from the same article
"On little evidence, Christopher Buckley assured us that Obama possessed a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect. For some, proof of Obamas godhead became almost physical a perfectly creased pant for David Brooks, a tingling leg for Chris Matthews"
Given that there was no evidence from Obamas legislative career to justify such superlatives, we can only assume that our intellectual elites got caught up in the faux Greek columns, the Obama tutorials for fainting crowds about proper first aid, the teleprompted emphatics of Let me be perfectly clear and Make no mistake about it, the Latinate motto Vero possumus on the faux presidential seal on his campaign podiums, the boast that Obama & Co. were the ones weve been waiting for, the messianic promise to cool the planet and lower the seas, the Lincoln self-comparisons, and the other embarrassing childish banalities.
Obama, it is true, ran a brilliant campaign in 2008, hinting to the Other that as a non-white he shared both their racial bona fides and their frustrations, hinting to white elites that his own unique heritage would end racial hostilities and thus allow them to square the circle of living largely separate elite lives and not having to feel guilty about it. He dropped his gs and went into Southern cadences among African Americans, and then back again into wonkish academese to mainstream whites. It was well known that in impromptu talks he stuttered and stumbled with uhs in deer-in-the-headlights fashion, and used the pronouns I, me, my, and mine ad nauseam, but such unease was ignored given his teleprompted eloquence and the considerable elite investment in his symbolism.
In sum, in 2008 Obama gave America more than enough evidence to doubt that he was ready for the presidency, but when a nation becomes unhinged by trivialities like hope and change, there is not much one can do until the patient wakes up from his trance and in embarrassment asks, What exactly was all that nuttiness in 2008 about?
We will be fathoming that strange madness of 2008 for decades to come
