Obama's first coming

[rodeodance]

Forum Name General Discussion: Primaries
Topic subject Obama's first coming
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4540643#4540643
4540643, Obama's first coming
Posted by rodeodance on Mon Feb-11-08 04:55 PM




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.
.......
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.
.......
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. ......
........
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.
.........
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.
.............
"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".
.........
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."
.......
"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.
.........
. 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?

[bpeale]

1. thanks but i'm not succumbing to Dr. Obama's Traveling Salvation Show

[jillan]

2. IF Obama gets the nomination, and then gets elected

I think alot of his supporters are going to be in disbelief.

On my local AAR, one of the most progressive voices - a man who supported Kucinich and Edwards - is not buying into the
Obama hype. He is constantly reminding people that Obama is not that progressive.

[katty]

3. expectation, high expectations, breed disappointment-he's floating

high in his own bubble-and it will come to earth and burst, eventually. America is such a cult vulnerable country in every area--this mania is no surprise--we are a dysfunctional nation prone to emotional immaturity and and 'quick fix' addicts.

[rodeodance]

4. THEY will need de-programming

[katty]

5. i hear that!! but right St. Obama is sweeping it up

[feminazi]

7. It will be a hard and fast fall back to earth.

IF he wins the nomination and IF he wins the Presidency, there will be a lot of disillusioned people when he doesn't bring about the promised hope and change.

I don't see people like Boehner or McConnell getting all warm and fuzzy and prostrating themselves before the Obama traveling salvation show.

[katty]

8. o that won't be happening w/ Boehner and McConnell

[Justpat]

6. I distrust anyone with a messianic complex.

And, as an older person, I detest the "hope" concept with all my heart. It has been my
experience that those who offer hope as a way out of a situation as those who don't
have a clue and don't have a plan. All they have it hope for a better day, blah, blah, blah.

Sorry to be such a cynic, but his whole shtick really wears on my nerves.

So we have a big part of the country buying into this hope and yes we can thing
and shunning the person who CAN get things done.

[katty]

9. yup, it is just way too creepy