"Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as
an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed
of mass hysteria, akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages.
How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment
beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy,
direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most
consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-Presidential
life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades
and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a
brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and
in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present") ;
and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the
entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.
He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation
as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his troubling
associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as
Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as
Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian
looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected
president?
Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz
addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: To be sure, no white
candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like
Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have
lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled
in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various
American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass.
Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass - held to a lower standard -
because of the color of his skin.
Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such ancient history matter
when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said)
"non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the
first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest? Podhoretz
puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon
-affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the
motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations,
which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white
liberals, feel good about themselves.
Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves
on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they
are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor
performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these
minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional
devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is
affirmative action. Yes, racist! Holding someone to a separate standard
merely because of the color of his skin - that's affirmative action in a
nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is.
And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was never
troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted,
Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished
grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a
mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be President
despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the
way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample
evidence to the contrary.
What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every
time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive
qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and
cool character. Those people - conservatives included - ought now to be
deeply embarrassed.
The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he
has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can
barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his
mouth – it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and
over again for 100 years.
And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and
everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited
this mess. It is embarrassing to see a President so willing to advertise his
own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for
anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?
In short: our President is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the
intellect to handle his job.
When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the
current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone
otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office."
by Matt Patterson, columnist (WASHINGTON POST , New York Post, San
Francisco Examiner) on Government & Society
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