Obama: Meek or Presumptuous?

deacon blues · #1 11-03-2008, 01:36 PM

A healthy attitude for the presidency is humility. Jesus said that the greatest among us are those who humble themselves and serve. To view the presidency as an office that belongs to American history and its great people, as a national treasure to be the steward of until it is time to transfer it to another, left in better shape than it was given should be the approach anyone running for the Oval Office has. The presidency is designed to be a temporary position to insure that the power invested in it remains with the people.

The Leader of the Free World is most powerful but also restricted. The presidency is esteemed but not as a result of the man who occupies its seat. The resident of the White House is one who should understand that the preponderance of his countrymen placed trust in him that he would hand the keys to the Oval Office to the next guy and the country he has led in an improved state. Presidents that comprehend this go down in history as great ones. Those that are preoccupied with legacy or getting their likeness embossed on a coin someday don't understand what being President of the United States means. Senator Barack Obama has not campaigne in such a way that I am convinced he possesses such respect for the office.

He has been generous with cult-of-personality marketing and self-celebration that is unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns. Does he need to campaign for our votes? Hardly. He presumed several months ago that he was already the President.

Remember the abandoned faux presidential seal? They call his plane the "O-Force One". On his seat on the plane the words "OBAMA 'O8" is sewn into it with the word "PRESIDENT" right below it. Then there's Obama's so-called "non-political" summer speech in Berlin, Germany. An senior Obama advisor said, "It is not...a political speech...When the President of the United States...gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally." Really? So who was the president this past summer? The Berlin speech was promoted with artwork reminiscent of Red Square or Tiananmen Square parades commemorating Mao, Lenin or Stalin with just enough red, white and blue to make it patriotic. And how could we overlook the acceptance speech in Denver? The Pepsi Center was sufficient for Bill and Hillary, Ted Kennedy and even Michele Obama, but not for Senator Obama. He required another platform, something grander with grandeur complete with columns suggestive of Zeus-like status, a fireworks show that could compete with anything on Independence Day and 70,000 doting, screaming, weeping and adoring fans evocative of the Beatles arrival to America.

But the words of the Senator truly reveal his presumption, particularly when juxtaposed with those of his opponents McCain/Palin. Have you ever hears the Governor refer to herself as the sitting Vice-President? Usually you hear theoretical statements like "If we are so fortunate to serve”—or “privileged,” or “blessed.” McCain, in his closing statement of his last debate with Obama said saerving America was “the great honor of my life, and I’ve been proud to serve. And I hope you’ll give me an opportunity to serve again. I’d be honored and humbled.”

Have you ever heard Obama utter such things? He has said "when I'm president" so many times that we should've all accepted long ago that Election Day would be a mere formality to the fact. John Podesta, as reported by the New York Times, has already begun drafting an inaugural address. Obama said during the first debate, “I reserve the right, as president of the United States, to meet with anybody at a time and place of my choosing if I think it’s going to keep America safe.” The difference between Obama's assumption of certain election and McCain/Palin's meekness is irrefutable and remarkable.

"So what?" you may say. Pre-election hubris or modesty cannot prove who will be the best leader. Maybe. But Obama has demonstrated a steady audacity in the power of himself. And that is disturbing. Spotlighting on Obama by Obama has hindered his political and social progress over and over.

From the all-too-well-known days of community organizing in Chicago, Obama has confessed he quit the job out of dissatisfaction after again and again running into brick walls. Mike Kruglik, a former coworker told Byron York at the National Review that “He was constantly thinking about his path to significance and power. . . . He said, ‘I need to go there [Harvard Law School] to find out more about power. How do powerful people think? What kind of networks do they have? How do they connect to each other?’”

Some time later, Obama gets elected to the state senate of Illinois. He tried unsuccessfully to run for Congress in 2000. In 2004 he ran and won the US Senate seat in Illinois. How has he served the people of his state? Not so well since they elected him to a six year term. In Obama's own words on November 4, 2004 in the Chicago Sun-Times: “I was elected yesterday. . . . I have never set foot in the U.S. Senate. I’ve never worked in Washington. And the notion that somehow I’m immediately going to start running for higher office just doesn’t make sense. So look, I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years, and my entire focus is making sure that I’m the best possible senator on behalf of the people of Illinois. . . . I am not running for president in 2008.” Wellllll, that didn't turn out so great. In less than two years individual ambition won out over an oath to those who elected him to serve their interests. He has spent more time reaching for another office than taking care of his obligations in his present one.

If Obama's very short political record is highlighted by giving his constituents less than they were promised, how do we know President Obama will act otherwise? Once a President, a man cannot go any higher. Pride, however can cause one to do strange things. Obama is already convinced of his magnetism enough he believes the likes of Ahmadinejad, Chávez, Kim Jong Il and the Castro brothers will be swayed to compromise. Of course he doesn't consider that these dictators have proud histories of playing international watchdogs and diplomats for fools. Once in his aura, I am sure, things will go differently.

Obama did profess once “humility and knowledge of my own limitations” after his Iowa win over the Democratic field. In the same speech he declared that an Obama presidency would be “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Such messianic declarations are usually reserved for authoritarian regimes. Obama will not be a dictator of course, but it seems more than pure irony that a very liberal politician who believes in a very liberal, socialistic government speaks so high-handedly.

Tomorrow American voters will decide whether Obama's extremely liberal credo coupled with a hyperinflated opinion of himself will make for a lethal combination or not. But on the eve of an unquestionably historic election, let us ponder a quote from the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.”

If Obama is granted the privilege to be our President tomorrow, expect limits for the next four years—lots of them.

DividedThigh · #2 11-03-2008, 01:42 PM

interesting thoughts, arrogance comes to mind everytime i hear him speak, not good

deacon blues · #3 11-03-2008, 01:48 PM

Wouldn't it be something if all of the chest thumping and high fiving and Oval Office drape measuring would be humiliated with an improbable McCain victory? I keep invisioning "Dewey Defeats Truman" headlines. I do know that a haughty spirit comes before a fall. I wonder if that principle would come into play this time? It would not surprise me in spite of all of the defeatism on the GOP side and all of the presumtuous celebrating on the Demorat side.