by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n All of you readers have had this odd experience. Just remember a bit. Someone you know, even know well, whom you thought was reasonably conservative, if perhaps at least a centrist, who would have welcomed a McCain \u201cmoderate\u201d campaign, rather than a hard-core conservative candidacy, suddenly, without warning in a conversation, perhaps over the phone, confesses that he was voting for Obama!<\/p>\n And he was not just voting for Obama, but doing so in almost teen-aged hysterical fashion. I\u2019m not talking of a Colin Powell phenomenon, but someone who had no political interests or career concerns, or need for psychological remissions of sins, someone whose entire political philosophy was seemingly antithetical to Obamism.<\/p>\n It made no sense, you thought, given that the apostate\u2019s previous protestations about being conservative, but not a Bush conservative, would have led naturally to an affinity for McCain. After that you had the weird feeling, perhaps as you remember in the\u00a0Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em>, that anyone at anytime could wake up and almost zombie like not seem like he was before, but apparently docile, happy, and eager to join an entirely new centrally-guided paradigm that would prove for us new automatons to be in our best interests.<\/p>\n This occurred to me on at least ten occasions, with long-time friends, some familiar pundits, and a few in government no less. So I came to appreciate the power of the Obama rhetoric. And there was power too in the desire for change after eight years, and an understandable yearning for our first African-American President.<\/p>\n I\u00a0was writing a TMS column today on Obama\u2019s soaring rhetoric and the impossible expectations that he imprisoned himself in, and began thinking back on the last two years. What explains his near miraculous rise, when pros had almost coronated Hillary and assured us she would trounce Giuliani?<\/p>\n I suppose Barack Obama made the nation giddy when he proclaimed there were no red and blue states, just Americans. He promised to unite us across political, racial, and religious lines. And for the age of cynicism there was something admirable to returning to the age of belief. For some in one fell swoop they were given exemption for all racial sins and now could continue to live as before \u2014 but relieved of white guilt. So we overlooked the racialist sermonizing from Michelle Obama, Barack\u2019s occasional promises for reparations in deed not mere word, and the odd things that a Joseph Lowery said on Inauguration Day that were acceptable for a Civil Rights veteran but would have sent a white professor, journalist, or politician into the Don Imus stocks for a week or two.<\/p>\n Of course, during the campaign, some of us \u2014 dismissed as old and in the way, hoped and changed away white guys \u2014 suspected Obamania in part was a result of mere political rhetoric of the Huey Long or JFK sort. We remembered instead that his pastor Rev. Wright\u2019s venom was not evidence of indiscretion but proof of clear serial hatred. We read carefully his platform and saw at best Carterism and at worse some half-baked European socialism that we now see imploding in Greece, Italy, or Spain.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s career in Chicago politics was all too familiar in such a landscape \u2014 friends acquired like convicted felon Tony Rezko and rival election candidates dropping out through law suits, or mysteriously being forced off the ballot due to leaks about their divorces. Only the genius of David Mamet could write its Chicago script.<\/p>\n And for all the talk of bipartisanship, candidate Obama had the most partisan record in the U.S. Senate, and serially trashed right-wingers like Sean Hannety (and by extension his audience of 10 million) during the campaign. In fairness, I think he proved the nastier gutter fight than ambivalent Hamlet-like John McCain, who seemed at times he wished to lose nobly than sandbag the nation\u2019s historic chance for a gifted African-American healer.<\/p>\n But then Obama was elected and as President promised, as most Presidents do, to bring us together. He met with conservative pundits, reappointed Bush\u2019s Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and brought in scores of Clinton centrists to manage his administration. Bravo to all that.<\/p>\n Yet the old Obama is starting to appear as most of you astute readers knew he would. Not a word from him about what can, without hyperbole, be called a dishonest Charlie Rangel, a reprehensible Chris Dodd, and the inexplicable Barney Frank who goes barking from one mortgage\/banking ethical lapse to another, confident that no Democrat will dare take him on (he enjoys the exemption accorded to the proverbial raving but glib street-corner prophet who accosts you, flips you off on the street, and shouts in your ear and in public all the way to the car before trying to mount the hood and grab the windshield wipers).