Camp Clinton has been waiting (and complaining) for the media to start giving Sen . Barack Obama’s campaign the level of scrutiny generally trained on the front-runner.
It seems like it is coming, possibly just in time to prolong Obama’s race with Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Although some 150 delegates are up for grabs in Democratic contests today, yesterday’s big political story was the Obama plagarism flap. It is not a story likely to have legs, but any day spent dealing with a flap of this sort is a day that Obama is not seen inspiring people with his vision of hopeandchangeandthefuture.  Moreover, it is the sort of story — like Obama’s wriggling over his commitment to accept public financing in the general election — which over time could fit into a narrative that erodes Obama’s authenticity. His equivocation over withdrawing troops from Iraq could also fall into this category, if the media makes it an issue — or if Hillary puts it on the table.
The secondary political story of the day was Michelle Obama’s lack of pride in America for the past 26 years or so. Again, not the sort of story Obama wants filling up mindspace.
Moreover, unease with the Cult of Obama continues to flow in the media bloodstream. David Brooks has moved on from decrying McCain Derangement Syndrome to warning of Obama Comedown Syndrome:
The afflicted had already been through the phases of Obama-mania  fainting at rallies, weeping over their touch screens while watching Obama videos, spending hours making folk crafts featuring Michelle Obama’s face. These patients had experienced intense surges of hope-amine, the brain chemical that fuels euphoric sensations of historic change and personal salvation.
But they found that as the weeks went on, they needed more and purer hope-injections just to preserve the rush. They wound up craving more hope than even the Hope Pope could provide, and they began experiencing brooding moments of suboptimal hopefulness. Anxious posts began to appear on the Yes We Can! Facebook pages. A sense of ennui began to creep through the nation’s Ian McEwan-centered book clubs.
Froma Harrop, a columnist for the Providence Journal, claims the Cult of Obama is turning off some centrists:
Volunteer trainees at Camp Obama are told not to talk issues with voters, but to offer personal testimony about how they “came” to Obama. Makes the skin crawl.
Centrists generally do not find cults of personality entertaining. The mass hypnosis reminds them of the mortgage frenzy — all these people buying into a dream and not caring about the fine print.
At the New York Daily News, the issue has moved from the op-eds to the news coverage:
Even some Democrats who back Obama are leery. “Many of the Obama people not only have partaken of the Kool Aid, but they drank it undiluted,” one Obama voter wrote in an online discussion titled: “Barack Obama Is Not Jesus.”
On the Internet, there may be no better indicator of shark-jumping on this point than the creation of a site like Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle. Obama’s most rabid followers risk making him Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer, rather than president.
Finally, there is policy, which also concerns folks on both sides of the aisle. From a political perspective, former Bush administration official Peter Wehner has penned a column focusing on policy because he thinks that criticizing Obama’s “rhetorical vacuousness” and his cult-like following will “ultimately prove ineffective.” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius concedes that Obama “has a Web site brimming with plans and proposals,” but remains puzzled as to Obama’s governing philosophy and concerned about his foreign policy advisers — a concern shared by Michael Weiss in noting Zbigniew Brzezinski’s recent chat sessions in Syria. Mike Lux, a former member of Hillary’s heathcare taskforce from 1994, complains about Obama Rep. Jim Cooper as a spokesperson/surrogate on health care. Obama’s proposals to have the IRS fill in your tax form and to certify the patriotism of US corporations (ripped from the pages of The Nation) are also starting to attract attention in the blogosphere, and may bubble up into the establishment media.
Kerfuffles, stylistic critiques, and analyses of philosophy, policy and personnel — all of the above are the consequence of becoming the front-runner. Indeed, all of these forms of scrutiny — from the serious to the near-frivolous — were always far more inevitable than any of the candidacies on either side of the aisle.
I wonder whether Froma Harrop knows Nedra Pickler.
Scoff if you like, but do you have any idea what a grilled cheese sandwich with Barack Obama’s image would fetch on eBay?
While the plagiarism story may develop legs enough to create a small distraction from Obama’s quest to save America, it seems much more likely that most folks will view it as another piffle from the Clinton campaign, the one that has no message, and whose greatest political asset is the ability to attack and denigrate. And I say that in a good way. Hillary doesn’t have much else going for her.
