VDH's Private Papers::Through the Looking-Glass

August 24, 2008
Through the Looking-Glass
What Obama says is often best unsaid.
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO The Corner

A Pavlovian Response

We didn't have to wait long for the much anticipated morally-equivalent message from Barack Obama: “We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies. They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.”

Let me get this straight: getting a Senate and House majority to authorize a bipartisan joint war-resolution, going to the U.N., assembling a coalition, having a national and world debate on the wisdom of such an operation from December 2001 to March 2003, and then attacking a genocidal dictator, and staying on to foster a constitutional democracy are apparently the same "charge" "example" as an autocracy suddenly invading its democratic neighbor during the Olympics, and staying on to annex some of its territory?

Aside from the silliness of these statements, the problem for Obama, again, is that incrementally they really do start to add up — America's "tragic history," the mini-sermon on decline to the 7-year-old, waffling exegesis to Rick Warren about our own evil, the confessions to the cheering Berliners about our transgressions — and these doubts are enhanced rather than ameliorated by Michelle Obama's various rantings, and the creepy things former associates like Ayers, Wright, and Pfleger have said about America and its culture. Some disinterested observer from Mars might adduce that the Obamas at this point can't help it, since the 'everybody believes it' anti-American message they absorbed was of long duration and reinforced where they went to school, where they worshiped, and where they worked.

Team Obama needs to sit him down, lay down the law, and give him the Michelle muzzle: "Barack! You are running for the top job in America, so when you mention the U.S., or its history, just dispense with the Harvard qualifiers, the howevers and buts, the oppression studies talking points, the morally equivalent cute examples, the tangled legal nuances, and professorial huffing, and simply say nice things about your country, and if you can't, don't say anything at all about it. The voters know that you believe America is not perfect, but they don't know whether you believe it is good."

Get Real

I think the Democrats really need to cool the "tough guy" rhetoric as in Biden is "scrappy" and a "bare knuckle fighter." All the hype simply suggests fear that in fact the Democrats are not all that combative. When Obama resorts to the Chicago rhetoric (cf. his rendition of David Mamet's '"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" or his shot across the bow to McCain that he's coming after him), it seems forced and phony.

If they want to suggest that they are patriotic and tough, but do not do the Bush swagger or employ the Nascar lingo, then a better approach would simply be to adopt the measured language of confidence (try '"win" or "victory" in matters of Iraq), or a resolution not to add a string of qualifiers (like 'tragic' or 'mean' or conjunctions like "but," "however," etc.) when evoking America, or embrace the same old gloom and doom Katrina/Great Depression tropes about America's decline.

Better yet, Obama could adopt his own braggadocio about "a statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong." Unfortunately the latter is exactly what both he and Biden have already employed — bluster.

Name That Elitist!

Last week's theme in the Obama campaign, prompted perhaps by Michelle's comments about the unfairness of characterizing her husband as an elitist, is that the real wealthy man, and hence elitist, is in fact McCain. As evidence, they cite how he is married to the multi-millionaire Cindy and supposed resident of some eight (sometimes characterized as nine or ten) houses. But the left misses the point which is twofold:

1. Even adroit spinners and handlers can't manufacture elitism; it is not necessarily connected with wealth. The very wealthy Bush no doubt was brought up in greater splendor than was Kerry; but fairly or unfairly, he was more at home at NASCAR and Texas than wind-surfing. And the people sensed that even without Karl Rove's ads. John McCain in a wet suit seems unimaginable.

In Obama's case, it is not a matter of matching his run-of-the-mill mansion against McCain's numerous homes, but ensuring that he doesn't whine about the price of arugula or feel more at home with journalists, academics, and writers rather than those of the working classes. In that regard, again compare his disastrous 'clingers' sermon — its content, tone, and audience. Again, fairly or not, McCain looks like an old torn-cat pilot that doesn't much care what he eats, and Obama tip-toes down a plane's steps as if he is in a Ralph Lauren ad.

2. Liberals and progressives are far more vulnerable to charges of elitism, since they are prone to the additional charge of hypocrisy. Right-wingers, as the catastrophic election of 2006 showed, are more easily exposed as hypocrites when they preach family values and are caught in Rev. Haggard-like positions, or abuse drugs and drink. But liberals, 'two-nations' men and women of the people, who rail against the unfairness of an uncaring system and the perniciousness of wealth and privilege, far more readily suffer charges of elitism when their populist rhetoric is contrasted to private jets, 30,000 sq ft. homes, or 11 mansions.

Those are the normal perceptions that are hardly new. Bill Clinton, as the left-wing hipster, was given enormous leeway in his personal life as child of the '60s. Yet the boy from Hope was not forgiven so easily when we learned of his astounding money-grasping and fondness for the high life, circling the globe in search of quick millions and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The end of the old crusty Humphreys and Scoop Jacksons, replaced by blow-dry John Edwards millionaires, was a public relations disaster for the party of the people. The change is sort of suicidal, as if one were to make a Larry Craig or Mark Foley the Republican masthead.