Topic: Politics
Here is a great article in the Wall Street Journal by Fouad Ajami, entitled, "The Politics of Crowds." He outlines an interesting "take" on the "messianic" view of Obama by his supporters:
Link:
http://www.careerjournal.com/article/SB122533157015082889.html
Excerpts:
"On the face of it, there is nothing overwhelmingly stirring about Sen. Obama. There is a cerebral quality to him, and an air of detachment. He has eloquence, but within bounds. After nearly two years on the trail, the audience can pretty much anticipate and recite his lines. The political genius of the man is that he is a blank slate. The devotees can project onto him what they wish. . . . All [other considerations are] shelved. . . .
"A creature of universities and churches and nonprofit institutions. . . . Ambiguity has been a powerful weapon of this gifted candidate: He has been different things to different people, and he was under no obligation to tell this coalition of a thousand discontents, and a thousand visions, the details of his political programs. . . .
"A younger man, "cool" and collected, carrying within his own biography the strands of the world beyond America's shores, was put forth as a herald of the change upon us. The crowd would risk the experiment. There was grudge and a desire for retribution in the crowd to begin with. . . .
". . . . So a candidate pledged to good government and to ending the role of money in our political life opts out of public financing of presidential campaigns. What of it? The end justifies the means."
Posted by hughes
at 3:18 PM CDT
