The Audacity of Obama

Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, has made quite a name for himself in only two years in the nation's capital. While he has done little in the form of serious legislation, he has nevertheless become the 'hope' of many in the Democratic party to lead them to the Promised Land in the 2008 elections. He has as many former presidential hopefuls in the past have done published a book to 'introduce' himself to a waiting public eager for a new face and a new savior. His book The Audacity of Hope is the number one non-fiction bestseller in the nation this week with total sales of 502,594 since its release.

But let's be honest about the Obama hoopla. It has engaged the national attention with a 'sound and a fury' befitting the selection of the Anointed One. His recent foray into New Hampshire to test the political waters on a national stage speaks volumes, more to his audacity and the public's suspension of disbelief than to any real substantive inspection of his legislative credentials. On the national front as a senator, Obama has little to offer for critical analysis because ...well, he's done little of importance or note, other than giving a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and garnering the displeasure of Arizona senator John McCain.

It is with his record as an Illinois state senator that Obama can be confronted, for it shows that Obama has cast his lot with the liberal wing of his party, taking legislative positions clearly to the far left. A look at his voting record on significant issues illustrates Obama's left-leaning proclivities. As reviewer Yuval Levin in Commentary online reports in his critique of Obama's book,

Obama has almost nothing to say, for instance, about his tenure in the Illinois legislature, where his voting record put him on the Left of every major question—from gun control, to taxes, to abortion. In expressing admiration for the “Gang of Fourteen”—the U.S. Senators who last year worked out a compromise to avoid an explosive showdown over judicial nominations—he glosses over the fact that he refused to join them, or for that matter that he was one of only 22 Senators to vote against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. Similarly, in laying out the case for free trade, he barely mentions that he voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement approved by the Senate last year.

Far from the 'moderate' image he projects in his appearances of late, he clearly has followed the dictates of those who have pushed him into the national spotlight. And, more bluntly Slate E-zine blogger Mickey Kaus asks, "...on the issues, what's Obama done that's original or pathbreaking?" From a reading of his record, he has done nothing, but look handsome, sound sincere about nothing, pretend naivety about running for the presidency, and gloat in the adoration of the masses (if his New Hampshire tour is a basis for judgment).

Obama's appeal is based on nothing of substance save that the public wants a change for the better, a knight in shining armor to ride to the rescue, to prove again that politics is a noble profession. Once the spotlight is on Obama the candidate for president, however, his record will come to the fore, and he will be viewed in a less flattering glow, a politician with ambitions worthy of a Hillary Clinton, a John Kerry, a John McCain, or a Rudy Giuliani.

The Devil Made Me Do It!

It appears that some unknown force is loose in the entertainment industries, compelling celebrities such as actor Mel Gibson, comedian Michael Richards, and footballer Michael Vick to say and do things totally alien to their true natures. Or so they would have us believe.

Michael Vick, quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, flipped off a male spectator as he was leaving the field of play following the Falcons' 31 - 13 loss to New Orleans. "He just said certain things I won't say in front of this camera," Vick tried to explain at the news conference following the game. The Falcon quarterback went on to further explain: "I just did one thing I've never done through all the games I've ever lost," then he gave the clincher: "I don't know where it came from, but the people who know me know that's not me and that's not my character." (Emphasis added) He might as well have added, "The Devil made me do it!" What did Vick's encounter with the insidious Devil cost? A $10,000 dollar fine, and an apology to the fans.

Michael Richards' tussle with the Devil came during his stand-up routine at a comedy club. During his act, Richards was heckled by several patrons, and in retaliation, he "went into a rage," spewing the word "Nigger" at several black hecklers along with other disparaging epithets at other patrons. No doubt, as he says, Richards was frustrated at the poor audience response to his act, but then he let his "anger and hate and rage" come through. "I took it badly and went into a rage. For me to flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry. I'm not a racist--that's what' so insane about this." (Emphasis added) Touché, Michael Richards, you have had an encounter with that devilish demon, Satan, who compels the most benign of us to act out of character. Yes, Michael, the Devil made you do it! What has Richards' run-in with Old Scratch cost him? A flurry of apologies to anyone who will listen, a potential lawsuit from two black patrons (encouraged by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred) who were on the receiving end of Richards' outburst. Tell them, Michael, tell them "The Devil made me say it!"

"I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true (Emphasis added) and which are despicable." Thus, Mel Gibson tried to explain away his deplorable words uttered in a drunken tirade after his arrest for driving while intoxicated along California highways on a hot summer's evening. Gibson, it seems, assailed the officers who arrested him with a string of anti-Semitic remarks, capped with a remark insinuating that Jews are the cause for all the wars in the world. As do Vick and Richards, Gibson wants to assure us that his fall from grace - temporary though it may be - was not of his making, that it was totally out of character. Under the influence of demon-rum, Mel succumbed to that fiend who seduced even the good Doctor Faust. Yes, Mel fell under the sway of Mephistofeles, who offers us fame, glory and riches for nothing more than our mortal souls. What did this lapse cost Mel? Frantic apologies to any Jew who would listen, a trip to rehab, and free publicity for his film Apocalypto, now in theaters around the country. Go ahead, Mel, say it: "The Devil made me do it!"

Celebrities, like politicians, are a cut above the rest of us. They are not subject to the same rules as the rest of us. They do not fall prey to the same passions as the rest of us. They are, in so many words, God's chosen people. They are the poor man's royalty. Any words and actions that take away from their perceived notions of themselves are not of their voluntary doing. They come from an alien source, not from a wellspring within themselves.

But if we look to as unlikely a candidate as Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, we can get a better and truer picture of what lies within the character of Vick, Richards, and Gibson. Chavez appeared before the UN General Assembly and referred to President George W. Bush as a "devil." Did Chavez then add, "The Devil made me say it"? No, he said he was talking from the heart. "The way I called him a devil was not something I had planned, it came from the heart, because for me, it's the truth."

It would be well if our three celebrities were just as honest with themselves and with us.