If I Go Crazy Will You Still Call Me Superman?

....I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon, I feel there is nothing I can do....If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman, if I'm alive and well will you be there holding my hand...? (3 Doors Down - Kryptonite)

....I was actually born on Krypton, sent here by my father Jor-El to save the planet earth...(Obama: Born On Krypton)

The expectation that awaits Obama's presidency is sky high. Perhaps he was trying to defuse these expectations when he joked about being from Krypton at the Alfred E. Smith dinner in October. It is amazing how the media can look at what amounts to random statistical "noise" and without irony declare the dawning of a new era. Approximately 60% of citizens voted for president in both 2004 and 2008. Obama received 67 million votes or about 31% of all potential votes. In 2004 Bush received 62 million votes or about 30% of all potential votes. How much of that 1% difference was a function of the timing of the financial crisis? The reality is that when things go bad enough voters are willing to give the other party a shot. It does not necessarily represent a sea change of opinion regarding ideology.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post summarizes the media's insatiable appetite for hyperbole (Media Notes: A Giddy Sense of Boosterism ). My favorite is Newsweek's "commemorative" issue on Obama entitled "Obama's American Dream". This is particularly fascinating since it is the 2 most senior Newsweek editors (Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas) who told Charlie Rose the day after the election that the Obama cult of personality was creepy and deeply manipulative (The Sparkling Stranger). I do not understand the need the media have to engage in hero creation and worship. At best this is a historical curiosity but more likely it is dangerous and disturbing.

These are presumably intelligent adults engaging in the most infantile form of groupie behavior. What is the psychological need which drives this? Meanwhile, the world is floating "to the dark side of the moon" in what is universally feared to be the coming of the next great depression. But even the possibility of a severe recession or depression is not able to stop the Beatle screamer press. Time Magazine seems almost to relish the thought of the next great depression as it inadvertently reprises Eddie Murphy's "White Like Me" (Saturday Night Live - White Like Me - Truveo Video Search) with a ludicrous photo shopped cover of FDR in Obama "blackface" (TIME Magazine -- U.S. Edition -- November 24, 2008 Vol. 172 No. 21).

The well respected presidential historian Michael Beschloss actually states that "being cool" can "really help a new president". Just how is "being cool" going to help a new president? Was George Washington cool? Does this statement have any meaning other than to demonstrate just how far gone the media have become? And just when did Obama actually become "cool"? While Time Magazine compares Obama to FDR, Newsweek compares him to Lincoln. Isn't this mad?

Newsweek and Time do not see the horrific irony in the comparison of Obama with Lincoln and FDR. These presidents were unfortunate enough to have presided over the 2 most violent, frightening and unstable times in this country's history. Lincoln was assassinated at the end of the Civil War and FDR unsuccessfully struggled to get this country out of a depression before the world was consumed by WWII. The media's attraction to this comparison cannot be coincidence. I do not know what mental processes are driving this media madness, but I don't like it.

Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln, Team of Rivals, is also being referenced as some kind of past is prologue interpretation of Obama's administration. She makes the point that Lincoln's success was in part due to the fact that he appointed people to his cabinet who disagreed with him. I find this particularly amusing as Team of Rivals was Sarah Palin's favorite presidential biography. We won't see that in print anytime soon.

The recent Zogby poll and the John Ziegler movie How Obama Got Elected highlight exactly the problem this type of reporting and adulation brings to the American body politic. Voters generally do not understand the issues, but it is not for lack of attention. They certainly were aware of Sarah Palin's pregnancy and wardrobe, but not which political party controlled congress.

Do normal Americans actually feel the same way the media do? Are people out there in our towns and cities relishing in the after glow of this enormous meta-historical moment? Or are they concerned that their remaining stocks, their houses, their pensions, and their insurance policies are all going to zero? I lean toward the latter interpretation. Meanwhile we have a president elect whose background and experience is all local left wing Chicago politics. He threatens us in his Time Magazine interview with FDR experimentation. He may end up making Paulson look like a stable guy.

I believe it is easier for any president to do more harm than good. Presidents do not have control over reality. No amount of good intentions or perceived coolness will get one through the difficulties. Obama will have a filibuster free Congress whose only conflicts will be between liberals and the even more left wing of the Democratic party. This means that Government will obsessively try to "fix" things. The Bush administration's recent activities will seem Laissez Faire by comparison.

How will the media cover and report these issues? I guess it depends on how the economy and our foreign relations go. Objective analysis and reporting is what we need from our media, not hyperventilating myth perpetuation. I have stated in the past that if things go poorly, the mainstream media can turn on Obama to the same degree it has elevated him. But I am beginning to wonder if that is really true. They are pretty severely invested in Obama, so it will take a lot of Kryptonite before they turn on him. I am pretty sure this is something we do not want, as it probably means some major disaster will have come our way.

Meanwhile, the market keeps dropping like a boulder as we await the inauguration of Superman/Lincoln/FDR.