The Cult of Obama, or just plain candidate enthusiasm?
You can tell a fundamental shift has occurred in the presidential primary race when the chorus of critical punditry has gone from trash talking Hillary's looks to fretting about Obama's so-called "cult of personality," which is what the NY Times' Paul Krugman sees promoting Obama in this column. And L.A. Times Oped columinst Joel Stein calls the who pro-Obama thing creepy.
Gosh, talk about cynicism. For the first time in my lifetime, the Dems have a candidate that touches people emotionally. But show it and you're a mindless cultist? How far we have fallen if it's OK to idolize movie stars, but not show some of that excitement about the people we elect to lead us into the dangerous and uncertain future?
And can it really be a cult if there's no secret doctrine involving ascension to outer space or heavenly hovercrafts?
Dear Mariel,
Is it possible that the answer to your question -- "The Cult of Obama, or just plain candidate enthusiasm?" -- might be "both"?
Certainly a good many, even most, Obama fans are just enthusiastic voters, and there's nothing wrong with that. But, if you look at some of the quotes out there (see the Taranto column or the blog I linked to recently) there is also SOME portion of the Obama faithful who take their enthusiasm to quasi-religious levels, which is a little creepy. Does it necessarily disparage the former to point out the excesses of the latter?
Best,
Chris
Let me preface this by saying that I made my decision to cast my vote in the democratic primary by tossing a quarter. I did this because in analyzing the positions of Hillary and Barack I couldn't find much distance between them. The only distance I could find was that Barack -- when pressed to start focusing on issues -- began reciting the same things Hillary had said months earlier. The toss came up heads, and my vote went to Hillary.
I find this whole thing about Obama to be very creepy. His speaking engagements are becoming rock concerts. How else can one explain the fact that over 7,000 people braved the elements to show up for a speech he gave in Bangor, ME while less than 1,900 people in the whole state were motivated enough to actually go out and vote for him?
I, for one, will be on the lookout for any suspicious mail that shows up in my box. I'm starting to think there is some kind of Obama powder that is being passed around. ;~)