<\/p>\n Obama loftily talked about a new ethics law outlawing lobbyists, even as he tried to get an exemption for Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn. The problems that surrounded Treasury-Secretary designate Timothy Geithner, or the \u201ctroubles\u201d with Attorney General Eric Holder, and Gov. Bill Richardson border on old-style greed, careerism and conflict of interest \u2014 in other words, the normal sort of controversies that a politician routinely overcomes if he\u2019s not a saint.<\/p>\n For all the talk of bipartisanship, Obama like Lord Xerxes on his throne nevertheless has got down and dirty and trashed Rush Limbaugh (and by extension his 20 million listeners) and boasted to the Republican opposition. \u201cI won. I am the President\u201d \u2014 in braggadocio that exceeded the \u201cdecider\u201d George Bush\u2019s. I suspect if the Blago tapes are ever released in their entirety Rahm Emanuel will sound more like Nixon to Halderman than earnestly discussing the rising oceans with St. Obama.<\/p>\n The problem with all this is not that Obama\u2019s trying to wheel and deal and talk out of both sides of his mouth like Bill Clinton and others, but, far worse, is starting to appear ridiculous like Jimmy Carter, divinely talking down to us as mere mortals as he acts like a mere mortal.<\/p>\n So what for others might be written off as the usual hypocrisy and small-mildness \u2014 No More Lobbyists in Government \u2014 Just One More in Mine! \/ I\u2019m Zeus on Olympos above mortal cares \u2014 but Sean and Rush really piss me off and I want to get even with both! \/I\u2019m a radical egalitarian, but please appoint Caroline Kennedy who endorsed me but otherwise seems dyslexic \u2014 proves toxic even if it comes out as hexameter verse from St. Obama. The wages of prophethood are heavy, and those who walk on water, and proclaimVero Possumus!<\/em>\u00a0can endure no mortal sin. Will the media that was made to look foolish with tingling legs and tearing cheeks get fooled twice, as Obama the Saint and Obama the Chicago Politician begin to bifurcate?<\/p>\n You readers remember that sometime around mid 2007, Obama made a Faustian bargain. Without much national name, without a legislative record in Illinois or the U.S. Senate, but with quite a lot of Chicago baggage, Obama gambled on the hope and change new persona (soon to be followed with the soaring FDR\/MLK\/JFK prose, Latinate seal, Greek architraves, Victory Column \/Sermon on the Mount speeches, Father Abraham\u2019s arrival to DC by slow-moving rail car (after flying back to Illinois by jet)). For much of the campaign, he either hoped that Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, Father Pfleger and the other assorted Dailey\/Blago baggage would not surface, or, if it did, he could hope and change them all away. And he did \u2014 brilliantly. And now they are history and those who dredge them up little more cranky sore-losing has-beens.<\/p>\n But as President, no matter how historic a candidacy (more astounding than any in American history), no matter how calm in the face of continuous pressure, no matter how brilliant in prepared and set oratory, one can\u2019t get away with that disconnect forever. There is a reason why a plodding Ike and blunt Harry Truman were greater Presidents than even JFK \u2014 and why in 2-3 years even George Bush will begin to seem in retrospect honest, sober, and straight-talking rather than word-mangling.<\/p>\n As a novice politician without an Arkansas, or Plains, or Crawford mafia, even, or rather especially, Obama, had to import the hardest of the hard core Clintonistas \u2014 Emanuel, Podesta, Panetta, Hillary herself \u2014 and he had to pay off some overdue IOU\u2019s to the left with symbolic gestures and appointments (more rhetoric and symbolism and task forces to come on Don\u2019t Ask\/Don\u2019t Tell, Gay Marriage, Cap and Trade, Kyoto redux, etc.).<\/p>\n Again, the backtracking on the issues, the tough centrist appointments, and the seeming continuance of a Bush (III?) foreign policy, once demonized now quietly embraced, are fine for Bill Clinton, Al Gore or Harry Reid, but in aggregate ever so insidiously they become finally problematic for the redeemer. As stated, even the Left-wing media won\u2019t like looking foolish twice. And even the smug Europeans will turn on those who prod them to be reasonable and honest after serenading them with prose set to Mozart. Yes, he can halt the messiah act and we will forgive him for not being a messiah \u2014 or continue it in lieu of honest governance and I assure you in time evenNewsweek<\/em>\u00a0and NPR will turn on him, in fear that they are not merely gullible, but looking ridiculous.<\/p>\n So even now, Obama need not play any longer the hypocrite and can recover if he mans up to the past hypnosis of the campaign, cools the Lincoln talk, reads about Nemesis, and admits that he is a mere mortal, an inexperienced one at that, matches his deeds with honest words, and seeks to govern in human rather than divine fashion from on high. That way a William Lynn or Timothy Geithner are just political landmines that one steps over rather than proof that the Wizard turns out to be a little man with levers and dials behind the curtain.