Obama: The B-Movie

--- by Micheal

I've listened to the media's best packaging of Obama. Just why the media are so infatuated with Obama is fodder for a different post. The important upshot is that the media are feeding us only the glossy best of Obama, much as a movie studio puts out trailers. All the best action shots and special effects get into the trailers. Never the slow talky development scenes. These "trailers" for Obama: The Movie show that Obama's handlers have learned a thing or two from 50s B-movie directors. Let audience imagination fill in their blanks.

A moment's digression to explain: The 50s was a hot market for movies -- any movie. Production of low-budget "B" movies was a thriving market. Monster movies and sci-fi were popular. B-movie producers could not afford an impressive monster costume or elaborate alien robot props. One good long look would reveal that "it" was just a hairy suit and rubber mask, or spray-painted cardboard. A shrewd B-movie director would avoid giving his audience a good look at his budget monster. Instead, he'd use shadows, or a quick glimpse of a claw, etc. Let the audience imagine what the monster was like. Their imagination could cook up a far more impressive monster than his B-budget could ever hope to create.

Listening to the media's chosen Obama bits reminds me of the clever B-movie director. I've been shown very little, really. They're counting on my imagination to conjure up whatever amazing image appeals to me. "Change!" Obama says. Some cheer, imagining between the empty lines whatever change they desire. There are as many utopias as there are dreamers. Since Obama never actually specifies what would change, he's never on any specific hooks to deliver on any of those utopias. Just getting elected would qualify as having made a change. Big deal.

His new slogan "Change we need," is the same B-movie monster shadow trick. There are as many needs as there are needy. By leaving things empty (again), he's left people to imagine that their need is the one he'll address. Given that many of our collected needs are mutually contradictory, someone -- a lot of someones -- are going to be disappointed. The Democratic Party has too many conflicting interests. Someone is going to get hosed, they just don't know it yet.

Hey, I don't begrudge any politician from making empty promises. That's hardly a surprise. What does concern me are the varied Obama acolytes who dreamily imagine that he will grant their wish. Call me a wet blanket, but he won't. He can't.

If you're envisioning Obama calling down from heaven your vision of a shining New America with streets of gold, etc., you're sadly naive. Worse, you're being used.