The Audacity of Hype: Why was there so much hype for Obama?

I know that Obama was the mainstream media candidate. I have yet to understand why his supporters supported him blindly as much as they did during the election. I at first liked the guy... I saw him speak... I think he's a good person... but he's like the rest of us. He has two faces. Most of us have more than one face that we show each other. What he says on television may be different from how he really acts.

I know that Barack Obama underwent a lot of tragic losses in his family... he then decided to run for President... he attended a bilderberg group meeting (what a surprise)... but regardless of the fact he attended a bilderberg group meeting even before that there was a lot of hype surrounding him. I read his book Dreams From my Father and listened to his book The Audacity of Hope. I listened to his audiobook during the election and it got me kind of excited for him but I knew to still be critical of him. I wasn't a stupid mindless Obamabot. Now after having read his other book, Dreams From my Father I can't understand what it is that people voted for him. He is a likeable person. He is inspiring. However, does that make him electable?

Why did we lose sight of this during the election? I must admit that later on when I was coming back to my senses I found out about Ron Paul and got back to my roots. I almost seriously became active with the whole Obama web grassroots support thing... until he wanted me to attack actual conspiracy theorists like Jerome Corsi... and the book that I looked at on his website mocked him for believing that the US government took down the twin towers... and that kind of woke me up... I still wanted him in office at that time because I didn't want John McCain to win... I didn't realize that he wouldn't be any different from John McCain... I just thought he was the lesser of the two evils.

My question is... why did we lose sight of this fact? That he is a politician? Why did people (here) even hype him up so much? Some suggested he uses brainwashing NLP techniques. I have seen him use some NLP techniques. Maybe that's it. I don't think that's all there is to it.

I just thought I'd ask the question. I hope I'm not the only one still wondering about why the heck we hyped him so much. I regret voting for him. I'll learn. Just like the rest of us...

reply to post by Frankidealist35


People don't understand that just because a guy is likeable doesn't mean he's fit to be President.

I'm not a fan of Bill Clinton, but I'd party with that guy anytime!

Ever since the 26 September 1960 first-ever televised presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon, personality has become the biggest factor in becoming elected.

It's not just a matter of looks, although that plays a significant role, but charisma and presence become far more greater attributes to the Cult of Personality than they did prior to the presidential race being broadcast on television.

Obama is young. He is attractive. He is virile. He says the right things at the right times. He tells people what they want to hear, and he does so with an eloquence that has been unparalleled since Kennedy. He has the presence of Theodore Roosevelt, the (perceived) honesty of Abraham Lincoln (come on, there's no such thing as an honest politician!), the heart of Franklin Roosevelt, the intellect of Al Gore, and he's almost as squeaky clean of a Boy Scout as we thought Edwards was (before he got busted for his extra-marital affair).

Most of all, Obama was something different. People wanted change. Whether we got change with Obama is another story, but the promise of the chance of something different was enough to give people hope...and that is a very powerful thing.

It's kind of like when you eat chicken every day for 8 years. When you have the opportunity to go out for your first time in 8 years to a restaurant, do you order the chicken or do you try something different?

So, in the end Obama turned out to be not that different from his predecessor. So, the promises he made to get elected were either idealistic notions or hollow words. So, he didn't turn out to the Messiah everyone was hoping he would be.

But at least he isn't the same old chicken we've been eating every night for 8 years!

Obama's not the Messiah, but he's not the Anti-Christ either. He's just a man with a dream, who lacked the experience in Major League Politics to really make the differences he had hoped he would, and ultimately found himself making similar tough decisions that his predecessor had made under intense criticism. He certainly could have done much worse than he has so far.

Still, considering the alternative of Palin (ahem, I mean McCain), I think Obama was a better choice (lesser of two evils) for the Nation, at least as far as mending foreign relations with our allies that we had severely alienated for almost a decade. It would have been ideal to have had more choices than just the lesser of two evils, but that's the flaw of having a Bicameral System.

As far as Ron Paul goes...I agree that although he is considered by his party and the mainstream as a "kook" he has some wonderful ideas about government, some creative solutions to some of our problems, and a moral conscience on top of it all. I think Ron Paul is great, but I also know that the likelihood of Ron Paul getting elected is about as likely as a Libertarian candidate being elected President for all the same reasons. Even if Ron Paul marketed himself to the Cult of Personality, and somehow shed his lunatic-fringe reputation, the Bicameral Political System is simply against him. Until that is changed, then a vote for a third party is a vote in vain.

[edit on 20-6-2009 by fraterormus]

No democrat could have beaten McCain/Palin.

Except that no republican could beat Obama... even with Biden for a handicap.

The left drummed up a hatred for Bush and anything that resembled him.
As much as people may have liked McCain, there was no way he could distance himself from the stuffy old white male republican stigmata when running against a young bold minority feel-good candidate of the year.

"Obama understands ME!!!!"
With a fresh young smiling face he promised to right every wrong in America and make the USA the apple of the worlds eye once again. Obama was the shining symbol of that brave new USA just over the horizon.