The End of the Obama Mystique

American Thinker ^ | January 21, 2010 | J.R. Dunn

[neverdem]

It's been a  few years since the release of the film The Thirteenth Warrior. It was a rarity: an intelligent actioner. Directed by Michael Crichton and based on his novel Eaters of the Dead, it was a retelling and rationalization of the ancient Beowulf legend.

In Crichton's version, the monsters of legend comprise a tribe of human cannibals preying on Viking settlements. The story is told through the eyes of an educated Arab visitor who has traveled to the far north out of curiosity and wanderlust. He witnesses an attack by the cannibals in which the Vikings panic and run for it, sustaining heavy casualties in the process. But then, with the assistance of their Arab visitor, the Vikings begin to analyze the behavior of their enemy, piercing through the supernatural aura to the actuality within, learning their weaknesses and the means of capitalizing on them. The Viking defense improves and becomes formidable. At last they assault the cannibal stronghold itself, where Beowulf confronts and destroys their unsavory queen-goddess, losing his life in the process.

The film is an examination of the power of intellectual analysis. Utilizing their brains along with their swords, the Vikings pierce the mystique of the cannibals, seeing them no longer as demons erupted from Hell, but merely as men whose mother-goddess dresses them funny. From that point on, it's only a matter of time, effort, and tactics.

The same process has occurred many times in history. In 1814, somebody -- it's unclear who -- persuaded the Allies that the smart move was to stop chasing Napoleon from battlefield to battlefield, but to march directly on Paris and deprive him of his power base. That did the trick -- with his mystique as the Unconquered Conqueror punctured, Napoleon was soon without an army. Within weeks, he found himself on Elba, playing solitaire and planning his big comeback.

To read the war reports and commentary of 1942 is to step into an alternate universe. People really expected the Japanese Navy to sail over the horizon any minute. Predictions were made for the loss of Alaska, attacks on the West Coast, an invasion of the Pacific Northwest, and the utter destruction of the Panama Canal. None of it happened, of course, and the legend of the Japanese superman died at last at Midway and Guadalcanal.

We saw it again this Tuesday in Massachusetts: a seat that "belonged" to the Democrats in a state "owned" by extreme liberals. Of course, it's impossible to see the long-term results as of yet.

But one thing is clear: Brown didn't just overcome an unworthy, machine-produced opponent, or even provide the crucial vote to prevent the further socialization of the United States. He destroyed a legend -- the legend of Obama the Omnipotent.

The end of O's invulnerability

His mystique: Supernatural -- greeted by his followers as a demigod, openly called a messiah and a godlike entity.

Opposition view: Unbeatable -- slick, slippery, a chameleon reflecting exactly what the viewer wishes to see.

Add on the fact that he is black, which limited the tactics that can be used against him, and there appeared no way of combating him. Not even the Clintons, the past masters of exploiting human weakness, could get a firm hold on Barack Obama.

Some of us had doubts. Seen too much hype. Obama was the pol for the Age of Britney -- an epoch in which people became superstars for wearing their pants low. He was not going to produce an FDR or even a Lyndon B. Johnson. Anyone who has seen the real pols of old, schooled in backwoods elections and steeled by experience, was not going to be impressed by the community activist.

The tired, near-shabby figure forced out of the Oval Office at emergency speed to mouth a pro forma endorsement of an unworthy, incompetent hack was not the Obama of last year. Not a godling, not a New Man, not a higher step in evolution.

The end of conservative defeatism

Frightened into paralysis, out chasing wills o' the wisp, or far worse, even turning their coats (or in the case of David Brooks, I guess you'd have say pants). This is the first true rent in Obama's armor.

There is still plenty of work to do -- a long road ahead. We're still at Midway. But as was said at the time, "it is the end of beginning." Let us go amongst them.

J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker.

[IbJensen]

And when, pray tell, did the imbecilic ‘Progressive’ (Marxist) loon’s mystique begin?

[Diogenesis]

O's pseudo-"Mystique" remains effective for the MSM

[Doogle]

[goldstategop]

I think it began when the media and Beltway elites swooned like teen girls at his speeches and at his ability to appear as all things unto all men. He appeared to be the great unifier who would bring us all together. Obama would restore love, harmony and peace the Bush America supposedly squandered away. It seemed too good to be true but on the strength of it the American people bought it. As it later turned out, what the American people really bought was the Emperor With No Clothes.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

[PubliusMM]

There NEVER was an 0bama mystique. That was just flatulence from the royal rump. The press was just too close to the source to notice that it wasn’t everywhere.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I loved The 13th Warrior. A vastly underrated film.

