Another update on the search for Moses, Joshua, and David in 2008

Messianism is older in America than baseball. Messianism is as American as a 4th of July parade. In my lifetime, I've never seen as many Americans looking out for a political Messiah. It's not 1932, but I pray we never reach that pit of despair again.

Now that the Republican campaign has given us a true survivor and familiar face in John McCain, the Democratic campaign is moving apparently towards the demise of the Clintons and towards the birth of something new, "Obamania."

I'm not sure Barack Obama represents anything more than a charismatic liberal candidate wearing the mantle of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King for as long as he can. Perhaps he really is capable of transforming American politics, but I doubt it. The loudest thunder would likely strike on inauguration day, and his trips here and abroad would be the most rousing since those of Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy.

His renewal of the Great Society's mandates and funding, however, would go nowhere. He is one of the two or three most liberal senators in the chamber, a backbencher more than an engineer of comprehensive legislation. Moving to the center would not be easy, especially if the partisan left expects him to socialize medicine, withdraw all troops currently deployed between Naples and Seoul, pivot the judiciary leftward, save all unionized industries, and prosecute all Republicans involved in the Iraq war during his first year in office.

He is riding a wave that includes a committed coalition of Fabian socialists who believe America is the cause of the world's problems and that "regime change" here will result in some sort of utopia. Just being nice himself does not mean the Democratic base is going to quit being what it is or that Republicans are going to love him any more than they loved Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Effective presidents are feared as much as they might be loved. (No Democratic president has been feared since Lyndon Johnson.)

If elected to the White House, Obama is going to be a wartime president, and every mistake will be magnified. Every wrong assumption he makes about our enemies is going to cost some lives. I and a lot of Americans would trust him more if he had once commanded a PT boat or an artillery battery. I would rather have a president who had done a little saluting before he himself was saluted. I might admire Jane Addams and Clarence Darrow, but I would not vote for either to be president, especially during wartime.

I don't remember the assassinations of the 1960s well. I do remember the gloomy aftermath. There was a sense in America after 1968 that anyone who inspired hope to millions of people was going to be killed by haters and madmen. Because Obama has cultivated his own myth to inspire comparisons to JFK, RFK, and MLK, we cannot help but worry about his safety. The author of this linked article also remembers, and I agree with him that Obama's security people need to be on their toes. An assassination kills not only a man but truth and objectivity. The Kennedy myth is not healthy. Camelot came into being on November 22, 1963 and not a day before.

I pray for the safety of all our leaders, but especially the President of the United States. As much as we want him to be savior of the world, lifter of the weak, champion of the dispossessed, and provider of cradle-to-grave government benefits, he is above all commander-in-chief of the armed forces in a deadly world. Everyone who loves freedom owes something to the office. American Messianism combined with the mythology of assassinated leaders sometimes makes it impossible for us to be sober about voting for a wartime leader of the world's strongest nation.

[Above:
David Slaying Goliath, c. 1616
Peter Paul Rubens
Flemish, 1577-1640
Oil on canvas48-3/8 x 39 in. (122.9 x 99.1 cm)
The Norton Simon Foundation]