Sunday, February 24, 2008

Obama's Cult of Personality is Overblown

Roger Simon has a post describing his unease with the cult of personality that has carried Barack Obama to the brink of the Democratic party's nomination. It echoes lots of other articles and posts and editorials that have come out in the last couple of weeks with the same kind of vague nausea over the whole affair.
Another way to look at this is as an issue of the separation of church and state--for me one of the most important values of our society. Support of Obama has become a religion. And now it threatens to take over the state. It's not separated. And like most religions, it can mean different things to different people. Christ said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" for a very good reason. I'm not a Christian but I thank him for that. Those words made democracy possible. I don't want fainting spells at political rallies, anymore than I want cries of "Viva!" I want concerned voters. I'm worried.
He's worried, but I'm not. America is a pretty pragmatic nation. Yes, we have the fanatics on both sides from Dittoheads who believe every word that comes from the mouth of Rush Limbaugh to the hate-encrusted lefties who want the entire Bush administration jailed. Looking to them or to the fainters at an Obama rally is not very instructive.

The worry about Obama's cult of personality is overblown. Yes, that's a big part of what we're dealing with, but an Obama presidency would probably be roughly equivalent to a repeat of Jimmy Carter. As the economy tanked because of his statist policies and we suffered defeats around the globe, Obama's cult of personality would evaporate very, very quickly. You wouldn't see club-wielding fanatics in the streets beating up people critical of Obama the way you do in Venezuela or Zimbabwe. Even now, much of the press adulation is beginning to slough off and reveal the standard American cynicism.

Presidents are punished or rewarded based on actual events. They get a lot more blame for things they can't control than praise for their eloquence.

Update: Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to have a great graphic on presidential approval ratings. Other than Bill Clinton, all of the presidents since Truman have seen a downward trend in their approval ratings. Clinton benefitted from his centrist tendencies, the tech bubble and the fiscal restraint of the Gingrich congress. Jimmy Carter got his brains beaten out as the economy fell apart and the Iranians humiliated us. No cult of personality there.

2 comments:

Dean said...

I loved that attached graph. Looks like Ford was on a little bit of an uptick at the end of his Presidency. The man was an absolute veto machine from what I have read.

Stephen C. Rose said...

How Barack Obama Can Move Beyond "Cult" & "Messiah" Charges

http://stephencrosehome.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-barack-obama-can-move-beyond-cult.html