This Obama thing is officially out of hand. Seriously, people.

 Poster: Ray Noland

 The spirit of adulation presently gripping the multitudes in the thrall of the entrangling power of the hypnotic waves of joy emanating from the Obama persona has rapidly moved from amusing, to startling, to disturbing, and beyond. It’s now pegging the “creepy” meter.

 As Mayor Shinn said of Professor Harold Hill in the Music Man: “The man’s a by-god spellbinder.”

The man has no experience. No substance. No credientials. And no ideas. He’s little more than a pez dispenser of feel-good platitudes and vague left-wing-gift-shop-refigerator-magnet bromides. And yet people who hear the man speak come away looking like this:

Obama speeches increasingly cause sensitive individuals to faint as their neurological systems are overwhelmed by the positive energy and good vibrations harmonically converging in the sound waves. Obama’s voice causes funny feelings to shoot up Chris Matthew’s leg.

I have decided that henceforth in the campaign, I shall refer to Sen. Obama as “Mesmero,” a lesser-known X-man mutant whose superpower was the ability to hypnotically bewilder anyone who made eye contact and make them believe with all their hearts that nonsense was actually true.

This is precisely the effect Obama speeches seem to be having on millions of Americans. 

Mesmer-O tells them that electing him will heal the discordant partisan divide, bring peace to a war-weary world, bring us all free medical care, and remove “roadblocks” hindering the disabled, parents, the poor and immigrants. And they believe him.

Nevermind that following through on even a fraction of the promises imbedded in his “Blueprint for Change“ will require Mesmer-O to repeal most of the established laws of physics, economics and human nature. But then that’s what Messiahs are supposed to be able to do.

And that’s what is truly scary about the emerging cult of Obama. It’s overwhelming cultishness.

So absurd has it become, that even over at the Left-leaning Slate, Tim Noah has established what he calls “The Obama Messiah Watch.” A tongue-in-cheek blog he says is dedicated to “considering evidence that Obama is the son of God.”

I’m still trying to decide whether this blog (“Is Barack Obama the Messiah?,)” is serious or satire. I’m leaning toward the latter but in any case, it’s a rich and disturbing source of examples of the religious ecstasy this guy is inspiring. Nothing too over the top mind you, just stuff like:

Barack Obama is our collective representation of our purest hopes, our highest visions and our deepest knowings . . . He’s our product out of the all-knowing quantum field of intelligence.”

— Eve Konstantine

Well, at least she didn’t get carried away and embarrass herself. This guy either:

“Obama has the capacity to summon heroic forces from the spiritual depths of ordinary citizens and to unleash therefrom a symphonic chorus of unique creative acts whose common purpose is to tame the soul and alleviate the great challenges facing mankind.”

— Gerald Campbell

 Then there is this clear-eyed, no-nonsense assessment by that respected public policy wonk, Oprah:

“We’re here to evolve to a higher plane . . . he is an evolved leader . . . [he] has an ear for eloquence and a Tongue dipped in the Unvarnished Truth.”

— Oprah Winfrey

Senator Mesmer-O may indeed have “an ear for eloquence” but I have a pretty good nose for a steaming pile of idolatry—and this craze is starting to reek.

On the menu above you will find a new tab labled “My Reading List.” It’s my way of preparing an answer in advance in the unlikely event that you should wonder, “Has David read any good books lately?”

There you will find links to three pages:

•  one for a list of books I have recently read (usually accompanied by a short review or comments);
• one for books I’m currently reading (that is usually two to four books at a time);
• and one for books I’ve purchased and am hoping to get to soon. (That stack shrinks and grows throughout the year.)

Competing with the one-piece jumpsuit for future-men was the. . . what would you call it. . . a smock-vest?

Actually I wore something not unlike this in Junior High. I had buried it in my subconscious but James Lileks brought all the polyester horror back to the surface a few days ago when he offered this scan of a page from the 1972 Sears catalog.

I noted Lincoln’s birthday in a post below. Came across a long, wonderful, illuminating essay by my favorite Abe-o-phile, Andrew Ferguson, over at First Things.

He explores the conundrum and mystery of Lincoln’s Christian faith in “Lincoln and the Will of God.”

This is how some futurists predicted we’d be be dressing right now. I can’t express how disappointed I am that they were wrong.

Though futurists of the 40s and 50s disagreed wildly on many things, there was unanimity on one thing—the 1-piece jumpsuit was the wave of the future. For men anyway. For women? Well some thought this would catch on:

Apparently this designer assumed that in our present-future women would never have to contend with wind, vigorous activities, or unflattering backlights.

to Abraham Lincoln–who would have been 199 today (but due to the age-accelerating pressures of occupying the White House, would probably look 225.)In his honor, I point you to some recently discovered photographs of Lincoln’s second inaugural. Kind of cool.

In a comment on this post, F.O.B. Ted tried to cheer me up about Republican presidential prospects in the Fall.

In today’s Wall Street Journal John Fund validates Ted’s optimism. He’s done the electoral college math. Have a look.

 

A report on NPR’s weekend edition of “All Things Considered” today had me staring at my radio in slack-jawed, gobsmack-edness today.

It covered a upcoming visit to the U.S. by Mexico’s President Calderon. (Listen here.) It opened by stating:

Mexican president Felipe Calderon will tour the United States this week, but he’s not likely to meet with President Bush or the presidential contenders. Instead, Calderon is heading to cities with large Mexican immigrant populations. Calderon has a message of support for those immigrants, who still play an important role in domestic Mexican politics.

