Spring Break
Outside Observer | Barack Obama's cult of personality
By: Josh Prywes
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: Opinion
Senator Barack Obama is the most captivating political figure our country has seen in some time. I can't figure out which story line is more intriguing though: the freshman senator's platitudes or his supporters' cult-like obsession with their newfound political messiah.
You don't need to look far to see the emptiness of Sen. Obama's campaign for president. The night of Feb. 5, Obama delivered a Super Tuesday victory speech that included some of his best lines of the campaign: "We are the hope of the future," "We are the change that we seek" or my favorite, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." He followed this up with his best Bob the Builder impersonation, having his audience chant "Yes we can."
Can anyone read those lines and think they really came from someone running for president? Can anyone really look at this speech, or for that matter any speech Obama has given, and not find the same type of meaningless dribble? How many ways can Obama string hope and change together? Obama surely puts crowds under his spell, but that's all he is, an orator with no substance.
Obama's lack of substance extends beyond his preaching to his legislative record, or lack thereof. Although National Journal rated Obama the most liberal senator of 2007, (something that might play well on a college campus but certainly won't across America) it's the votes he didn't cast that draw attention.
Obama has a history of voting "present" - which is neither a vote in favor or against - on controversial items so that nobody will know his real stance on an issue. In the Illinois legislature, Obama voted present on bills that would prohibit partial-birth abortions, a bill that reduced the sentence for carrying a concealed weapon and a bill that required adult prosecution for firing a gun on school grounds. In 1999, he was the only member of the legislature not to support a bill that protected the privacy of sex-abuse victims by sealing their court records. This is the man who wrote in his book, "The Audacity of Hope," "You must vote yes or no on whatever bill comes up, with the knowledge that it's unlikely to be a compromise that either you or your supporters consider fair and or just."
You don't need to look far to see the emptiness of Sen. Obama's campaign for president. The night of Feb. 5, Obama delivered a Super Tuesday victory speech that included some of his best lines of the campaign: "We are the hope of the future," "We are the change that we seek" or my favorite, "We are the ones we've been waiting for." He followed this up with his best Bob the Builder impersonation, having his audience chant "Yes we can."
Can anyone read those lines and think they really came from someone running for president? Can anyone really look at this speech, or for that matter any speech Obama has given, and not find the same type of meaningless dribble? How many ways can Obama string hope and change together? Obama surely puts crowds under his spell, but that's all he is, an orator with no substance.
Obama's lack of substance extends beyond his preaching to his legislative record, or lack thereof. Although National Journal rated Obama the most liberal senator of 2007, (something that might play well on a college campus but certainly won't across America) it's the votes he didn't cast that draw attention.
Obama has a history of voting "present" - which is neither a vote in favor or against - on controversial items so that nobody will know his real stance on an issue. In the Illinois legislature, Obama voted present on bills that would prohibit partial-birth abortions, a bill that reduced the sentence for carrying a concealed weapon and a bill that required adult prosecution for firing a gun on school grounds. In 1999, he was the only member of the legislature not to support a bill that protected the privacy of sex-abuse victims by sealing their court records. This is the man who wrote in his book, "The Audacity of Hope," "You must vote yes or no on whatever bill comes up, with the knowledge that it's unlikely to be a compromise that either you or your supporters consider fair and or just."
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