“I Believe In Barack Obama, Because He Believes In Us”
By Mitch Berg
If I had to pick the dumbest-in-a-scary-Stepford-wives-comet-cult-kind-of-way-line in the infamous “O Ba Ma” video, other than the massed droogs chanting “O Bah Mah”, that would be the one.
It may be the best video Hugo Chavez ever produced.
Ingsoc; it’s not just for fiction any more.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Mitch,
As bad as you say it is, I think you’re seriously underestimating how bad that ad is.
It ties into why a first-term senator with, at best, a marginal history of local accomplishment, hailing from a notoriously corrupt city in a famously incompetent state has achieved rockstar status in a preposterously short time — and not just in the jejune way that threatens to turn a Rorschach test into the President of the United States Of America.
At first glance, it shows the depth of the shallowness of the modern left. The Obama supporters aren’t reacting to a history of accomplishment, or a promise of changes; they are looking in the fun house mirror, and seeing a flattering distortion of what they wish that they were. And producers of the video have — shamelessly;, deliberately capitalized on that.
“It’s not that we believe in him, but that he believes in us.” Yeah, that’s the easy one, and the horrible example. But it’s not the only scary soundbite.
Poor Jessica Alba being chosen to embed her sincere — I don’t doubt that — but remarkably juvenile desire that her baby be born into the world that loves her country says a little about an attractive albeit not overly bright Hollywood actress, but volumes about those who would put her up as a model of an Obama voter.
And it gets worse. There’s an element in the chanting that has roots in Leni Riefenstahl; the sense of the masses seeking the holy leader to follow.
Yes, compare it to the McCain ad. It’s optimistic, and it certainly plays up the senator as hard-working man who has worked for a destiny, and has deliberately positioned himself so that he might be able to, if selected, stand on the shoulders of giants — and it’s not accidental who those giants are.
And in response we have something with somehow, remarkably, less depth than the barely-deep-enough-to-hydroplane on “We Are the World,” and what should be a frightening subtext of Führerprinzip — with the blessed leader as a distorted fun house mirror.
It is, to put it bluntly, a horror.
“I believe in [the blessed leader], because he believes in us.”
Give me Hillary any day. In comparison with that.
March 10th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
…said some kook who thought George W. Bush would make a dandy president.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
AC, just to spell it out for you since you seem to have the comprehension and attention span of that ball on your nose, most conservatives weren’t all that happy with W. It’s just that your side of the aisle put up characters that made him seem dandy in comparison. It’s much the same in the present election: you didn’t see Mitch running to embrace McCain, just not holding his nose too much when he was nominated.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind it if the Dems keep the Senate and McCain wins. It seems our only hope for the future is divided government.