The mythic fall of Barack

The stunning gaffes by the team of Obama and Biden don’t stop coming. The latest, of course, was an Obama ad, produced as part of a new “get tough” policy, that attacked McCain for, of all things, not knowing how to use the Internet and e-mail, when, as it had previously been reported in the media, McCain has difficulty using a keyboard because of his severe arm injuries suffered in Vietnam. It’s the mother of all gaffes.

I can’t get over how Obama the Preternaturally Smooth has changed into Barack Who Can’t Get His Foot Out of his Mouth. As though the gods were punishing him for his arrogance, the inevitable next president of the U.S.and the coming world messiah has been transformed into a dazed, helpless fool.

The situation reminds me of Book XVI of the Iliad when Patroklos puts on Achilleus’ armor, enters the battle, and effortlessly sweeps the Trojans back in terror before him, singlehandedly killing scores of them, Nothing can stop him. But then, suddenly, the gods turn against Patroklos. Apollo enters the battle and strikes him silly, stripping off his armor and rendering him helpless and defenseless and ready for the kill:

And Patroklos charged with evil intention in on the Trojans.
Three times he charged in with the force of the running war god,
screaming a terrible cry, and three times he cut down nine men,
but as for the fourth time he swept in, like something greater
than human, there, Patroklos, the end of your life was shown forth,
since Phoibos came against you there in the strong encounter
dangerously, nor did Patroklos see him as he moved through
the battle, and shrouded in a deep mist came in against him
and stood behind him, and struck his back and his broad shoulders
with a flat stroke of the hand so that his eyes spun. Phoibos
Apollo now struck away from his head the helmet
four-horned and hollow-eyed, and under the feet of the horses
it rolled clattering, and the plumes above it were defiled
by blood and dust. Before this time it had not been permitted
to defile in the dust this great helmet crested in horse-hair;
rather it guarded the head and the gracious brow of a godlike
man, Achilleus; but now Zeus gave it over to Hektor
to wear on his head, Hektor whose own death was close to him.
And in his hands was splintered all the huge, great, heavy,
iron-shod, far-shadowing spear, and away from his shoulders
dropped to the ground the shield with its shield-sling and its tassels.
The lord Apollo, son of Zeus, broke the corselet upon him.
Disaster caught his wits, and his shining body went nerveless.
He stood stupidly, and from close behind his back a Dardanian
man hit him between the shoulders with a sharp javelin:
Euphorbos, son of Panthoos, who surpassed all men of his own age
With the throwing spear, and in horsemanship and the speed of his feet. He
had already brought down twenty men from their horses
since first coming, with his chariot and his learning in warfare.
He first hit you with a thrown spear, o rider Patroklos,
nor broke you, but ran away again, snatching out the ash spear
from your body, and lost himself in the crowd, not enduring
to face Patroklos, naked as he was, in close combat.
Now Patroklos, broken by the spear and the god’s blow, tried
to shun death and shrink back into the swarm of his own companions.
But Hektor, when he saw high-hearted Patroklos trying
to get away, saw how he was wounded with the sharp javelin,
came close against him across the ranks, and with the spear stabbed him
in the depth of the belly and drove the bronze clean through. He fell,
thunderously, to the horror of all the Achaian people.
As a lion overpowers a weariless boar in wild combat
as the two fight in their pride on the high places of a mountain
over a little spring of water, both wanting to drink there,
and the lion beats him down by force as he fights for his breath, so
Hektor, Priam’s son, with a close spear-stroke stripped the life
from the fighting son of Menoitios, who had killed so many,
and stood above him, and spoke aloud the winged words of triumph:
‘Patroklos, you thought perhaps of devastating our city,
of stripping from the Trojan women the day of their liberty
and dragging them off in ships to the beloved land of your fathers.
Fool! When in front of them the running horses of Hektor
strained with their swift feet into the fighting, and I with my own spear
am conspicuous among the fighting Trojans, I who beat from them
the day of necessity. For you, here the vultures shall eat you….’

(The Iliad of Homer, Richmond Lattimore, trans.)

The sight of Patroklos being reduced in a few moments from an overpoweringly dominant warrior to a pitiful, dazed wretch stripped naked and ready for slaughter does seem to resemble Obama’s abrupt decline in political adeptness and external fortune over the last couple of weeks. If the analogy truly applied, then Obama would be down for the count and the election would be over, as is believed, says Peggy Noonan in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, by “everyone” she knows. In reality the candidates are just a couple of points apart according to most polls, and the election is two months off. So how can people be so sure it’s “over”? Maybe it’s because they think mythically. Or maybe it’s because, as I’ve discussed before, they accept the common belief that the trends prevailing at this moment must remain the prevailing trends. In their desire for closure and certainty they imagine that things will not change. But this side of death, things tend to change. When someone’s down, he comes up; when someone’s up, he comes down. Yet no matter how many times such reversals have occurred in politics or sports, people forget it and think that the top dog (top pit bull?) of this moment will remain the top dog, and so they are amazed when a reversal occurs. Yes, it’s possible that Obama, knocked silly by Palin’s arrival on the scene, will continue acting like a boxer on Queer Street for the next two months and never recover. But it seems unlikely.

