A statement so grandiose that we have to cover it twice
We discussed this matter the other day, but we’ll take it up again, because the grandiosity in Senator Obama’s June 3 speech (and it’s hardly the only example) is so little noted as downright bizarre by his acolytes in the media. Mark Steyn on Senator Obama’s “All Generations Shall Call Me Blessed” moment:
Sen. Obama has learned an old trick of Bill Clinton’s: If you behave like a star, you’ll get treated as one. So, even as his numbers weakened, his rhetoric soared. By the time he wrapped up his “victory” speech last week, the great gaseous uplift had his final paragraphs floating in delirious hallucination along the Milky Way:
“I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people…I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal…”
It’s a good thing he’s facing it with “profound humility,” isn’t it? Because otherwise who knows what he’d be saying. But mark it in your calendars: June 3, 2008 -– the long-awaited day, after 232 years, that America began to provide care for the sick…When Barack wants to walk on the water, he doesn’t want to have to use a stepladder to get up on it.
There are generally two reactions to this kind of policy proposal…”What a different emotional register from John McCain’s; Obama seems on the verge of tears; the enormous crowd in the Xcel Center seems ready to lift Obama on its shoulders; the much smaller audience for McCain’s speech interrupted his remarks with stilted cheers.” The second reaction boils down to: “‘Heal the planet’? Is this guy nuts?”
“Is this guy nuts,” indeed. Will ordinary Democrats notice the disconnect between their candidate’s rhetoric and reality? The gap between his prepared speeches and his impromptu remarks ought to be noteworthy in that regard. Senator Obama is often quite unimpressive when he’s not in full preacher mode, but so far, none of that seems to matter very much, at least to the media. Democratic primary voters are another matter. As Steyn noted:
in the voting booths…Democrat legs stayed admirably unthrilled. The more the media told Hillary she was toast, and she should get the hell out of it and let Obama romp to victory, the more Democrats insisted on voting for her. The more the media insisted Barack was inevitable, the less inclined the voters were to get with the program…In the end, he crawled over the finish line. The Obama Express came a-hurtlin’ down the track at 2 miles an hour.
It remains to be seen how many true believers there are out there in America, and how much of this is media hype. Back in February, with Obamamania at fever pitch, Charles Krauthammer thought the madness could persist until just after Inauguration Day. We seem to be in a similar place again, with the media completely ignoring the grandiosity and outrageousness of their candidate’s rhetoric. We’ll just have to see whether the media are holding a mirror up to America, or just seeing the reflections of their own dreams.