When thinking about how to disrupt Obama’s capacity to make his supporters feel good about themselves, we should remember the Obama-as-a-cult phenomenon is not some concept thought up by the right side of the aisle.
Obama backer Kathleen Geier, writing at Talking Points Memo:
I’m getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama’s supporters.
On listservs I’m on, some people who should know better – hard-bitten, not-so-young cynics, even – are gushing about Barack, raving about his “game-changing” politics, about his “power to inspire,” about how they wept while viewing the now-famous Dipdive video, and on and on… This sounds more like a cult than a political campaign. The language used here is the language of evangelical Christianity – the Obama volunteers speak of “coming to Obama” in the same way born-again Christians talk about “coming to Jesus.”
ABC’s Jake Tapper:
It’s as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, “Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat.”
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: “Most of the venom I see is coming from supporters of Mr. Obama, who want their hero or nobody. I’m not the first to point out that the Obama campaign seems dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.”
See also TalkLeft, Taylor Marsh, Joe Klein, James Wolcott, Joel Stein, and Gar Joseph. Sure, most of these are Hillary backers. But it suggests that you need not be a Republican to see something strange, alien and disturbing in the Obama camp’s messiah complex.
Finally, over on the Daily Show, the rarely-if-ever-conservative and usually-funny Lewis Black finally hit his limit with the Obamessiah talk. (Note that earlier in the Daily Show segement, the video of Fiddy Cent saying, “Don’t look for my vote, for me to determine nothing on that. Just say, ‘50 Cent, he don’t know, so don’t ask Fiddy.” gets applause. Maybe ordinary folks are getting tired of celebrities telling them who to vote for.)
Lewis Black: There is one entertainer whose power to persuade is undeniable. And this year, she’s taking a stand.
Oprah: He is the One. He is the One! Barack Obama!
Black: The One? What, Obama’s going to fix the Matrix? Good for you, Barack! You have Oprah excited. And you know she doesn’t get that worked up over just anything.
Montage of Oprah expressing excitement, usually at the top of her lungs: It’s our nineteenth season! Whooo!
The hottest ticket in television!
Everybody gets a car!
A new blackberry!
XM satellite radioooooo!
Those tickets are yours!
Whoo whoo whoo!
Ooooh! I’m having fun!
Black: Barack Obama! Almost as exciting as the cast of Desperate Housewives!
Making Obama’s supporters the object of mockery might be even more effective than mocking the candidate himself.