The report went on to point out that “ex-patriots” were an important voting block in electing Calderon to the Mexican presidency and that the billions of dollars they Western Union back across the border each year is a vital component of the Mexican economy.

As the report makes clear, in a very real sense President Calderon is touring major cities in the U.S. to visit his constituents. And there are tens of millions of them. As the NPR piece also points out, they’re a little put out with El Presidente because he’s not putting more heat on Washington to reverse the recent increase in enforcement.

Finally, the report describes Calderon’s view that the economies of “the Americas” should be integrated with a free flow of labor. It’s quite stunning, really. Do give it a listen.

 In the newest installment of our ongoing series exploring the space-age, atomic world in which we’re supposed be living right now (as envisioned in the 1950s, anyway), we have an age in which the American dream still involves owning a little place of your own with a white picket fence—only it’s nestled in an orbiting snow globe. (click image for full size view)

Mr. Mooney from the “The Lucy Show” will be your Realtor and you’ll commute to work in a giant Contac cold capsule. Sure, the meteor showers and solar flares are a constant hazard; and the neighbor can use his telescope to to see you if you watch TV in your underwear. But on the positive side, that danged Schnauzer of his can never leave a memento on your lawn.

. . .that is the question, now isn’t it? 

Prior to Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the race, you heard and read a lot of conservatives agonizing out loud about whether they could vote for McCain in the general election. I was one of them.

You need to know that I approach this decision by reminding myself of a few things.

First of all, the Republican Party and the conservative cause are not exactly one and the same. Yes, there is a lot of overlap, but what’s good for the party is not always necessarily good for the movement, and vice versa.

It’s possible that a McCain victory could be good for the Republicans in the short term and disastrous for the conservative cause (and for the country) in the long run, particularly where immigration is concerned. NRO’s John O’Sullivan made a brief down payment on that case the other day:

 Many conservatives believe that the key question in this election is: Are there to be two multiculturalist open-borders parties or one? If McCain’s election were to make the GOP fundamentally similar to the Democrats on immigration, bilingualism, racial preferences, and all the National Question issues, that would be a resounding historical defeat for conservatives.

On the other hand, I’m an incrementalist, not a purist, where the public policy and the culture wars are concerned. What I mean by that is, I think it’s stupid and self defeating to reject half a loaf when the alternative is no loaf at all. It’s a posture I’ve seen many times over the decades in the prolife movement.

I don’t know how many times I encountered “principled” prolife activists who stubbornly refused to support legislation that would have sharply reduced the number of abortions being performed because it contained some exceptions clauses. Anything that wasn’t pristine and uncontaminated by compromise had to be rejected.

They refused to accept incremental progress toward the goal. If they couldn’t have the whole thing, they’d settle for nothing.

Meanwhile, the dominant, practical wing of the Left was perfectly willing to advance their agenda one little bit at a time, nibbling away at the remnants of traditional values and free market-orientation in our laws and regulations.

Interestingly, the practical wing on the Left has lost power and the Democrats are increasingly dominated by the liberal counterpart of those pro-life purists. The radical, Daily Kos types have rejected incrementalism and tend to throw wall-eyed hissy fits if they don’t get exactly what they want. Thus the demonization of moderate Democrats like Joseph Lieberman. (Case in point: They’re running Cindy Sheehanagainst Nancy Pelosi because she’s too supportive of the war.)

So . . . Will conservatives stay home in large numbers in November? I don’t think so. First of all, only political junkies like myself and people like you who tend to visit this happy corner of the blogosphere are even aware of how noxious and obnoxious John McCain has actually been over the last 8 years. Most conservative voters just don’t pay that much attention (which explains the numbers of them voting for Huckabee.)

Second, there is the human nature factor.

Up until know, McCain has been the Republican favorite of the mainstream media and has received generally fawning coverage. But the moment the Dems figure out who their nominee is going to be, look for the press to turn on him with a vengeance.

As soon as Hillary, the liberal media, and bunch of pompous Hollywood know-nothings all start piling on McCain for the numerous conservative positions he does hold, we’re all going to start feeling defensive of him, just as we have for George W. Bush over the past seven years.

And I will be one of them. The psychology is irresistible.  

The moment Susan Sarandon launches a rant about how McCain the warmonger is going to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of more “innocent civilians” and Bill Maher starts calling him a fascist for wanting to withhold federal funds for abortion—John McCain is going to be suddenly transformed in our hearts into our cantankerous but sweet grandfather who’s being cruelly pecked at by demonic, shrieking harpies.

And after several months of that, all but the most extreme purists among us will happily pull the lever for McCain. But we’ll probably lose anyway.

Of course, here are two things that McCain could do to help us along on that journey and improve his odds of victory.

1. He can allay our concerns about open borders and amnesty. Saying, “I’ll secure the border first,” as he has done recently, is a start, but it isn’t good enough. We need secure borders AND beefed up enforcement here, with NO talk about an imminent amnesty so that a good number of the 20 million or so illegals already here will go ahead and self-deport. If they think all they have to do wait a bit because an amnesty is right around the corner, then they will be incentivized to stay put.

2. Pick a real-deal conservative as a running mate.The Choice of VP is a big deal, given McCain’s age and ideology. Picking Guiliani or Huckabee or someone like them will make it that much harder for us nose holders. I nominate Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn form Tennessee. She strong on every issue in which McCain is weak with Conservatives. And if the Dem nominee is Billary, having a woman on the ticket won’t hurt either.