"Come to Salvation; Come to Obama"

I wanted to write about this. But why work that hard when James Taranto has already done it. He literally...well, figuratively, took the words right out of my mouth.

This whole Obama thing is—to use his word—creepy. I won't go so far as to compare it to Jim Jones and the People's Temple, but I do think it's getting pretty unhealthy.

Obama seems to be the opiate of the people with no religion. (At least that's my own line!)

But here's Taranto from the Opinion Journal:

"Romney has been faulted for lacking "authenticity," but this is probably unfair. He is--authentically--a cool technocrat, a management consultant at heart. But a leader, as opposed to a manager, needs not just analytical skills but also intuition and emotion, not just information but also conviction. He needs to be able to consult his gut as well as the data when deciding how to proceed.

Romney, in the end, failed to inspire. By contrast, Barack Obama is nothing but inspiring--so inspiring that it is becoming deeply creepy.

*cut*

Kathleen Geier , who says she voted for Obama and considers him "a good progressive," took to the liberal TPMCafe site to declare that she is "increasingly weirded out by some of Obama's supporters":

She quotes from a Sacramento Bee article that she (and we) found "unsettling":

"He looked at me, and the look in his eyes was worth 1,000 words," said [Kim] Mack, now a regional field organizer. Obama hugged her and whispered something in her ear--she was so thrilled she doesn't remember what it was. . . .

She urged volunteers to hone their own stories of how they came to Obama--something they could compress into 30 seconds on the phone.

As Geier notes, "this sounds more like a cult than a political campaign"

*cut*

Chris Matthews: "I've never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. [Obama] comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament."

*cut*

Joe Klein: [there is] "something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism" of the Obama campaign, which "all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is."

*cut*

Leftist James Wolcott : "Perhaps it's my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria. . . . I don't look to politics for transcendence and self-certification."

*cut*

Taranto: "What are we to make of Obama himself in the midst of all this adulation? A cynic would say that he is a manipulator if not a demagogue, exploiting the gullible to further his own ambitions. A more charitable view is that his intentions are all to the good, that he has simply figured out how to tap into a genuine desire for inspiration in politics, and that if elected he will use his political powers to do good for the country.

Each view seems plausible, but which is correct? Does anyone know Barack Obama well enough to say? And if not, isn't he the candidate who has a problem with authenticity?"

Back to Me:
Pardon me if I err on the side of cynicism. If I could remember the last politician that tapped into the peoples' desire for inspiration and used it for the good of the country, I might be persuaded. But that would be like believing in unicorns.

Since that option is out, what's left? A demagogue using the gullible to further his own ambitions. I don't think I risk being revealed as a fool if I say this is the real Obama.

Of course it's possible he believes his own hype and thinks he's the new Jesus. But that is too disturbing a thought about a man seriously contending for the Presidency of the United States.

Seriously Bad Mojo.

The Gunslinger