By Matt Patterson (columnist - Washington Post, New York Post, San
Francisco Examiner)
Government & Society:
Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack
Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a
baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the
Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional
accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's
largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the
world's most consequential job? Imagine a future historian examining
Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League
despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job
as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of
legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so
often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in
the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his
presidential ambitions.
He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature
legislation as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his
troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who
for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual
terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is
easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on
Earth was such a man elected president?
Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz
addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: To be sure,
no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of
America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill
Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black,
and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with
protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit
extreme, he was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -
held to a lower standard - because of the color of his skin.
Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such ancient history
matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had
said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become
the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?
Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama
phenomenon -affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But
certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws
and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and
especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.
Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat
themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools
for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the
inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals
don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to
witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from
the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding
someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -
that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then
nothing is.
And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was
never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many
have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite
undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for
the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois ; he was told he was
good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All
his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for
the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.
What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on
display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked
executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills,
intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives included -
ought now to be deeply embarrassed.
The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's
when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent
he can barely think or speak at all.
Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth – it's all
warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for
100 years.
And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything
and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I
inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to
advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence.
But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been
responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?
In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with
neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job.
When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will
the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not
have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.
This problem will not immediately go away even if he is not re-elected, so the final cost will be higher. This also assumes that we will not have huge legacy costs due to ObamaCare, which the Supreme Court should be about to invalidate.