Obama: We are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

By: SW

This weekend I was reading Charles Krauthammer's excellent article titled Obama's Altitude Sickness wherein he recounted Obama's trajectory in his 5 speeches. He cited his first speech at the 2004 DNC as the point where he was catapulted to the national political scene. His second speech was the ngiht of his Iowa caucus victory. By then people know him as a great orator who are able to excite listeners to tears with his high rhetoric of Change and Hope. He began to take on a rock star image and have a cult-like following. Krauthammer had these comments: "The problem is that Obama began believing in his own magical powers -- the chants, the swoons, the "we are the ones" self-infatuation."

By the third speech on the night of the last primary the message began to wear thin. To continue to excite the crowd Obama had to exaggerate. Krauthammer wrote "To top himself, Obama had to reach. Hence his triumphal declaration that history would note that night, his victory, his ascension, as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." By this time Obama was called THE ONE, as he took on a messianic image.

With the above as background, watch the following video called The One, and you will understand what Krauthammer means.



I wanted to laugh as I watch this video until I realize how close this guy is in becoming the President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the greatest military force in the world.

By the 5th speech, which was Obama's acceptance speech in Denver DNC, his people had realized that he must come down to earth. So his acceptance speech did not have the same kind of messianic tone any more. Unfortunately, they had put him before Greek columns with rock star firework after the speech. It just goes to show that once you are elevated by your rhetoric and worshipped by your followers it is impossible to come back down. The fall was inevitable, yet it would be in the hands of Sarah Palin who was nominated the next morning, and who commented in her acceptance speech:

But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?