Obamism spreading like a dangerous wildfire

Every now and then, a charming and charismatic individual comes along to capture the imagination of the simple masses. As a kid, I remember the self-aggrandizing exploits of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who built a religious shrine to himself in my home state of Oregon and attracted a rather large, devoted following of disciples who made up a physical commune called Rajneeshpuram. Of course, it turns out that the Rajneesh was only using his followers and their money to buy himself a lot of expensive toys—namely several Rolls Royces. He was also developing biological weapons to poison people with. But there was no way anyone could have convinced the Bhagwan’s loyal subjects of his deception. The Baghwan could do no wrong in the blind eyes of his followers.
I see many parallels to the Rajneeshi when I regard the public’s reaction toward democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL.
Here’s a guy who was a virtual unknown when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. He was considered little more than the “flavor of the month” and even dubbed a “rock star” candidate by major print media when the presidential campaign season kicked off in January 2007. In fact, up until this year’s Iowa Caucus, the presumed democratic presidential nominee was New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a so-called candidate of destiny. Since then, Obama's spark caught fire instantly and his popularity has spread like a raging wildfire.
His public addresses and campaign speeches have the same effect as an aphrodesiac: extraordinarily pleasurable and uplifting. People seem to come away from one of his rallies the way Deadheads left a Grateful Dead concert: high and hallucinating. Traveling peddlers and charlatans got the same rise out of crowds gathered around to see a demonstration of some sort of wonder tonic. So have these so-called miracle healers who place their hands on people’s heads and claim to cure what ails them.
Don’t get me wrong: Hope is a fine thing and a great notion upon which to campaign. But in order for hope to mean anything, there has to be substance behind it. There is nothing but powerful words behind Obama’s brand of hope. He really doesn’t know what impact his plans and ideas will have on the United States of America. But his words sound good, people respond to them, so he has taken the ball and run with it—untouched so far and on his way to the end zone.
I’m just concerned that people are taking Barack Obama more seriously than a presidential candidate; almost as though he is some kind of messianic cult leader. I read a quote earlier this week by actress Halle Berry, who said she would scrub the floors beneath Obama’s feet just to be a part of his campaign.
Now, Obama seems like a decent guy. But a messiah he is not.
He’s a presidential candidate, for heaven’s sake, not a shaman or medicine man. He doesn’t have any magic up his sleeves, no spells to cast and no bewitching potions with which to cure our ills. He’s just a guy; a flesh and blood man…with a law degree.
But you can’t convince Obama’s loyal supporters that he’s got any faults at all, much less any bad ideas. He can do no wrong in the eyes of a growing number of people. Heck, he might as well be the Second Coming. A scary notion is that some people—more than I care to admit—probably think of him in that way.
I suppose the next thing his followers expect is for him to walk on water. To avoid utter embarrassment, though, I suggest Barack attempt it at about an inch depth. That should give illusion enough to fool even the most skeptical of Obama worshippers. Besides, I don’t think their shallow brains could handle deception in anything deeper.