Obama's Illusions & Tyrannies

Have you wondered about Senator Obama's record of accomplishments? Have you assumed his record must be signficant since, after all, he will be his party's nominee for President? HERE IS A SHORT ESSAY that explores Senator Obama's record. This is how the essay ends:

Finally, there is his oratorical skill. Much of Obama’s lofty message of unity and hope really came from campaign consultant David Axelrod, who “long ago hatched the idea that Democrats’ campaigns should revolve more around personality than policy.” Indeed, much of the rhetoric was already test-driven in 2006 by one of Axelrod’s other clients, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Not that such themes are in any way unique to American presidential politics, as demonstrated by Bill “The Man from Hope” Clinton and George W. “Uniter, not a Divider” Bush.

As I have repeatedly noted here at pw, the candidacies of Obama and John McCain are driven by voters pursuing a mirage of changeyness where bipartisanship reigns and the “moneyed special interests” vanish. And we should Hope that it is a mirage:

The appeal is vague precisely because it is illusory… The Framers of the US Constitution recognized – as James Madison explained in Federalist No. 10 – that factions are one of the costs of liberty. There is nothing high-minded about selling the notion that faction can be magically eliminated — a notion that is equal parts snake oil and tyranny.

Again, there is not much to admire in either snake oil, tyranny or flowery speeches trying to sell either. Moreover, remove Obama from a TelePrompTer and he is every bit the gaffer as any other average politician, though few have had the audacity to base their foreign policy on a debate gaffe.

In sum, Barack Obama’s record, judgment and message are at best entirely undistinguished in the field of presidential politics. At worst, we have Axelrod’s campaign of personality attracting a cult of followers so creepy that even many Obama backers are put off by it, to a man who admits he is a “blank screen,” with a message that is either illusory or tyrannical. It is in those people that I find little to admire.

So, after reading the essay, what do you think, does the success of the Senator's campaign seem more the result of RATIONAL IGNORANCE or RATIONAL IRRATIONALITY? Or, perhaps it is the "perfect storm" of both?

With regard to the Senator's message being either "illusory or tyrannical," I certainly see much in the Senator's policy positions that fit the "tryrannical," e.g. his idea that he will make the oil companies invest their profits in the way he sees fit.

There would be less to be concerned about with respect to this presidential election if only there were at least 5 Supreme Court Justices who understood, and agreed with, James Madison's Federalist #10. If there were, then it would be far more likely that our constitution would be read as constituting a constrained and limited government of only enumerated powers, and the tyranny in the politics of presidential policies would be far less likely to be realized during the next presidential administration.