Let's get this out of the way: Barack Obama is not my political savior. And he's not yours either. He's nobody's savior. He's a talented freshman Senator out of the Illinois Democratic establishment. He looks good, sounds better, and writes really well. But the messianic tone of his corner of this Democratic race is disturbing.
It's the kind of talk we're used to hearing from the Republican side of the national scene, with politicians seeking office as the Lord's bidding, as a manifestation of divine will. But there was billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey last week invoking Miss Jane Pittman and the Bible in describing the tall, skinny pol from Chicago.
In Oprah's story-telling, an old woman who had survived slavery and the Civil War would ask every child, "Are you the one? Are you the one?"
"I do believe I do today we have the answer to Miss Pittman's question – it's a question that the entire nation is asking – is he the one?" Winfrey told the kind of stadium-filled religious gathering we used to associate with the Rev. Moon.
"South Carolina – I do believe he's the one."
"The One." The chosen man. The Messiah.
Even Mike Huckabee, an ordained minister and outspoken evangelical Christian, wouldn't go that far. I dislike the kind of language intensely. Does anyone else find this strange? Here's Frank Rich abandoning his secular view for the Church of Obama (you can almost see him make the Sign of the Cross in his column today), another gauzy-eyed, faith-drunk columnist, powerless before the Illinois Elmer Gantry:
For those Americans looking for the most unambiguous way to repudiate politicians who are trying to divide the country by faith, ethnicity, sexuality and race, Mr. Obama is nothing if not the most direct shot. After hearing someone like Mitt Romney preach his narrow, exclusionist idea of “Faith in America,” some Americans may simply see a vote for Mr. Obama as a vote for faith in America itself.
UPDATE: Paul Krugman, attacked by the Obama campaign, explains why the "audacity of hope" won't exactly get you too far with the Mitch McConnells of the world. From Krugman:
So what happens if Mr. Obama is the nominee?
He will probably win -- but not as big as a candidate who ran on a more populist platform. Let's be blunt: pundits who say that what voters really want is a candidate who makes them feel good, that they want an end to harsh partisanship, are projecting their own desires onto the public.
And nothing Mr. Obama has said suggests that he appreciates the bitterness of the battles he will have to fight if he does become president, and tries to get anything done.
from Amazon.
