His close-up

The Unmasking of Barack Obama (Continued)
Peter Wehner - 06.16.2010 - 9:38 AM

President Obama is invoking pseudo-inspirational rhetoric that is disconnected from reality and from a road map.

Barack Obama is clearly more interested in the theater of the presidency than he is in governing. He is cut out to be a legislator and a commentator, not a chief executive. And when he spoke about seizing the moment and embarking on a national mission, as if he were trying to rise above the environmental catastrophe he looks powerless to stop, there was something slightly pathetic about it. He was trying to recapture the magic from a campaign that was long ago and far away. He is now being humbled by events and his own limitations. And he doesn’t know what to do about it.

The unmasking of Barack Obama continues. It is not a pretty thing to witness.

The question of the day is "If you have nothing to say, why give a speech?" The answer is that speech-making is the only arrow Obama has in his quiver. It's the only thing he as any experience at, and it's all he knows how to do. But the magic veil is dropping around his ankles, his words are evaporating into the ether. What's left is real enough: an economy in ruins, unspeakable levels of deficit and debt, a dangerously weak and unsteady foreign policy, and the spectacle of Obama endlessly dithering in the face of an unprecedented environmental catastrophe. Finally, confronted with the necessity to stand and deliver, he labors mightily and brings forth...another vacuous speech.

Wehner is right, it's pathetic to watch. Obama's beginning to remind me of former movie start Nora Desmond falling apart at the end of Sunset Boulevard, the camera focused pitilessly on her panicked eyes and the lines in her face:

We'll give another speech and another speech. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark! ....All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up.

Byron