How to Succeed in Politics Without Really Trying

Feeling quite like Rip van Winkle, I've woken up to an Obama presidency. I guess we'll see if there really is any change in the air, or if all that hope stuff was just the political fluff it always seemed to be.
What I find perhaps most provocative about this whole thing is that we as a nations just elected a guy with virtually no job experience. Moving from Shakespearean tragedy to Broadway comedy, it reminds me of J. Pierpont Finch's nigh miraculous ascendancy from window-washer to CEO based entirely on word of mouth reputation and somewhat tricksterish, deceitful posturing at his work desk.

Consider that this guy was elected to the U.S. Senate just in 2004, and began his campaign for the presidency in 2006. That's really only two years focused on his job. He's being made president before he's even finished out his first term as senator.

Maybe after I've taught at my current school for two years, I could demand a two year sabbatical...and then be appointed president of the school. Yeah, that's the ticket.

How do we explain this uncanny rise to power? Obama's talent? Fate? Deus ex machina?

I'm going to conjecture that it is owing to America having become a mediacracy. We are a country where power is not in the government or in the people, but in our "news" and "entertainment" industries. We let Hollywood buy this election, and we believed everything we were told about Bush, McCain, and Obama. The people let the media dictate how to imagine and conceive of these guys, and we let the media tell us what was really important (and, in contrast, we let them decide for us what we didn't really need to know). At least, this is the only way I've been able to make logical sense of the election over my bowl of frosted flakes...

Comments

[Moonstruck]

Well, your post is factual but I think the problem is the frosted flakes. Neither cereal nor sugar, but especially refined of the kind found on Frosted Flakes, is likely to promote clear thinking in the morning.

Obama is President because the country hungered for someone not of the Old Guard, because of his personal charisma and because of the confluence of events that occurs once in a generation to produce someone completely new and until recently entirely unknown.

It is not just the media. True, the media is powerful but it is not all powerful and it takes its cues from the people now and again. It has done so in the case of Obama.

He is the real thing when it comes to change. The challenge for him and his administration is whether he can rise to the challenges that face us now and lie ahead. They are many. They are serious. But they are not insumountable.

And if Obama can bring the same spirit and cache and intellect and cool exhibited in the campaign to the country we may have a chance (after the devastation of 8 years of Bush.)

So try an egg with some green tea or oatmeal with a banana and some walnuts and wake up and smell the coffee. Obama is the real thing. Whether he can tame the dragons of economic collapse, a world riven with terrorism, and the unprecented dependence on unsustainable energy sources at its peak as in "peak oil" remains to be seen. But there was no one else out there, not McCain nor Palin nor Clinton nor any of the rest of them who is better situated to do it.

So sit back an relax and try to engage in the audacity of hope while we dream of our fathers and step away from the abyss that the Bushes have forced us to peer into. And sip on that green tea, brother, as you eat some healthful oatmeal and head to prepare you for what is coming.

[Peter Terp]

It is true that my choice of early morning confectionary...er...breakfast might hamper my ability to reason. For full disclosure, I should point out that I was even eating "generic" store brand "frosted flakes," which perhaps have even less cognitive potency than Tony the Tiger's original formula.

That being said, people only thought Obama was not of the "old guard" because the media did such an excellent job covering his tracks. The new clip of the "Media Malpractice" video seems very telling. The media whipped voters into such a frenzy that many Obama supporters were attributing Obama's mistakes to McCain and Palin.

Also, his current appointments are proving that he's cut from the same cloth as his political forebearers. He's shaping up to be a Clinton-Lite. And the fact that he once legally booted his opponents from running against him hardly seems like an audaciously hopeful means of running a political campaign.

I'll certainly pray for the president, since he's in the hot seat now, and a converted Obama is now our best bet for the country.

If Obama can bring his "cool" side to the presidency that will be great, but I'm worried about Obama bringing his overly-sensitive and humorless side to the office.

Like the cartoon character that tries to sell us a sugary corn flake, Obama is a recognizable brand name mascot for the Democratic party. Most of what we know or believe about Obama is the result of a marketing and advertising, not scrutiny. He looks great on the front of the cereal box, but no one was interested in looking at the Nutritional Facts or ingredients.

So let's see what happens around 10 AM when the sugar rush wears off....

[Al T]

Moonstruck-
I think Psalm 146 is instructive here.
"I Put no trust in princes, in mere mortals powerless to save.
When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing."

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm146.htm

[Peter Terp]

And when you are done reading Psalm 146, make sure to check out Leviticus 2.

[Al T]

Cereal offerings for the Lord?

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/leviticus/leviticus2.htm

[Tommy]

Hey, FYI, I put together a discovery of an online Bible resource that Catholics can use other than the NAB for whatever reason. http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/?action=getVersionInfo&vid=63
I am confident it is legit, because on the SSPX site - http://www.drbo.org/intro.htm - it mentions that the John Murphy company who published he 1899 version has "the Imprimatur of James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, dated Sept 1st 1899," and the first link states it is the 1899 version from John Murphy Company as well.

[PeterTerp]

I can't tell where the satire ends and the reality begins in the comments any more...I must be getting old.