Spring Break
Sen. Obama's outrageous messiah complex
Philip Primeau
Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: Opinion
Barack Obama has come a long way in a short time, evolving from promising rookie to towering national figure in just a few years. The golden-tongued senator has proven a remarkable success in red and blue states alike. His electrified foot soldiers make rival partisans seem lackadaisical, and he has surely stirred the Democrats like nobody since Robert Kennedy.
Even Obama's adversaries find him compelling. In the right-wing National Review, Mona Charen admits, "It says a great deal about a liberal Democrat that he does not outrage conservative Republicans."
She isn't alone in her felicitous sentiments. The right's treatment of the senator has been easy, even sweet. This may be an anti-Clinton maneuver, but more likely it's a matter of genuine respect.
Bottom line: even if he falters in 2008, it's improbable that Obama will lose the nation's attention anytime soon. He has earned the canine allegiance of many Americans.
Yet, lately, a spooky side of Obama's charisma has emerged, and it's making some people sparing with their applause. There's a growing sense that "Obama-mania" has gotten out of hand, that it has entered Kool-Aid land.
Many Obama supporters are now better categorized as disciples. They exhibit evangelical fervor, apostolic devotion. Despite having no real acquaintance with the senator, they speak of him intimately and use terms of deep personal affection.
In The New York Times, Paul Krugman noted that the charmer's campaign is "dangerously close … [to] a cult of personality." This assessment is getting harder to challenge. Obama's self-conscious messianic flair, combined with a torrent of awed reportage, is turning a decent message into a downright scary phenomenon.
"He empowers us with words and the authentic emotion behind them … people are rushing into the tent to drink that magic water," pens Michael Sietzman for Huffington Post. Replace "magic water" with "holy water" and Sietzman could have been talking about Jesus Himself.
Even Obama's adversaries find him compelling. In the right-wing National Review, Mona Charen admits, "It says a great deal about a liberal Democrat that he does not outrage conservative Republicans."
She isn't alone in her felicitous sentiments. The right's treatment of the senator has been easy, even sweet. This may be an anti-Clinton maneuver, but more likely it's a matter of genuine respect.
Bottom line: even if he falters in 2008, it's improbable that Obama will lose the nation's attention anytime soon. He has earned the canine allegiance of many Americans.
Yet, lately, a spooky side of Obama's charisma has emerged, and it's making some people sparing with their applause. There's a growing sense that "Obama-mania" has gotten out of hand, that it has entered Kool-Aid land.
Many Obama supporters are now better categorized as disciples. They exhibit evangelical fervor, apostolic devotion. Despite having no real acquaintance with the senator, they speak of him intimately and use terms of deep personal affection.
In The New York Times, Paul Krugman noted that the charmer's campaign is "dangerously close … [to] a cult of personality." This assessment is getting harder to challenge. Obama's self-conscious messianic flair, combined with a torrent of awed reportage, is turning a decent message into a downright scary phenomenon.
"He empowers us with words and the authentic emotion behind them … people are rushing into the tent to drink that magic water," pens Michael Sietzman for Huffington Post. Replace "magic water" with "holy water" and Sietzman could have been talking about Jesus Himself.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 19
Henry
posted 2/21/08 @ 3:55 PM EST
The claim that the Obama candidates are now disciples is just hogwash. Enthusiastic? Yes of course and why not, but loonie and carried away beyond all reason? Of course not, aside from a few handfuls that you always find around a candidate. (Continued…)
randy place
posted 2/22/08 @ 9:37 AM EST
Yes, with people fainting at Obama's rally's, it's a bit reminiscent of the bobby soxers of the '40's swooning over Frank Sinantra.
Granted, Obama's following is cult like. (Continued…)
Jules
posted 2/23/08 @ 8:49 PM EST
There's is something disturbing about this mega crowds. Whatever Obama is doing is working and adults are bending over backwards and behaving childish. (Continued…)
Alexander
posted 2/23/08 @ 10:22 PM EST
In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God and, well...
But pause a moment and consider, while he quotes so eloquently the Words of Bob the Builder, does he ever offer "[HOW] we can"?
Take it from me, a wordsmith of sort, for I suffer from the immense gulf between words and action. (Continued…)
john
posted 2/25/08 @ 7:02 PM EST
Finally, a little break in the wild Obama mania, the outrageous hype, the Obamaphilia, the Obasms, the cult of Obi-Wan Obama, the Obama-rama, the Obama-aluia. (Continued…)
James
posted 3/06/08 @ 10:12 PM EST
Oh, we are a cynical lot and yet not so cynical when it comes to measures of ourselves. Always a pleasure to read Mr. Primeau's work in the Beacon. Let's to business. (Continued…)
jason
posted 8/08/08 @ 12:37 AM EST
People are just so sick of the incompetence and idiocy of Bush that to see now a capable, charismatic, black leader ready to replace him, it's overwhelming on many levels. (Continued…)
C Red
posted 8/24/08 @ 9:23 PM EST
I thought W Bush's rise was cult like. I never saw why anyone would vote for him once let alone twice. I attributed it to lack luster Dem nominees. Americans look for leaders that can inspire them. (Continued…)
dmduncan
posted 8/30/08 @ 3:54 PM EST
I think a good case can be made, and some day I will make it, that politics is a substitute religion for many, many people. And while we always witness the adulation of a group for its candidate, the sycophants always forgetting where they put their BS detectors whenever their candidate is near, I think what is happening around Obama is far beyond the usual we have seen in the past for any other candidate. (Continued…)
Eric C
posted 9/10/08 @ 7:39 AM EST
Phil
This is dedicated to you:
Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please
He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me
He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his arms so you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me
He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me
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