Or this?
Or, mayhap, this?
Posted on 11/21/2008 1:08:32 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In an attempt to dial down expectations for his administration, President-elect Barack Obama's supporters have dropped much of the "messiah" talk.
No more talk of him being The One (Oprah), or a Jedi Knight (George Lucas), or a "Lightworker" (the San Francisco Chronicle), or a "quantum leap in American consciousness" (Deepak Chopra). Instead we have more humble and circumspect conversation about the man. Now he's merely Abraham Lincoln and FDR and Martin Luther King, combined.
It's a step down from divine redeemer, but you have to start somewhere.
Newsweek, Time, the Washington Post, "60 Minutes" and, of course, The O Network (formerly known as MSNBC) have all run wild with this stuff. Depicting Obama as FDR or Lincoln has become a staple of the self-proclaimed "objective" media.
I was on Fox News the other night to throw some cold water on this Obama-as-Lincoln stuff. Alan Colmes of "Hannity & Colmes" chastised me, asking if we shouldn't give Obama "a chance to actually spread his wings and fly a little bit" before disparaging him.
Fine. I actually agree with that. Conservatives should not denounce Obama's performance before he's had a chance to, you know, perform.
But, shouldn't we also hold off on comparing the guy to FDR and Lincoln before he's done anything?
Obama hasn't even taken the oath of office yet, and it's already an unfair right-wing attack to say that Obama isn't on par with Lincoln and FDR. What's next? Will it be slander to say Obama's a carbon-based life form? Will the Secret Service investigate you if you're overheard saying you think Obama's merely "OK"?
While such sycophancy from the national press is lamentable, at this point it's hardly news.
What I find fascinating, however, is not so much the Obama hagiography, but the burning desire for another FDR or Lincoln that underlies it.
According to the various Obama-as-Lincoln narratives, including those from the president-elect himself, Obama is a new Lincoln because he is a "uniter." In several of his most famous speeches, Obama insinuates that he wants to bring the country together the way Honest Abe did. Newsweek and others tout his fondness for Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals," in which Goodwin argues that Lincoln displayed his political genius by inviting adversaries into his Cabinet.
There are real problems with this model; it didn't work too well for Lincoln. Moreover, who looks at how Lincoln staffed his Cabinet as the defining feature of his presidency? Saying Obama is the next Lincoln because the two men share staffing styles is like saying George Bush is Thomas Jefferson because they both liked chicken soup. If I wear a pointy hat, can I call myself John Paul II?
Lincoln was Lincoln because he fought and won the Civil War and freed the slaves. News flash: That ain't what America is like today -- and thank God for it.
I think Lincoln was just about the greatest president in American history, but I sure don't want to need another Lincoln. Six hundred thousand Americans died at the hands of other Americans during Lincoln's presidency. Lincoln unified the country at gunpoint and curtailed civil liberties in a way that makes President Bush look like an ACLU zealot. The partisan success of the GOP in the aftermath of the war Obama thinks so highly of was forged in blood.
Likewise with FDR. Listening to liberals gush over a "new New Deal" and Obama's call for us to emulate the "Greatest Generation," you'd think they want another Great Depression and World War.
Indeed, liberals have long idolized the 1930s as a decade of great unity. It wasn't. The 1930s was a miserable decade of poverty, domestic unrest, labor strife, violations of civil liberties and widespread fear. If liberals really loved peace, prosperity and national cohesion, they'd remember the 1920s or 1950s more fondly. And yet they don't. Why? Because liberals didn't get to impose their schemes and dreams on the country in those decades. Behind all the talk of unity and bipartisanship and shared sacrifice lies an uglier ambition: power. The audacity of hope behind all this Lincoln-FDR-Obama blather is the dream of riding roughshod over the opposition, of having their way, of total victory.
The Chinese curse and cliche "may you live in interesting times" is on point. Liberals (and a few conservatives as well, alas) seem desperate to live in interesting times. Not me.
You know what I hope? I hope Obama is another Coolidge or Eisenhower. But I'm not holding my breath.
good article, he nails it!
Or this?
Or, mayhap, this?
