being based on more realistic expectations.

This will be a good thing. If Obama gets nominated he will be elected and his administration would be best served if it didn't have to deal with a nation that is expecting the impossible.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14612

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

46. Hi, Bluebear!

:hi:

[Bluebear]

49. I don't get it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

53. Of course you don't.

[butterfly77]

47. Then they will have something to cry about..

[ElsewheresDaughter]

50. Tony Rezko

[ProSense]

54. Baltimore Sun "strongly endorses" Obama

Baltimore Sun "strongly endorses" Obama

[RoadRage]

55. Charismatic, "Boneheaded" politicians make mistakes too..

Everyone loved JFK, and still think he's phenominal. Marilyn Monroe?
Everyone loved Bill Clinton and many still think he's phonomincal. Monica Lewinsky?

People can like Obama.. be enthusiastic about supporting him - even if he's made a mistake (and quickly admited it - unlike both gentlemen listed above).

[Cameron27]

57. Apparently you haven't

touched the hand that touched Mr. Hopey/changy's hand. :silly:

BAM !