The Man from Chicago with No Middle Name

Who is Barack NoMiddleName Obama? He is anyone he wants to be, or more accurately he's anyone you want him to be. If Obama were a comic book superhero, his superpower would be vagueness. His entire biography when boiled down becomes the testament of a man who never fit in except by learning to manipulate other people's expectations. A man with no loyalties to anyone but himself.



Now Obama is running smack dab into Abe Lincoln's old maxim about fooling all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.



These days Obama can't even seem to fool all of his party, let alone all of the electorate. Having won by harnessing the power of the insurgent left which demonized the Conservative wing of the Democratic party, Obama found himself stuck with a conservative revolt which together with his campaign supporters' sexist tactics helped create the PUMA revolt. When Obama tried to race McCain to the center, all he did was infuriate his left wing base which views any deviation from dogma in Stalinist terms. The same crowd which prepared gallows for Lieberman, Hillary Clinton and even John Kerry over the War in Iraq don't tend to be the understanding type.



Slowly the crowds that cheered Obama's empowerment slogans like "Yes We Can" are realizing that to Obama empowerment means saying anything he likes without suffering the consequences.



With a long trail of bodies already under the bus, including his own grandma and Reverend Wright, Obama continues to grin confidently at an electorate that is beginning to have second thoughts about him. Like the con artist of classic films who comes into town with a song and a dance to sell the gullible townsfolk his magic beans, Obama has pulled off his con but made the mistake of staying around long enough for people to begin to realize it.



The Obama campaign took the shortcut to power by elevating their candidate into a celebrity and even a minor diety. Doing this however did not make Obama bulletproof, as his campaign might have believed. Bill Clinton's teflon resistance came from his down to earth portrayal. His corruption and infidelities were no secret from the start. By contrast Obama has campaigned less like a candidate and more like a Hollywood actor, but he has forgotten that celebrities are built up by the media until there is no place to go but down, and then are torn to shreds. And he has forgotten that dieties are supposed to be perfect and the Man from Chicago with no middle name is anything but.



But being a one trick pony, Barack Obama can't quite change his tactics. Instead day to day Obama continues to gulp his Wheaties, the breakfast of flip flopping champions, and then go out and make a fool of himself. There's only so many ways that Newsweek and the Huffington Post can cover for you when you insist on retracting your positions a week later or deciding that you're now for the Surge after you were against it, for splitting up Jerusalem, then against it, then for it again, against FISA, for FISA, waffling on Off Shore Drilling-- and truth be told on everything else.



While the Obama campaign has played the short game creating a cult of personality around their candidate, the Republicans have been playing the long game, forcing him to choose between principle and pragmatism and demonstrating to the public that given a choice Barack Obama will choose the cynical self-serving way out. 



Each time Obama waffles. Each time he announces he's reevaluating a policy. Each time he holds another self-righteous press conference or films a cynically manipulative YouTube video. Each time he flips. Each time he flops. The Republicans win.



With plenty of time left to go till the election, Obama continues to showcase his weak spots for America, dodging town hall meetings, avoiding questions, issuing endless justifications and demonstrating that anything he stands for, he's happy to change if it will get him 5 points in the polls.



The American people have elected men without principle to public office before. But they don't like hypocrites. Bill Clinton didn't enrage the average American until he sancitmoniously wagged his finger in the face of the nation. Obama's campaign is nothing more than one long glowing messianic stretch of hypocrisy. One long finger wag by a corrupt politician posturing as the second coming of JFK.