Obama - The New Elmer Gantry
So my wife asks me, "How is it possible that so many people cannot see the disaster-waiting-to-get-elected in Obama?" I told her for the same reason that women want to hear their lover say, "I love you," before giving up the booty; for the same reason that the Nigerian scam works; for the same reason that otherwise intelligent people get suckered by alleged clairvoyants who claim to communicate with the dead, like John Edward, a fast-talking former ballroom-dancing instructor who is cleaning up on his proclaimed ability "to connect with energies of people who have crossed over." Because they want to believe that they are loved, or that they'll make quick riches, or that their dead husbands or wives are not truly gone forever. They need to believe in something better than they have.
They get that with Obama. The belief that things will get better, that here is a person who will keep the promises that traditional politicians break. It doesn't matter that Obama has no clue to solving the myriad problems of our republic. If you are my age then you'll remember Burt Lancaster's excellent turn at Elmer Gantry, "a fast talking, hard drinking traveling salesman who always has a risqué story and a hip flask to entertain cronies and customers alike."
Although Obama's performance in front of his worshippers is more subdued for modern audiences than Gantry's, one can feel that the preacher in Obama is just ready to burst. Perhaps Obama saw that film which gave him the idea that people who have not had jobs for 25 years "get bitter, they cling to guns or religion..."
Some people never know when they are being sold a bill of goods.