Monday, February 11, 2008

The Obama Cult


The LA Times, a safe haven for many west-coast muckrakers for decades, at least features the writings of one JoelStein. Stein, unlike most scribblers associated with Scoop, Inc., on occasion shows that he possesses enough spine to call a spade a spade, as with his recent column on Obama-fever:

""""What the Cult of Obama doesn't realize is that he's a politician. Not a brave one taking risky positions like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich, but a mainstream one. He has not been firing up the Senate with stirring Cross-of-Gold-type speeches to end the war. He's a politician so soft and safe, Oprah likes him. There's talk about his charisma and good looks, but I know a nerd when I see one. The dude is Urkel with a better tailor."""

Hah. Urkel, though, seems slightly more cerebral than does the Rev. BO. Fans of BO of course respond to the pop-celebrity-ness of BO. He's a TV-show icon (like his galpal OprahCo): and another "great communicator" in the MLK fashion. He represents, y'all. His popularity has little or nothing to do with his specific policies or ideas; rather, it has to do with creating a certain charismatic fervor, which is related to celebrity, and (as we have said for weeks) a sort of preacherly enthusiasm. ObamaCo: a big digitalized revival tent. Can ah, ah get a witness? Se-lah, bruthrrs and sisters.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama has one big quality lacking in Kucinich and Paul. He knows how to get elected.

J said...

He has a great deal of assistance from the corporate media and entertainment biz too. Did you read the article by Stein ? The Urkel riff was great.

Obama is obviously very clever, and so are his staff-people. So when BO's down south, for instance, he sounds nearly like a biblethumping conservative. When he's in LA with show biz people, he sounds about like a show biz person.

He's anything and everything, and tries to appeal to conservative idiots as well as democratic ones.

J said...

And btw I think your enabling of each and every brain fart from you-know-who-Ron has converted your site into a endless bitchy rant, instead of a place congenial to rational discussion. Yeah that probably upsets you, but that's the way it appears. Endless emotion, hysteria, insults, ad hominems, etc.


You formerly addressed energy matters and Peak Oil etc.: now it's the "Evil that lurks beneath the GOP" from Reverend B-bot. And his attempted satirical rants are not amusing: satire has to be done with a light touch, or it's just blah blah blah.

Attack a McCain on his voting record, on his hawkishness, even point out his crass jokes, but when it turns into "McCain's a cancer on the face of the earth, like all stinkin' republicans" you are really no better than the hysterical right.

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