His favorite subject: himself.

[The Gaijin]

By Charles Krauthammer

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast — a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins — would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign-policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final “tear down this wall” liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush 41 — who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap — called “a Europe whole and free”?

Does Obama not see the incongruity? It’s as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)

Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself. There’s nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted “present” nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work I a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history — “generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment” — when, among other wonders, “the rise of the oceans began to slow.” As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, “Moses made the waters recede, but he had help.” Obama apparently works alone.

Obama may think he’s King Canute, but the good king ordered the tides to halt precisely to refute sycophantic aides who suggested that he had such power. Obama has no such modesty.

After all, in the words of his own slogan, “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” which, translating the royal “we,” means: “I am the one we’ve been waiting for.” Amazingly, he had a quasi-presidential seal with its own Latin inscription affixed to his podium, until general ridicule — it was pointed out that he was not yet president — induced him to take it down.

He lectures us that instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, “you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish” — a language Obama does not speak. He further admonishes us on how “embarrassing” it is that Europeans are multilingual but “we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, ‘merci beaucoup.’ ” Obama speaks no French.

His fluent English does, however, feature many such admonitions, instructions, and improvements. His wife assures us that President Obama will be a stern taskmaster: “Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism . . . that you come out of your isolation. . . . Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”

For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is?

We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when “our planet began to heal.” As I recall — I’m no expert on this — Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.

[Red Baron]

Another homerun by Charles Krauthammer!

[Jims5543]

Once he starts referring to himself in 3rd person then its over.

[Rick Lee]

While I normally agree with Krauthammer on everything, I'm starting to worry that he's developing tunnel vision on Obama. Yes, his column was right on today. But he almost makes Obama out to be a narcissist of Clintonian proportion, which I don't believe he is. It's not Obama's fault that, despite a very thin resume, he's been able to start a huge movement and get the press to bat for him too. It's our dumbed-down sheeple and grossly biased media who are at fault. Any politician would love to have that and Obama does have it. Krauthammer should focus on those problems more than Obama.

[avi8torny]

Gingrich And Krauthammer For President 2008

[Rick Lee]

Krauthammer has had a few I strongly disagreed with. He wrote one in favor of slavery reparations around 2001. You should have seen the readers' comments. A lot of them thought he was joking.

[Superman]

It gives me great hope to hear that people like Krauthammer are considered by conservatives to be keenly insightful.

[cairns]

I read it this AM. Spot on IMO. And it helped me recover from the EJ Dionne diatribe fellating Al Gore.

[Mule]

They could take him to Auschwitz & he could talk about his uncle liberating it!

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by cairns

I read it this AM. Spot on IMO. And it helped me recover from the EJ Dionne diatribe fellating Al Gore.

There is no more knee-jerk liberal at the Wash. Post than Dionne. It's just amazing how a Rhodes scholar like him has absolutely zero critical thinking ability. No one else, not even Maureen Dowd, is as knee-jerk as EJ Dionne. I got in an elevator with him once and had to try very hard to not let loose on him.

[cairns]

I agree normally I can't read the whole column but I try. What I can't stand about him is the constant whining and blind adoration of all things liberal- just because they're liberal (teacher's unions for instance).

At least Eugene Robinson comes up with some reasoning. It may be stupid unsupported whacky reasoning but it's a lot more than Dionne can muster.

[RWebb]

Exactly.


And it's hard to be Jesus. Or some guy that people think is Jesus.

[Mule]

Jesus 2.0 bama

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by RWebb

Exactly.


And it's hard to be Jesus. Or some guy that people think is Jesus.

My brother in law is Jesus

[legion]

You enjoy myself.

[legion]

Boy man, won't uffitze drive me to firenze?

[Rearden]

'Time' Publishes Definitive Obama Puff Piece

[Joeaksa]

Considering how the new media are pushing only one candidate, its not a surprise!

~~~~

Subject: ABC News - Suspicions confirmed! No mention of the 54 for McCain
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:33:00 +0000

Just in case you happened to see the ABC News piece (if you watch ABC News) with interviews of 5 military folks in Iraq - 3 planned to vote for Obama and 2 for Hillary; no mention of any McCain supporters. Well, here's the 'Rest of the Story.'

This from Major General (ret) Buckman

My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/ watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq .

Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary.

Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn.


Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but got a hell'uva view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI's being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton . No mention of the 54 for McCain.

[legion]

Yes, but hearing him talk about himself makes me feel better about myself.

[Mule]