WOW, the Obamessiah is really trying to dampen expectations — he’s no longer the new Messiah, now we are merely to think of him as Lincoln/FDR/MLK all rolled into one. Talk about modesty!!
One of the most disgusting aspects of the feeble Lincoln comparisons is that Obambi is really more like the Copperhead Democrats of 1864 who tried to bring about surrender and defeat in the midst of a war that was being won. Obambi tried his best to defeat tbe USA and our allies in Iraq. How DARE he compare himself to Lincoln?!?!?!
And FDR, for all of his failings in domestic policies, did at least insist upon fighting for the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers b/c he realized that if we accepted anything less it would just be kicking the problems down the road. Again, Obambi is nothing like FDR the wartime leader — Obambi prefers retreat, defeat, and surrender.
Goldberg: "What I find fascinating, however, is not so much the Obama hagiography, but the burning desire for another FDR or Lincoln that underlies it. "
It's a fantasy. Related to the messiah complex, grandiosity, and socialist dreams of omnipotence which have been part of this Obama movement all along. They are just translating that into secular, political terms. Earlier in the year it was JFK. He would lead the new Camelot as they got thrills up their legs. They will replay that next, comparing him to JFK again. Maybe when his Cuban Missile Crisis starts, as Biden predicted. There will be more jargon about his "transformative leadership" for the new age, overcoming all divisions, calming the seas, healing the planet, etc. He's leading "a new generation of Americans" into this global healing utopia of liberal do-goodism and infanticide on demand paid for by the government.
This guy is really Bad News.
As I have mentioned here:
OBAMAO ... is America ready for a Marxist president? [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]
Nope, but we are about to get one, good & hard...
...so chroniclers like Yours Truly will be documenting every move he makes, every breath he takes... unless, or until, we are silenced by all that "tolerance & inclusiveness" he & his followers are already practicing....
America Held Hostage- the Obama Files...
Click the picture:
I'll keep doing it as long as there's something to say- or until we are silenced.
As far as I am able, I will mirror this on our Canadian sister site, which has been moved to Panama due to censorship issues:
America Held Hostage- the Obama Files...
Click the picture:
...and no, I'm not kidding about that tagline- I wish I were...
Naturally one of the biggest and most cherished liberal myths is that FDR, through his socialist policies, brought the country out of the Great Depression. That myth has had cold water thrown on it for decades and now has been thoroughly demolished in a book by Amity Shlaes called “The Forgotten Man.” WWII brought us out of the GD. Roosevelt’s socialism only exacerbated the troubles.
Good one.
I'll go a little farther than Goldberg and say that I think that Lincoln came into office secretly determined to cut the Gordian Knot of constitutional protection of slavery with the sword of civil war.
How about that one?
And I think that that is what The Obammunist's idolaters hope for from him. That, under his leadership, they will at last wade in the blood of the Old America, the better America, the America they will never in their lives come close to measuring up to.
They long for an end to 50-50 divisions of "red/blue" America, an end to constitutional and electoral frustration of their ideology. Beyond that, they long to drag our bodies in the dust like the Islamofascists, to consign us to "destructive labor" camps like the Stalinists. They hope Obama will take them there. Goldberg is exactly right.
I would compare Obama to Carter...that is the only President I can even imagine comparing him too. They mention Kennedy...please Obama could not even wipe the crap off Kennedy’s shoes. Obama is no JFK that is for sure.
Don’t forget Clinton...he did too a few years.
The economy will prove to be a major obstacle for Obammunism. It’s just a question of how long he will sit back irresponsibly and watch the stock market crash before doing a U-turn on this insane plan to raise taxes during a recession.
I think he will prove a very cool customer when it comes to "feeling your pain" from unemployment, etc., except insofar as pain will present him political opportunities.
So, perversely, the more pain and disorder, the better for Obama.
Hmmmm......
Using Lincoln as an example of a unifier the President when the war between the states happened?
I fear comparing Obama to Carter will be an insult to Carter.
Lots of talk about giving Obama a chance. I don’t recall us telling the left to give Bush a chance. If we did, they ignored our request.
So that's why Carter wanted Obama to win, so he (Carter) would no longer be the worst president in history. Now it makes sense.
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