Spare change we can believe in
I really didn't think it was possible to out-Kerry John Kerry, but then again, Barack Obama has consistently surprised everyone - his supporters, with his lofty Utopianism; his detractors, with his vapid vision and cloaked quasi-socialism.So now we have the spectacle of Mr. Obama presenting his savior image to the audience he most wants to impress, the Europeans, leaving us all with the predictable jokes about what country's presidency he's actually running for. But behind such obvious quips lies a disturbing reality, which is the notion that Europe, with its anemic economic growth, its unassimilated and hostile Muslim communities, and its artificial sense of security generated by decades of American military protection, somehow knows better than the U.S. what's best for the U.S.
The soaring popularity of Mr. Obama, which seems to move in inverse proportion to the level of specifics in his speeches - e.g., healing the sick, forcing the oceans to stop rising, etc. - has induced an even more brain-dead adulation in the minds of the supposedly sophisticated Europeans, who seem to believe that their cozy infrastructure grew up around them, as though by a spontaneous act of nature, with no assistance at all from the U.S. military, either during World War II, or every decade that has followed.
And Mr. Obama provided exactly what they wanted to hear: the moral equivalence between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Berlin era ("Both sides, blah, blah"), the self-deprecating American view that appears to take the blame for all the evils in the world while ignoring America's role in supporting what peace and prosperity exists today (especially in Europe), and the sneering implications of his appearance illustrating everyone's mutual consent that America remains a country bound by racism by whites towards blacks.
American supporters of Obama have displayed a rather substantial naivete about the reasons behind the fervid devotion they have for their candidate, but the swoon of the Europeans leaves everyone else in the dust. Can anyone point to a specific thing they like about Obama besides his appearance, with its implicit notion that electing a black guy - no matter who he is, or what he believes - is somehow the "right" or "best" thing to do? This question was baffling enough before, but now that the circus has gone overseas in an apparent bid to line up the world's support before even winning the actual election at home, it's even more maddeningly neglected.
So the internationalist, "Global Test" Mr. Kerry, with his equally shallow pronouncements of American humility, his deference to the opinions of leaders of countries which are NOT America, and his actual boasting that such overseas leaders wanted him to win the election, has actually been outdone by the rock-star Obama. Wonders - just like "Hope" and "Change", it seems - never cease.
posted by ET @ 10:27 AM
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