Do we see a theme emerging here?
The LA Times asks “Where did Barack Obama’s mojo go?” How could a guy with “A fresh face. A smooth, cadenced speaking style suited for TV … tons of money. An attractive family. Energized followers. A media that’s curious about the new guy and tired of the dogged old POW one” not be miles ahead?
Dana Milbank at the Washington Post says “Barack Obama has long been his party’s presumptive nominee. Now he’s becoming its presumptuous nominee.”
The wires are reporting that “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is facing criticism following leaked remarks he made at a closed-door meeting with House Democrats Tuesday evening. The comments, reported by the Washington Post and subsequently confirmed by several media outlets, quoted the Illinois Senator as saying that his journey to the White House is “the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world has been waiting for.”
It’s like watching a case of irresolute buyer’s remorse. I think the media is in a co-dependent relationship with BHO. They need him to sell papers, boost their circulation. But they also want to control him and let him know who’s boss. They want him to remember where he came from; who “sent him”. The media doesn’t t want to wind up like Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko or Jesse Jackson, tossed aside like a pair of old socks once he’s gotten a pair of new ones. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times found that Obama doesn’t feel he owes the Old Gray Lady any deference. He was slammed for an unflattering article. “Nagourney ‘really flipped out’ when he saw the Obama release. “They attacked me like I’m a political opponent,” the aggrieved reporter told The New Republic, which used the anecdote to kick off a rather breathless analysis of what the magazine claimed was Obama’s increasingly rocky relationship with the press.”
But as one NYT pundit observed, if the liberals and the left sour on Obama, where are they going to go? Are they going to vote for McCain? Are they going to admit GWB was right all along about Iraq? Obama has got them over a barrel and he knows it. He’s the only game in their town. BHO is nothing if astute. He limited his tour of Europe to Old Europe because that’s where he would score. No Poland or Kosovo for him. His arrival in Old Europe was a subtle apology for GWB’s insulting temerity to go it alone. For defying them on Iraq. For daring to cross the wishes of the chanceries of what was once the center of the world. The arrival of the Next President of the United States meant the prodigal son was come back to seek forgiveness. But even there Obama put in the hook. Here also was an international superstar come to tell Sarkozy and Gordon Brown ‘I am bigger than you will ever be’.
BHO to his amazement has discovered that he actually can walk on water. He can get tenure at a law school without publishing; go to the US Senate without ever actually doing anything noteworthy in Chicago; and go from an first term Senate seat to the Presidency of the United States. He can tell heads of state that they will still be dealing with them in ten years. Adam Nagourney? Who the heck is he? Is he someone Obama should know? If that isn’t walking on water, then nothing is.
And now the media is angry they are being dissed by Barack Obama. But he has them pegged for exactly what they are, just like he had old Jesse down cold. Whatever one thinks of Barack Obama, it’s hard to avoid the schadenfreude.
