"A Little Creepy." [UPDATED]

The near-messianic pitch of Obamamania, says Alan Stewart Carl, to my great relief.  I was beginning to feel like a closet party pooper.

Also a little creepy:  the way Obama himself seems to bathe in it like some kind of destined anointment, beaming radiantly (he does have a heartwarming smile) and touching outstretched hands.  It should scare hell out of him.  He should be discouraging it, not whipping it up.  Hero worship is not good for people.  It also attracts destructive forces.

Also a little creepy:  the huge gap between style and substance.  The aspect of Obama that sends people into a frenzy is as content-free as a Benetton ad, and when he talks about policy he's underwhelmingly ordinary.  I understand the appeal of the vision of a post-racial and post-partisan America, but in many respects in the youngest generations it's already here.  It doesn't need Barack Obama to embody it.  Putting that image of America up front, instead of the scion of WASP oilmen related to the Queen of England, is an appealing idea, but the President is not a figurehead on the ship of state, he's the captain.  Once again, as with Hillary, there's this -- creepy -- temptation to vote for someone because of what he is instead of who he is.

Who he is is a talented young politician, and I suspect he's daring to play this dangerous role for perfectly political, uninspiring reasons:  partisan and ideological ambition.  In other words, he thinks it could be the way to win the White House back for the Democrats and their worldview.  And I suspect (to my relief, actually) that underneath the starry-eyed hero worship is a much more ordinary hope, a kind of ideological patronage:   Democrats feel they've been too long in the wilderness, power-wise, and he could be the one to lead them out.  As conservatives did (and just as tiresomely), they feel called by destiny to dominate the country again, as in the days of FDR and JFK.  The dyed-in-the-wool Democrats I know, many of them in my own family and among my closest friends, are very solemn about being in (as opposed to on) the right.  To them, the simple virtue of being simply pro-choice , antiwar,  green, and anticorporate is obvious and incontrovertible.  If you tell them you don't think it's that simple, they look at you like you've sold your soul to the devil.  Not to unquestioningly accept the pure rightness of those positions is to have malignly mutated, to have become stupid, greedy, backward, and corrupt.  A troll-like Morlock instead of a gracile, defenseless Eloi.

I don't know yet for sure, but at this moment, I'm shaping up into a McCain voter.   The earmarks figures -- Hillary $340 million, Obama $91 million, McCain $0 -- were put out by the McCain campaign, but Alan looked into it and says it checks out.  McCain isn't pure as the driven snow, God knows, but at least he somewhat goes his own way.  Besides, we'll never get another chance at a McCain presidency (about which one has at least to be curious; with his age and health history, however, his choice of VP is critical.  Mitt Romney may be angling for it; I for one would infinitely prefer Lindsey Graham, who supposedly has the fatal flaw of nudge nudge wink wink bachelorhood.  Four words:  IF SO SO WHAT?).  We will get more chances at an Obama presidency, after he's had time to be governor of Illinois, grow some wrinkles, shed the wings on his heels and become a mortal.   

UPDATE:  When I hear McCain on the Sunday talk shows, sounding all stealthy and soothing and sooo careful not to offend any of the three flavors of conservative,  it makes me change my mind and feel like voting for Obama. 

What I hate about both of them is how they're doing what they have to do to get the nomination -- lying, voguing, glorifying and humiliating themselves -- and that in turn makes me hate the American public (of which I am, of course, a part) for its belligerent, ignorant opinions and its spoiled sense of entitlement to be catered to which -- paradoxically -- makes it so easily exploited and manipulated.

Comments

[michael Reynolds]

Obama does radiate a certain off-putting arrogance. But if you think McCain can beat him, turn off the sound sometime, try to set aside all you know about McCain and just watch him. He looks angry, tense, volatile. And he looks old.

[Ruth Anne]

And, if I were an Islamonazi, McCain would scare the snot outta me.

[Ruth Anne]

Also re: the earmarks. Not just $0 last year, but $0 for all 25 years he's been a Congresscritter. Also: when Geo HW Bush raised taxes [you know, the read my lips no new taxes] McCain would not do it.

Never voted for a tax increase. Ever.

I think he's done his penance for Keating 5 [McCain/Feingold anyone? which has made him a pariah of the right], too, so that's a dead alley with me.

[Maxwell James]

I voted Obama in the primary, but I can also think of a simple reason to vote McCain. The Dems control both houses of Congress, and are likely to extend their control in the fall.