<\/p>\n Americans can and will forgive almost anything other than hypocrisy.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media All of you readers have had this odd experience. Just remember a bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[724],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-M6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1511,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-new-take-on-partisanship\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":0},"title":"Obama’s New Take on Partisanship","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One of President Obama\u2019s strangest complaints is that there are too many in Congress who act, well, like former senator Obama. In his recent speech on the question of comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama once again blasted Republican political opportunism that opposes his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1295,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obama-derangement-syndrome\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":1},"title":"Obama Derangement Syndrome?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media I\u2019d say if you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you\u2019ve lost your mind. \u2014 John Edwards When does the legitimate \u201cI oppose Obama\u201d descend into the illegitimate \u201cI hate Obama\u201d? It is popular now to suggest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Punditry"","block_context":{"text":"Punditry","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/punditry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10864,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-great-experiment\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":2},"title":"The Great Experiment","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 We\u2019ve gone from hard left, under Obama, to hard right, under Trump. Judge the ideologies by their results. \u00a0 Most new administrations do not really completely overturn their predecessors\u2019 policies to enact often-promised ideologically driven change. \u00a0 The 18-year span of Harry Truman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conservatives"","block_context":{"text":"Conservatives","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/conservatives\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9398,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-and-the-politics-of-moral-outrage\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":3},"title":"Trump and the Politics of Moral Outrage","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We are very far from a politics of ideological purity and high character. \u00a0 By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online Many have weighed in on whether Donald Trump\u2019s agendas \u2014 to the extent that they are different from what are now ratified Republican policies \u2014 are crackpot, unworkable,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9292,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/trump-or-clinton-a-hobsons-choice\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":4},"title":"Trump or Clinton \u2014 a Hobson\u2019s Choice?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"What do conservatives do when there is no conservative candidate? By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online I watched Donald Trump serially blast apart all my preferred candidates \u2014 Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz \u2014 as if for sport they were sent up in succession as clay\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campaign 2016"","block_context":{"text":"Campaign 2016","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/campaign-2016\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9181,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hillary-vs-trump-godzilla-vs-king-kong\/","url_meta":{"origin":2982,"position":5},"title":"Hillary Vs. Trump: Godzilla Vs. King Kong?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Works and Days by PJ Media When and if it comes down to a vote for one of just two candidates in the remaining Republican primaries, a majority may still vote for Ted Cruz, which at this point I think is the far wiser course.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trump"","block_context":{"text":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/trump\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"king_kong_godzilla_trump_hillary_article_banner_3-20-16-1.sized-770x415xc","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/king_kong_godzilla_trump_hillary_article_banner_3-20-16-1.sized-770x415xc-500x269.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2983,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions\/2983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}