The story is told through the eyes of an educated Arab visitor who has traveled to the far north out of curiosity and wanderlust.

Actually, in the movie, Ibn Fadlan was exiled to the Volga River valley from Baghdad for fooling around with a court official's woman, and was then drafted by the Vikings to go back to Sweden to confront the "Gwendol" on the basis of an old soothsayer's chicken bones. Great scene!

[jwparkerjr]

re: Not even the Clintons, the past masters of exploiting human weakness, could get a firm hold on Barack Obama

They had a firm hold on him. Problem is he had, and has, a firmer hold on them than they do on him! There has never been anyone in the Oval Office around whom more rumors and accusations, not to mention undeniable scandals, and suspicions swirled from day one. Where there's smoke, there's fire, and the smoke around the Clintons is very thick and persistent. Those pulling Obama’s strings simply got the goods on one, or both, of the Clintons and used that to back them down.

Sure, they probably have the straight shinny on B.O.’s BC, and under most circumstances that would have been enough to banish him from competition with Hillary for the nomination. But this is a game of really high-stakes poker, and those for whom Barry is the front man not only have a better hand, they had stuff up their sleeves. Probably something like “I'll see your Obama birth certificate and raise you the CIA running drugs through Medina with the knowledge of Bill Clinton.” And the underlying message was that if that wasn't enough they could throw in any one of a dozen other scandals that were swirling around them. Obama’s backers didn't need the goods on all the things they threatened the Clintons with proving. Just a couple would do. Then call the Clintons’ bluff knowing they really didn't know which ones they could prove.

We watched Hillary go through nearly 20 years of her life relentlessly pursuing the Oval Office. She lived and breathed politics, and didn't hesitate to eviscerate anyone who even remotely appeared to stand in her way. And then one day along comes BO, and within a year she had silently folded her tent and slipped into the night.

All speculation, I know. But I can think of few scenarios that cover as many of the facts we know for sure.

[RayChuang88]

That mystique died when Rick Santelli of CNBC kicked off the Tea Party movement and caused unprecedented protests last summer.

[norge]

Obama was the pol for the Britney generation.

That is such a good line, and if I ever use it, I will remember to give Dunn credit.

Obama is Jeremiah Wright without the rhetoric, William Ayres without the bomb. Someone either said that, or gave me the inspiration for that line. Whomever you are, I apologize for stealing.

[norge]

Well, I’ll give credit to him for the correct line...Obama was the pol for the Age of Britney.

[crazyhorse691]

Not fair...I wanted to be the one to issue the correction.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"Add on the fact that he is black, which limited the tactics that can be used against him, and there appeared no way of combating him. Not even the Clintons, the past masters of exploiting human weakness, could get a firm hold on Barack Obama."

In two years of campaigning for President, only one politician was able to lay a glove on Obama. And that was that beauty pageant ditz, redneck baby factory, that unqualified, semi-literate moron, Gov. Sarah Palin. See her convention speech.

Only two other people live in Obama's brain. The second most hated man in America, the cyborg VP Dick Cheney and the most hated, racist, homophobic man in American, Rush Limbaugh.

I think that's the complete list.

[faucetman]

EXCELLENT movie. Antonio Bandaras is great in it. It will scare the crap out of you and also make you belly laugh.

It is first rate in every way. Two claws up.

[Ann Archy]

OMG!! I forgot about Thanking RICK SANTELLI!!! He DID give impetus to the Tea Party movement!!!!!!

THANK YOU RICK SANTELLI!!!!!

[driftless2]

For decades academicians have waited for one of their own to ascend to the presidency. Practically all American journalists graduate from college with their hard left/lib sensibilities intact. Obama was a dream come true; someone who thought the same leftist gibberish and the same screwball “solutions” to the world’s problems that they did. They couldn’t resist indulging themselves.

[investigateworld]

The stuff about Mena Airport and LA's Freeway Ricky Ross aren't speculation, they're fact.

Slickmiester had to appoint Maxine Water's hubby (a former football jock) to an Ambassadors job to get her to shut up.

[orinoco]

He was a media creation!

[Mobties]

The malevolent bully has been taken down, not by a well funded political political machine — not even our political machine (RNC) — but by thousands of small contributions, the power of common sense, and the feeling that “enough is enough”.

Once the bully's eye has been blacked and a tooth or two knocked loose, his power to exert fear in his enemies is gone. More than that, Obama has revealed he is impotent to protect or promote his allies and toadies. His own people called him "radioactive" last week. I agree, it began one morning with a comment by Rick Santelli but it has taken the Massachusettes senate election to prove it to everyone with eyes to see.