It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Obama!

[bigtree]

By FRANK RICH
Published: April 3, 2010

NOT since Clark Kent changed in a phone booth has there been an instant image makeover to match Barack Obama’s in the aftermath of his health care victory. “He went from Jimmy Carter to F.D.R. in just a fortnight,” said one of the “Game Change” authors, Mark Halperin, on MSNBC. “Look at the steam in the man’s stride!” exclaimed Chris Matthews. “Is it just me, or does Barack Obama seem different since health care passed?” wrote Peter Beinart in The Daily Beast, which, like The Financial Times, ran an illustration portraying the gangly president as a newly bulked-up Superman.

What a difference winning makes — especially in America. Whatever did (or didn’t) get into Obama’s Wheaties, this much is certain: No one is talking about the clout of Scott Brown or Rahm Emanuel any more.

But has the man really changed — or is it just us? Fifteen months after arriving at the White House, Obama remains by far the most popular national politician in the country, even with a sub-50 percent approval rating. And yet he’s also the most enigmatic. While he is in our face more than any other figure in the world, we still aren’t entirely sure what to make of him.

Depending on where you stand — or the given day — he is either an overintellectual, professorial wuss or a ruthless Chicago machine pol rivaling the original Boss Daley. He is either a socialist redistributing wealth to the undeserving poor or a tool of Wall Street’s Goldman Sachs elite. He is a terrorist-coddling, A.C.L.U.-tilting lawyer or a closet Cheneyite upholding the worst excesses of the Bush administration’s end run on the Constitution. He is a lightweight celebrity who’s clueless without a teleprompter or a Machiavellian mastermind who has ingeniously forged his Hawaiian birth certificate, covered up his ties to Islamic radicals and bamboozled the entire mainstream press. He is the reincarnation of J.F.K., L.B.J., F.D.R., Reagan, Hitler, Stalin, Adlai Stevenson or Nelson Mandela. (Funny how few people compared George W. Bush to anyone but Hitler and his parents.)


read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/opinion/04rich.html?pagewanted=print

[juajen]

1. I thought Hillary's ratings were in the 60's, or isn't she considered

a national politician? Or, could I be wrong. I know I did read that.

[MrModerate]

2. If we take these MSM twits seriously, we're frakkin' doomed . . .

They have the attention span of a mayfly, the institutional memory of Dory in "Finding Nemo," and the analytical depth of bread mold. Wave something shiny in their faces and they'll drop what they're doing and try to peck it out of your hands.

Serious people need to sort through the chaff and decide whether Obama is what they thought they were voting for, or to be more fair, what percentage of what they thought they were voting for.

The fact that reality shows and "journalism" are vitually indistinguishable these days scares me shitless.

[Hekate]

3. ooooo, shiny....

Well said, you!

Hekate

[Webster Green]

4. Splendid post!

The lack of journalism, and the endless propaganda, will be our demise if we don't get a grip on it.

Actual journalists are hardly ever seen on the corporate propaganda outlets (MSM). Very Sad!

I was thinking about that while driving home from work this evening, listening to an hour of Pacifica News on KPFA FM.

[NJmaverick]

5. K&R

[malaise]

6. It's the truth

Many people did not listen carefully to Obama during the campaign.