Robert J. Samuelson
Newsweek

The Obama Delusion
The gap between his rhetoric and the reality of his views.

Feb 20, 2008 | Updated: 9:44  a.m. ET Feb 20, 2008

It's hard not to be dazzled by Barack Obama. At the 2004 Democratic convention, he visited with Newsweek reporters and editors, including me. I came away deeply impressed by his intelligence, his forceful language and his apparent willingness to take positions that seemed to rise above narrow partisanship. Obama has become the Democratic presidential front-runner precisely because countless millions have formed a similar opinion. It is, I now think, mistaken.

As a journalist, I harbor serious doubt about each of the most likely nominees. But with Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain, I feel that I'm dealing with known quantities. They've been in the public arena for years; their views, values and temperaments have received enormous scrutiny. By contrast, newcomer Obama is largely a stage presence defined mostly by his powerful rhetoric. The trouble, at least for me, is the huge and deceptive gap between his captivating oratory and his actual views …

"It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white," he says. Along with millions of others, I find this a powerful appeal.

But on inspection, the metaphor is a mirage. Repudiating racism is not a magic cure-all for the nation's ills. The task requires independent ideas, and Obama has few. If you examine his agenda, it is completely ordinary, highly partisan, not candid and mostly unresponsive to many pressing national problems.

By Obama's own moral standards, Obama fails … A favorite Obama line is that he will tell "the American people not just what they want to hear but what we need to know." Well, he hasn't so far …

Read the entire article. http://www.newsweek.com/id/113672

To Robert Samuelson, in praise old fashioned journalistic integrity and ability. Regarding Obama, you've hit the proverbial nail on the head!

Mesmerism goes very far back in the history of the world and cultism is a powerfully magnetic draw for so many people who desperately want to believe in a messiah, in some perfect being who will lead them out of the base ways of ordinary mortals. It remains that there is no such entity.

Yes, Obama is just a young half-African guy with a lyrical voice.

I am part of Hillary’s successful California campaign and believe if Obama should become the Dem candidate, no matter how much mellifluous rhetoric he intones, he will be quickly and unceremoniously chewed up and spat out by the other side.

Thanks again for telling it like it is!

Positively,
Carolan