Paul

Ibrahim

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September 22, 2008

Barack Obama: The Luckiest (and Least Impressive) Man in America

We have all heard – a bit too much – about how supposedly impressive Barack Obama is. But even a cursory examination of his background can only suggest that Obama is, in fact, remarkably unremarkable.

Now you might ask, how can that be? After all, putting ideology aside, this guy has successfully fought his way up to the U.S. Senate, on its own a remarkable achievement for anyone!

Not so much.

Let us go back to the roots of Obama’s political career. When Alice Palmer, the Illinois state senator who preceded him, wanted to run for the U.S. House of Representatives, she selected Barack Obama as her intended successor for her state senate seat.

Palmer, however, lost her congressional primary, and decided to run for re-election for her state senate seat. She was so well-known and popular in her district that there was absolutely no doubt she would easily keep her position. Obama, however, refused to give up his candidacy. Instead, he resorted to Chicago-style politics by challenging Palmer’s ballot petition and that of every other candidate for that seat. He managed to get all four of them off of the ballot, and won the seat by eliminating his competition.

A few years later, Obama wanted to run for the U.S. Senate seat that had just opened up. His main opponent, a Democratic candidate named Blair Hull, was well-known, well-financed and comfortably ahead. It was quite apparent that he would take the Democratic nomination for the senate seat. But soon, allegations came out suggesting his involvement in domestic abuse, and his numbers plummeted, paving the way for Obama’s victory.

Then came the general election for the U.S. Senate. Illinois, being one of the most liberal states in the country, would usually make inevitable the victory of the Democratic nominee in any major statewide election. The Republicans, however, had managed to nominate a star by the name of Jack Ryan, who had a distant, but existent, shot at winning. But – surprise, surprise – the media and the left fought vociferously to unseal files related to Ryan’s divorce, and succeeded. In the files were humiliating allegations about Ryan’s sex life with his wife, which led to Ryan’s withdrawal. The Republicans’ attempt at capturing the seat was effectively lost.

And this is how Obama won. Of course, in the last couple of months of the election the GOP brought in Alan Keyes, somewhat of an embarrassing conservative political figure, all the way from Maryland to run against Obama. It was a joke. Obama even started campaigning for other candidates outside Illinois. That’s how much of a non-factor Keyes was.

So there you have it. Obama rose to where he is today by having his opponents withdrawn, disqualified or sunk by scandals every single step of the way. It happened in the state senate election, in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary and in the U.S. Senate general election. Has he ever really run a true campaign before his presidential candidacy?

Yes, once. As a state senator, before running for the U.S. Senate, Obama ran for the U.S. House of Representatives. He campaigned hard but got destroyed in the primary by a margin of two to one. He was apparently unable to dig up any dirt on his opponent. This perhaps makes it no secret that the flurry of nasty rumors about Governor Sarah Palin is essential to his campaign – it is the only way he can win elections.

So what does all of this mean? In general, people assume that anyone who has made it to the U.S. Senate must be smart, competitive and hard-working – and must have good policies and good experience. And, normally, the assumption is a fair one, because most U.S. senators are indeed impressive people, and their roads to Washington are typically long and hard.

Americans thus, by default, have this assumption about Obama. Americans assume that Obama’s state senate constituents judged him capable of being a state senator, and that Illinois voters found him qualified to be a U.S. senator. Unfortunately, they do not realize that neither had a choice regarding Obama. He was elected by default.

Nonetheless, Americans have bought in to the illusion that if Obama was first qualified to be state senator, and then a U.S. senator, then he is capable of being president (never mind that he spent his time voting “present,” made no decisions, and racked up no accomplishments to his name). Add to it his “coolness,” smooth talk, and youth, and you have someone who seems wonderful to many. Now there are thousands upon thousands of similarly well-educated Americans who can be as hip and smooth-talking as Obama, but they simply cannot run for president for the sole reason that they are not senators.

Obama is just like these men, except that he was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to become a senator, which Americans consider a legitimate qualification in and by itself. Yet an examination of how he rose to the senate can only lead to the conclusion that he is just like any of those tens of thousands of above-average guys with pretty smiles, and not one bit more impressive.

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