Obamarama!

Jonah Goldberg noted yesterday that “The Obama Surgs Continues”:

Two weeks after speaking to a sell-out Manchester crowd of more than 1,600, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is reaping the benefits of his visit. If the Democratic primary were held today, Obama would be in a statistical dead heat with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, according to a new Monitor poll. Last month, a Monitor poll showed Clinton trouncing her opponents, with Obama lagging 23 points behind.

“I’m not surprised, because Barack Obama got five days of constant media attention in New Hampshire,” said Jim Demers, a lobbyist and former Democratic lawmaker who accompanied Obama throughout the senator’s New Hampshire visit. “Obama has demonstrated to the people of New Hampshire that he’s a top-tier candidate.”

And if he actually had a single legislative accomplishment to his name, he’d probably be a top-tier candidate. What he’s done thus far, in two years of Senate service, is give great speeches and not much else.

I wonder if the media Obamarama of the past couple months had less to do with Obama and more to do with his being the anti-Clinton. I cannot believe that the MSM is terribly in love with the junior Senator from New York given that she’s not spent her Senate time as the liberal she’s always claimed to be. She’s been for the war in Iraq as steadfastly as any Republican, hasn’t really moved hard to replace the economy-revving Bush tax cuts replaced with tax increases, and has let the entire idea of socialized medicine alone for the most part. She’s legislated far more as a centrist than I think anyone would have assumed when she first took office. That has got to disappoint many in the MSM.

I also wonder if all this Obama love isn’t a serious case of benign racism. Obama is a black man who gives great speeches and is “non-threatening”. Each election cycle, the MSM picks a black Democrat and decided to give them a serious look as a candidate, regardless of other qualifications. We saw it with Colin Powell and Al Sharpton and we’re seeing it now with Barak Obama. Unfortunately, the MSM tends to completely ignore potential black candidates on the other side of the aisle (like, say, Michael Steele in Maryland who endured a raft of racism from the Democrats in his Senate race this year). But Obama does seem to be the color of the month and they’re doing their dead-level best to give him as large a push as they can.

Now, that doesn’t mean that Obama may not be a decent candidate. Despite his incredible inexperience, he talks a good talk. He may be able to convert that talk into real action this coming year and prove to everyone that he’s capable of leadership. Until then, though, he’s just the guy who gives the pretty speeches, MSM love notwithstanding.

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Category: The 2008 Horse Race