- end of initial entry -

Adela G. writes:

You write: “I can’t get over how Obama the Preternaturally Smooth has changed into Barack Who Can’t Get His Foot Out of his Mouth.”

It is startling. But remember back in late winter/early spring, we saw—and heard—repeatedly the Barack Who Can’t Get His Foot Out of his Mouth. His comments, “typical white person,” “bitterly clinging to guns and religion,” and “that’s not the Rev. Wright I know,” all made him seem inept, unsure and out of touch. And they just kept coming. [LA replies: That’s true, he’s made big gaffes before. But now they’re non-stop, and they’re huge.]

Some people seem to thrive on adversity.(Paradoxically, Hillary seemed more and more viable as a candidate the more she fought a losing battle). Obama is not like that. Obama does well when things go well. Once he gets off-track, it’s not easy for him to get back on. He’s easily thrown and does not readily recover.

I remember how he seemed to drink in all that adoration and adulation and I think he really needs it. It’s more than just an ego-gratifying experience for him, it’s an affirmation of self or more likely, of his success at creating Barack out of Barry. So when he has to defend himself or go on the offensive, it’s like a denial of his success at morphing from Barry to Barack. Attacks and setbacks are personal for him in a way that they don’t seem to be for other politicians. I cannot imagine his being able to withstand the kind of scathing criticism and mockery Hillary faced for months on end.

Also, I suspect Obama thinks he shouldn’t have to defend himself or go on the offensive. He’s articulate (!) and educated and his entire persona has been constructed, in part, as a mute reproach to racist remarks. I think he’s fastidious enough not to want to have engage in brawling. He’s not a scrapper, he has no belly for infighting. His style is to rise above conflict, to appear lofty and transcendent.

Forget the lipstick, I think this is the fashion accessory he’d most like to see Sarah Palin wear.

September 13

Adela G. writes:

You write: “I can’t get over how Obama the Preternaturally Smooth has changed into Barack Who Can’t Get His Foot Out of his Mouth.”

It is startling. But remember back in late winter/early spring, we saw—and heard—repeatedly the Barack Who Can’t Get His Foot Out of his Mouth. His comments, “typical white person,” “bitterly clinging to guns and religion,” and “that’s not the Rev. Wright I know,” all made him seem inept, unsure and out of touch. And they just kept coming.

Some people seem to thrive on adversity.(Paradoxically, Hillary seemed more and more viable as a candidate the more she fought a losing battle). Obama is not like that. Obama does well when things go well. Once he gets off-track, it’s not easy for him to get back on. He’s easily thrown and does not readily recover.

I remember how he seemed to drink in all that adoration and adulation and I think he really needs it. It’s more than just an ego-gratifying experience for him, it’s an affirmation of self or more likely, of his success at creating Barack out of Barry. So when he has to defend himself or go on the offensive, it’s like a denial of his success at morphing from Barry to Barack. Attacks and setbacks are personal for him in a way that they don’t seem to be for other politicians. I cannot imagine his being able to withstand the kind of scathing criticism and mockery Hillary faced for months on end.

Also, I suspect Obama thinks he shouldn’t have to defend himself or go on the offensive. He’s articulate (!) and educated and his entire persona has been constructed, in part, as a mute reproach to racist remarks. I think he’s fastidious enough not to want to have engage in brawling. He’s not a scrapper, he has no belly for infighting. His style is to rise above conflict, to appear lofty and transcendent.

Forget the lipstick, I think this is the fashion accessory he’d most like to see Sarah Palin wear.

LA replies:

That’s true, he’s made big gaffes before. But now they’re non-stop, and they’re huge.

Adela G. replies:

Yes but so far Sarah Palin, with her winning combo platter of feisty femininity, has proven to be a much more formidable opponent than Hillary. As a juggernaut, she’s non-stop and huge so it’s not surprising Obama’s gaffes are now the same. He really does not deal well with adversity or adversarial situations.

Terry Morris writes:

Adela wrote: “I cannot imagine his being able to withstand the kind of scathing criticism and mockery Hillary faced for months on end.”

That’s part of Obama’s arrogance, not to mention the left’s arrogance in nominating him. He arrogantly assumes that he is cut out for all facets of leadership, untested and unproven as he is.

Hillary has faced those kinds of criticisms for years, not just months. Here we have an instance in which the Democratic party has shot itself in the foot giving the nomination to Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton who is in her element and accustomed to fighting off her attackers, unlike Obama. So it is in part Obama’s lack of experience which is proving to be his biggest impediment.

Ben W. writes:

Regarding Obama’s recent performance, one can readily tie in the essay by Joseph Kay at VFR, “The Empty Black Suit.” My experience at work is that many blacks feel that their time has come (much like Obama’s ascendancy) and all they have to do is step into a position they had previously been denied and voila the position makes them function.

LA replies:

And this is in line with black “magical” thinking. You don’t actually have to produce or accomplish anything to create a society or make a society work. You just put the requisite symbolic object in place (e.g., American aid to a black country, a black man in the White House), and reality will be transformed. But such magical workings, regardless of the hopes and expectations put on them, always disappoint. Perhaps Barack is more African than anyone, even he, has realized.

Perhaps the title of this entry should be changed to, “The mythic fall of the empty black suit.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 13, 2008 02:00 AM | Send