Spending the day to defend himself against Hillary is a day spent differentiating himself from her. Seems to have worked so far.
Interesting about Brzezinski. This is the first I heard of it..so you’re doing me a service. I am not surprised but a little disappointed in such a conservative choice for international policy adviser. And ‘old’.
Even the concept of scrutiny should be put on a sliding scale, a continuum if you will. The scrutiny that Barry O will get from the press as opposed to what President Bush recd. One can reasonably expect that the media will stay with the form and style angles rather than addressing his actual positions, or lack thereof.
data – In the land of the mental midgets, you are a giant.
The funny part is Bubba in the background of the Deval Patrick clips.
thx for the compliment, JD. Yes, you could more kind to your “world” though. And that means I don’t need to do kettle bells then? I am already a “giant”?
think about who did that Barack is your new bicycle website. It’s funny and cynical at the same time. But was it a Clintonista or a Republican? And is there a meaningful difference? And Keifer Sutherland could be President in ’12. Very funny links, Karl.
Patrick Ruffini had an interesting Obama take as well this weekend.
Think Benetton. Or … whatever, just don’t think about what you’re actually buying.
Hmm. Maybe Benneton is not safe for work? I don’t know. I just know that for the first time in my life I’m proud of our presidential marketing. VoteObama® y’alls!
“Interesting about Brzezinski” – “conservative choice”
I am more certain every day that a President Obama will be a Jimmy Carter redux.
Has anyone seen him talking to Ramsey Clark?
Rob – Would it be worse for Ramsey Clarke or John Edwards to be AG ?
That’s a toss-up, JD. One would gut our military and surrender our sovereignty, the other would enslave us in regulatory bubble wrap. Both would swear it’s all for our own good.
Mathew Honan lives in San Francisco and is “…a contributing editor at Wired magazine.”
Obviously a wingnut Republican.
Also published in that right-wing rag Mother Jones.
BWAH HA HA HA Haaaaaaaaa
Screw AG, B. Hussein has them set for the open seats on the SCOTUS
Apparently, this scrutiny was anticipated.
Per Jonah Goldberg at NRO, Michelle Obama’s thesis “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community” has been made “unavailable” at the Princeton library until November 5, 2008.
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding.
Clintonista perhaps or maybe a libertarian resistance to peer pressure? Nice job Matt? And there are “left libertarians” (name seen on page info. thx for heads up). Well that ust reinforces ideas that Republicans aren’t that creative. Actually the resistance to McCain here maybe makes this less than a Republican site perhaps? excuse me…..more than a Republican site…..
“I am more certain every day that a President Obama will be a Jimmy Carter redux. ha ha. He’s not even nominated yet. And if nominated his (and Hillary’s) electability is in doubt. And if elected, next problem for you…who is your next Ronald Reagan for ’12. Fred Stumblebum? Ron Paul probably has more sympathy from the ‘right’ than anyone else out there unless you want Rush Limbaugh to run…ha, that’d be a blessing for Democrats. Oh, I forgot Newt? One reason that David Brooks dropped Romney like a stone after doing some paid consulting for him and saw Romney as unelectable too. So who’s your champion? IMO McCain is a pretty damn good choice. Pretty hard for the Dems to beat.
Thx for bringing Brooks into the conversation. I know he’s not favored here or elsewhere in the rightwing bloggosphere but he’s a very entertaining writer and gets some things right and makes valid criticisms of left and right IMO. And just fun to read for punditry.
Ron Paul probably has more sympathy from the ‘right’ than anyone else out there
data – Given the amount of idiocy spewed by the likes of po, IJS, steve, etal today, that howler is clearly head and shoulders above the crowd. Congrats.
Really? Then why didn’t he ever get more than a handful of votes?
Or are you once more talking about the “right” that exists only in your head?
maybe I meant Idolatry, not sympathy. Not much enthusiasm for anyone else except Obama.
data – I think the words you are looking for are scorn, or derision, or something along those lines.
Brooks… gets some things right
He got Hope Dope wrong.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/opinion/13brooks.html wrong?
hope dope…obama? seems he was on that one too…”The person with the fewest wounds usually does best in the White House, and is best for the country.” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/opinion/18brooks.html
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