Moonage Political Webdream

This primary is getting lots and lots more weird as each day passes.  Maybe it’s the lack of real content in the debate, maybe it’s the diversity of the candidates.  I dunno.  No one’s fighting over the issues quite like they did four years ago ( heh, heh, teaser there huh?  Best I recall, it was all about bloggers and Swift Boats and one single issue. )  This year, it’s been all about change.  But, we’ve gotten precious little detail as to what that change would be.  Could be change for the worse, but that wouldn’t matter so long as you support change.  So, to fill the void, we get stuff like this.  It seems people have a tendency to pass out at Obama rallies.  Notably:

• Montecito, Calif., Sept. 8, 2007. “A woman standing in front of the stage appeared to faint as Obama spoke about Iraq,” the Associated Press reported. “The candidate paused and asked the crowd to make way for firefighters. One supporter shouted, ‘You’re a good man,’ leaving Obama momentarily at a loss for words. ‘Well, I’m not the only one stopping to help her,’ he said, sounding almost embarrassed.”
• Madison, Wis., Oct. 22, 2007. “This excitement mirrored the aura in the room that grew throughout his speech,” reported WISN-TV. “Before the senator arrived, students were tossing around an inflatable cow above the crowd. Three people fainted in the midst of all the enthusiasm.”
• Hanover, N.H., Jan. 8, 2008. “Barack Obama’s first and only rally on election day came to a sudden and lengthy stop when a young woman in the Dartmouth College gym fainted, and was eventually rolled off on a gurney by emergency medical technicians,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “At first Obama half-narrated the episode, saying soothing things like, ‘She’s OK,’ ‘She’s talking.’ But the longer she lay on the floor, the quieter Obama got, standing on the podium, arms folded, looking worried as the medical crew worked.” Minneapolis’s WCCO-TV has video showing Obama handing a bottle of water to the Dartmouth damsel in distress.
• Hartford, Conn., Feb. 4, 2008. “And when a woman appeared to faint in the standing-only VIP section in front of the podium, Obama paused his speech for over a minute as he directed the crowd to make way for an EMT team and tossed a bottle of water from the stage,” reported the Yale Daily News.
• Seattle, Feb. 8, 2008. “Climate change, the Iraq war and Obama tossing a bottle of water to a woman about to faint all received big cheers,” MSNBC.com reported. “As Obama told the crowd to part so that the woman in question could leave and called for help, a young girl in the crowd shouted out, ‘What a man!’ The audience roared with laughter (although the press that has seen this happen before rolled its eyes).” 

Now, the truly cynical see a pattern here.  Not so much in the fact people are dropping like flies at Obama rallies, but the way Obama responds every time.  Now, it looks and sounds scripted.  But, I imagine if I were Obama, I would get pretty dang tired of people interrupting my canned speech by falling to floor.  From the dates, this has been going on for months.  That would have to get annoying.  SOME people see a conspiracy here.  I mean, how many people have fainted at all the Republican rallies combined ( that are on video and therefore documented )?  SOME people see it as a conspiracy by the Republicans that by doing it over and over and making it look scripted and fake, it sets Obama up to look like he’s scripted and faking it.  SOME people blame it on the heat, but like one commentor noted, how hot could it possibly be in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Seattle, in FEBRUARY?  Some people blame it on the excitment of a political rally.  I’ve been to a bunch of political rallies on all levels, they’re not THAT exciting.  Ever.

But, one person referred to it as the vespers.  I remember the vespers.  Actually, he called it the “vespas”, which implies something a little different.  Without going into to too many stereotypes, let’s just say white guys in church don’t usually suffer from the vespas.  What that all implies is something I’ve been concerned with the last couple of months in this race.  Obama is riding a wave based on cult of personality and not anything tangible to politics.  There’s no reason women should be passing out en masse at Obama rallies when he’s discussing economy, health care, and war.  None.  Nada.  Those topics just don’t get people too worked up.  Sure, they’ll yell at each other.  But, they won’t pass out if it gets too hot.  It’s just not that exciting.  Religion’s usually something that people will get that worked up over.  Pop stars are something people will get that worked up over.  The one thing both have in common is they worshiped and adored for who they are and not necessarily the topic they represent.  Politics is a different animal.  It’s important that it be all about the topic and not so much about the person.  Sure, we still admire Reagan, but it’s for what he did and not what he looked like.  If he hadn’t stared down the Communist threat and restored the economy, he would be completely forgotten.  And, for what it’s worth, he’s probably more popular now than he was in 1988.  People weren’t passing out over Reagan in 1980, 1984, and definitely not in 1988.  So, I don’t think Obama’s staging this.  I don’t think the Republicans or Hillary are setting him up.  And, I don’t think the heat’s getting them.  This is something much worse.  If Obama wins purely on cult of personality, there will be a lot of very disappointed people over the next four to eight years.  Unlike religion or pop stardom, politics is a dirty job that never makes anyone look good while they’re doing it.  And, being as Obama has run on vague issues like “change” and not substance that can be marked, people will have vague expectations that can not realistically be met.  And, even scarier to people like me who revere history over the latest trend, ( no, I’m not going to cite Hitler here ), Robert Kennedy comes to mind in our not too distant past.  As odd as it sounds, Obama I think needs to bring his peeps down to Earth by discussing the nuts and bolts of his anticipated “change”.  When he does that, I don’t think you’ll see any more fainting.  But, what you might see is peeps like me, who don’t suffer from the vespers, start to listen.

And for those out there who think I might be over-reacting, which I do on occasion, I will counter that Obama’s not the only politician out there bringing out the vespers:

Technorati Tags: fainting, obama

Tags: fainting, obama

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