American Missive

ATLANTA— In recent days, Barack Obama has begun dusting off his soaring, self-aggrandizing rhetoric and reinserting it into the national debate.  After the surprisingly successful ”The One” and “Celeb” videos this summer by the McCain campaign, the Obama campaign quietly tampered down Mr. Obama’s rhetoric. They reintroduced Mr. Obama to America as a more down-to-earth, pedestrian and approachable kind of guy.   But as we roar ever closer to the November 4^thelection and as Mr. Obama’s lead in the polls remains or even widens, the quasi-religious rhetoric is making a comeback. The Obama campaign is planning a big-time post election victory party bash and, in anticipation, Mr. Obama is revving up his worshipping base.

Recent Quotes:

• “If you’ll stand with me, then I know that we can win Virginia and we can win this election and we can finally bring the change we need to Washington. I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here.”
  —Barack Obama, October 22^nd, Leesburg, VA, to an estimated crowd of 35,000.

•  ”I promise you. We won’t just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we’re going to change the country and change the world.”
  —Barack Obama, October 20^th, Londonberry, NH.

This is reminiscent of the self-important rhetoric from the early part of the campaign, by Mr. Obama and his wife.

• “…Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual – uninvolved, uninformed”
  —Michelle Obama, February 15^th, UCLA.

• “…this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”
  —Barack Obama, declaring the earth-moving significance of his nomination as presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, June 3^rd, St. Paul, Minnesota. 

• “…Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands”
  —Barack Obama, July 24^th, Berlin, Germany.

There are surely many more such quotes that could be listed.   What bothers me most about the above rhetoric from Mr. Obama is not so much the quasi-religious tone or the promises of human capacity which cannot possibly be attained, it is that he repeats it so much and so often that I’m afraid people actually believe it. I’m afraid people will vote for him on the basis of it. Mr. Obama can say what he wants about himself. He only becomes powerful when people believe him.

One of my predictions for an Obama Presidency has long been that his spark will fade sometime soon after election.  I believe that upon his election, his approval ratings will soar (relative to those of George Bush’s, that is).  There will be a pervasive sense that much needed “change” has occurred.  It’s also easy to predict that there will be wide-spread celebration among liberals in America and across many countries abroad.  But sometime next summer or fall (or maybe early in 2010), I predict his approval ratings will start to subside.  The problems we face as a nation, and that the world faces, are much more complex to resolve than the Obama rhetoric and adrenaline let on.  I believe after 6 months or a year of Mr. Obama, people will have grown tired of the soaring rhetoric and there may be a general sense of “buyer’s remorse” for having elected him.  They will appreciate his thoughtfulness and ability to articulate our troubles in a way we can understand (he far exceeds both George Bush and John McCain here).  But in general, people will come to see his promises as empty and his solutions as ineffective. They will have trouble identifying with him- his unusual background and his liberal stances ultimately remain out of touch with much of America.  In summary, I believe they will view his presidency as a disappointment.

As I have said before, I am predicting that if he is elected, his economic policies will protract our current economic struggles and will exacerbate inflation somewhere down the road.  I firmly believe the state of the economy will remain a major part of the national debate in 2012 and Mr. Obama will be called to answer for it.  Further, I believe he will be tested aggressively by our enemies and Americans will find his responses weak. Finally, I believe his liberal views on social issues will only divide us further.

In conclusion, I don’t believe he can possibly live up to the hype and the rhetoric he is injecting into his campaign at this time.  I really think the impending disappointment among the electorate will result in him being a one-term president.  I think his self aggrandizement will be his own undoing.