David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

September 1, 2008

Obama: Some Show from the Emperor With No Clothes

Sen. Barack Obama gave a decent speech last Thursday night, insofar as the big event angle was concerned. It provided solid theater and was a spectacle like we haven't seen in American politics in some time. That said, it wasn't much different from what we've seen from Obama thus far – long on show, thin gruel at best on substance. If you're capable of being wowed by flash and don't really care to think about it too much, it probably came across as impressive.

But putting the pizzazz aside, this speech put the lie to Obama's favorite buzzwords, and showed to those willing to see it that the Messiah is really just your standard, garden-variety liberal politician, making the usual empty promises (which all too often contradict one another) that they all do to get elected. Whatever happened to the old rule of thumb: “If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is”?

Change: There is nothing different about Obama's policies whatsoever, unless one considers being even more liberal than we already have been to be different. Somehow, I don't think most of us would describe pushing the gas pedal harder as “changing direction.”

The speech was filled with the same tripe that liberals have been spewing from time immemorial (or at least since the 1930s and the New Deal), from whining about how helpless everyone is to claiming government-as-savior that will make all problems instantly well with a simple wave of its magic wand. Whatever else you may think of this, it's nothing we haven't heard over and over again from the left side of the political aisle.

Oh, and putting a 30-year incumbent senator on the ticket isn't exactly a sign of trailblazing, either.

Unity: This one is really a laugher. How in the world is having the third-most and the most liberal senators on the ticket a sign of reaching out? How is taxing away from the more productive half of America to throw at the less productive – and, in all too many cases, unproductive – half going to spark anything but resentment and division? There isn't anything on his agenda that suggests legitimate bipartisanship in the least, especially the way he tore into John McCain and President Bush (more on that below).

Which means the unity of which he speaks could only come about as a result of forcing conservative, Republican, red America to accept the Marxist policies of liberal, Democratic, blue America. It is, in short, the political equivalent of the approach The Borg take on Star Trek: Resistance Is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated. And we who value freedom ought to fight as the Federation did to not be forcibly joined to the collective.

Hope: Who knew that hope was such a depressing and angry thing? After the usual trashing of America and saying how awful everything is (though by comparison to other nations and to history, no civilization has ever had it better than us) and the laundry list of government programs that would be the magic elixir, Obama got surprisingly upset. Perhaps the MoveOn.org types who undoubtedly filled Invesco Field were a bit restless and needing some raw meat, I don't know.

There was the usual petty ridiculing of President Bush over Iraq – as if the world is somehow worse off for Saddam Hussein and his no-good sons no longer being in it – and a completely absurd shot at McCain:  “McCain said he will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives.” 

As if getting one guy with failing kidneys holed up in a cave (if he's even still alive) matters anywhere near as much as rolling up a terrorist network. And as if Obama is just going to blithely march into a presently unstable Pakistan when they won't allow it, especially when Obama hasn't even the stomach to finish Iraq. It's logically ridiculous, came off as a snotty playground taunt and ought to have been beneath someone who views himself presidential.

Which brings me to my last impression of the evening: The utter inappropriateness and classlessness of it all. From the overdone Hollywood production that evoked the Olympics opening ceremony, to the disgusting presumptuousness shown in surrounding Obama with the trappings of the office before he's even won it (all remade in his image, of course, as the existing emblems aren't good enough for him), to the “temple” stage setup that treated a mere sinful mortal politician as a divine demi-god, it was a snobbish and arrogant display from start to finish. It showed none of the humility that is essential to the office, and the fact that there apparently was nobody who thought to ask “Is it too much?” just makes one all the more leery of what would happen if such uncontrolled hubris were brought to the most powerful position on Earth.

When you put it all together and add it all up, it was a stunning display of unfitness for office. I only pray that enough can see through the self-glorification, slick packaging and smooth con artistry to see that the would-be emperor really has no clothes. 

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK139. Request permission to publish here.