The Oprah/Obam Phenom
Rich Lowry points out what nobody seems to be noticing: Obama holds pretty stock, liberal views on every issue from the war to social issues.
"It's hard enough for a presidential candidate to have a plan to save Social Security and stabilize Iraq, let alone embody the truth and touch our souls. Obama plays into this messianism because it's what gives his candidacy its unique appeal. Otherwise, he has a collection of pedestrian Democratic positions. It's the promise to redeem our politics, "to create a kingdom right here on earth" - as he put it at a church event in South Carolina a few weeks ago - that accentuates his status as a different kind of candidate.
"It's hard enough for a presidential candidate to have a plan to save Social Security and stabilize Iraq, let alone embody the truth and touch our souls. Obama plays into this messianism because it's what gives his candidacy its unique appeal. Otherwise, he has a collection of pedestrian Democratic positions. It's the promise to redeem our politics, "to create a kingdom right here on earth" - as he put it at a church event in South Carolina a few weeks ago - that accentuates his status as a different kind of candidate.
The American left might be overwhelmingly secular, but it still has religious impulses, which tend to be channeled into their leaders. Democrats want to revere their candidates. This has at least been the case since John F. Kennedy, the martyred president who embodied all that would have been good and true about America if it hadn't taken a catastrophic wrong turn with his death. Obama offers Democrats the opportunity to fall in love all over again."
Thanks, Laura.
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