Our Peron
By Mitch Berg
Fouad Ajami on the descent of Obama from near-deification to merely human:
The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon.
The nation’s faith in institutions and time-honored ways had cracked. In a little-known senator from Illinois millions of Americans came to see a savior who would deliver the nation out of its troubles. Gone was the empiricism in political life that had marked the American temper in politics. A charismatic leader had risen in a manner akin to the way politics plays out in distressed and Third World societies.
I unpacked that last bit – and realized that that’s the bad news.
It’s not that we, The People, elected an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit as the most powerful person in the world; we’ve done that before. It’s not that we allowed a full-court media press to get him elected over a slate of more-qualified candidates based purely on conjured-from-whole-cloth star power.
It’s that this is how “the People” operate in festering third world hellholes; they look not merely to government, but to government run by outsized personality cults, to “save”them.
If you change the “America” references in Ajami’s post to “Argentina”, the Obama story becomes painfully similar to the Juan and Eva Peron story.
Juan was a socialist demigogue who was elected several times; after his death, his vacuous but attractive wife Eva took over, winning over Argintinean (and world) glitterati, but instituting gigantistic, prosperity-leaching socialist programs that left Argentina – which had clambered up to the lower reaches of the “First World” – sodden with debt and helpless by the time the economy tanked in the seventies.
There is nothing surprising about where Mr. Obama finds himself today. He had been made by charisma, and political magic, and has been felled by it. If his rise had been spectacular, so, too, has been his fall. The speed with which some of his devotees have turned on him—and their unwillingness to own up to what their infatuation had wrought—is nothing short of astounding. But this is the bargain Mr. Obama had made with political fortune.
“Don’t cry for him, Chicago”.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:17 pm
“Our Peron”
Juan or Eva?
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Mitch wrote”It’s not that we, The People, elected an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit as the most powerful person in the world; we’ve done that before. It’s not that we allowed a full-court media press to get him elected over a slate of more-qualified candidates based purely on conjured-from-whole-cloth star power.”
We didn’t elect an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit, last time around; that was the previous 2 term president.
In the recent words of David Gergen, advisor to 4 presidents (3 of them Republican, Nixon, Ford, REAGAN and Clilnton), Obama is one of the most talented individuals to serve as president that this country has ever seen.
But, hey – what does he know? (Before you answer that, you may want to review his other credentials……….)
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Dog Gone thinks a person cannot be “an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit” and still be “talented”? Interesting but wrong. Sorry, but even your obvious BDS doesn’t make it right.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Surely you must be mistaken about Argentina, Mitch! It’s well known that, under the Perons, Argentina was a welcoming haven for ex-Nazis. And Socialists just hate Nazis, and would never have anything to do with them. Just ask any Socialist.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
It’s kinda hard to “review credentials” when they are largely under lock and key, now isn’t it? I sure would love to see those college transcripts.
And David Gergan is a whore. Just sayin’.
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
It’s not that we allowed a full-court media press to get him elected over a slate of more-qualified candidates based purely on conjured-from-whole-cloth star power.
I don’t know about “a slate of more-qualified” candidates.
McCain, yes. Objectively so. Obama would have traded his affirmative action Harvard Law degree for McCain’s war-hero + decades in congress resume if he could have.
But Hillary? She is barely more experienced than Obama. Edwards? C’mon.
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Dog Gone, have you ever noticed that many of the points you make at SITD are based on “appeal to authority”?
Unless both parties agree on the value of the authority, those arguments are weak.
I don’t see many conservative commenters here saying things like “Well, John McCain said Obama’s health plan is a train wreck that will destroy our economy, so there!”
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Al Gore Jr said MMGW is proven science and that the hockey stick graph is real, so there!!!!!!!!!
Bwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahahaaaa!
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
“It’s not that we, The People, elected an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit as the most powerful person in the world; we’ve done that before.”
You’re being too hard on We, The People. It was the Supreme Court that selected Bush.
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Yeah, Dog Bone. Can’t you cite to Glen Beck, Limbaugh or some other reputable source?
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:33 pm
In a nation of 300+ million people, you’d think we could do better than ANY of these worthless, posturing, bloviating imbeciles.
But then, what person of any quality whatsoever would offer themselves and their families up for the public colonoscopy to which we subject candidates for office (teh One excepted)?
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Angry Clown, I am now very cross with you.
You may consider rule 42 to be in effect.
I will begin your destruction by exposing your blog to the world!
http://angryclown.blogspot.com/
Love the ‘meat hat’.