Generally, I prefer the parties to have to split power. And I've personally found the Bush administration much more tolerable ever since the Republicans lost their majority.

That said, Obama's main problem on policy is that he's timid; choosing party orthodoxy when he has to, and milquetoast centrism otherwise. A few more bold stands might cost him most of the adulation, but he'd deserve it more.

[Ruth Anne]

Maxwell James: I agree! Gridlock for everyone! When government gets good at racing three-wide at Talladega, we're in for a big crash. I much prefer them putt-putt-putting along in an FDR era Model T.

[ASC]

I've pretty much gotten on board with McCain -- but Michael's right, he's going to have a hard time beating Obama. He's going to look old and mad compared to Obama's youth and joyful glow. It's going to be just like Nixon looking gruff and unkempt to Kennedy's charm and beauty.

Image does matter. We'll see if McCain can overcome.

[amba]

Michael: old he certainly looks. If I end up going with Obama, it will be because of that sense of going with the future, even if it is a throw of the dice.

[Randy (Internet Ronin)]

If you tell them you don't think it's that simple, they look at you like you've sold your soul to the devil....

In other words, the ends justify the means. Rather like both Clinton and Obama who were appalled when they saw up-close and personal proof of union "electioneering" in Nevada, yet both support abolishing secret ballots in union elections. Because it would be good for the union movement. And the union movement is a good thing. Everyone knows that. Union members vote Democrat! Well, most union members do most of the time, or some of the time, or enough of the time, or at least once so that their majority rules that once and the minority is publicly intimidated into silence forever after. California state unions spent almost $200 million opposing Schwarzenegger's proposed reforms yet about 45% of union voters sided with the Governor. Those 45% are still paying off the debt accumulated in that campaign against their wishes.

[Randy (Internet Ronin)]

Michael, I heard McCain was going with Jindahl and their slogan will be "We're Young on Average!"

[Randy]

In case you haven't seen it, this article in Slate mentions 2005 papers by U of Oregon Professor Richard Frank and Mark Lawrence McPhail of Miami University. The papers are behind the MUSE firewall, but Shafer hits the highlights (and lowlights). These papers were written in 2005, mind you.

[Randy]

Oops lost the link: here

[sail on]

McCain?? Say it ain't so!Ambivalent or addled?

[amba]

Thereby proving my point . . .

[amba]

She's my sister, see . . .

[Meade]

You mean, as in, "She ain't heavy..."

[Judith]

Do you really want another administration leaning constantly toward war and occupation?

[amba]

No, do you think McCain would "lean constantly" toward war and occupation? Think he'd start another reckless war?

I want an administration that recognizes that two wrongs don't make a right, and that leaving Iraq on some kind of political timetable would be to 1) hand al Qaeda a huge propaganda victory and recruiting incentive -- they'd brag that they drove one superpower out of Afghanistan and now the other out of Iraq; 2) hand al Qaeda a training ground and/or hand Iran an enormously enlarged sphere of influcne; 3) abandon the Iraqis, who didn't ask for any of this, to a probable bloodbath; that is, abandon them AGAIN.

Because in a democracy the half of us who didn't vote for a squeaker (pipsqueak) president still have to accept that his is OUR president, we inherit the responsibility for cleaning up George Bush's mess: it is by definition our mess too. We don't do that by saying "He should never have gone in, so we're getting right out." Too late. The game has changed.

[karen]

You know- i think it was on the Anchoress that i saw data where they fudged(as in greatly exaggerated)the #of Iraqi countryfolk that were killed. It's always been reported as being 100s of 1000s, but is actually way below that. I should look and see if i can find that data, eh? Saying it doesn't mean much.

As for inheriting "Bush's War"- wasn't that voted on& passed by Senators?

[realpc]

You're doing a good job of convincing me to vote for McCain Amba. I would really like to get rid of the Republicans for a while, but I do agree with your analysis.

"try to set aside all you know about McCain and just watch him. He looks angry, tense, volatile. And he looks old."

What are you talking about mR? McCain looks and sounds like a very nice guy. If you want a beautiful young president you can write in Britney Spears.

[ASC]

As for McCain's cozying up to the Republican base, I'm trying to ignore it. That's how the suasage is made. A few months ago I realized that every last candidate had said or done something to piss me off -- so I decided to give them all a pass and start over. I'll treat the national election the same way. Whatever happens in the primaries stays in the primaries.