Obama and the Mirror of Erised

Barack Obama brags about being a blank screen onto which people can project their beliefs. He claims he can be anything to anyone. Since when is being a human Rorschach test some kind of virtue?

I have another theory. Perhaps, the senator is more like a human Mirror of Erised (my deepest apologies to JK Rowling). In the first Harry Potter novel, Harry discovers a wondrous mirror that reflects one’s heart’s desire. Reflected in the magical looking glass is the You Oprah Dreamed You’d Be.

Howard Dean might have envisioned his 50 State Strategy.
Nancy Pelosi could have seen her Northern California liberal policies.
Harry Reid might have glimpsed a political leader.

Could it be that this election hasn’t been about “the change we’ve been waiting for” but the petty ambitions of a few self-centered leaders? Is it possible that Democratic officials didn’t just project their values onto their rising star, but their dearest dreams?

It gets worse. Now, Obama is playing his shtick on desperate Afghans. According to John Nichols at The Nation, Obama has been meeting with tribal lords and promising them roses and sunshine:

Unfortunately, Obama is busy making promises.

After meeting with the Democratic presidential candidate inside the US base in Jalalabad, Afghan warlord turned provincial governor Gul Agha Sherzai told reporters, "Obama promised us that if he becomes a president in the future, he will support and help Afghanistan not only in its security sector but also in
reconstruction, development and economic sector."

Translation: Obama is not listening. He is making commitments.

Specific commitments.

Despite the fact that there are more foreign troops in Afghanistan today than at any time since the 2001 invasion -- roughly 60,000 total, including 36,000 Americans – Obama is proposing to dispatch two more US combat divisions (comprising more than 7,000 soldiers) to Afghanistan. That will give the United States even greater responsibility for a technically NATO-led occupation.

Apparently, The One is running around countries harboring suicidal terrorists and telling them he'll give them anything they want. IS HE OUT OF HIS MIND? There are consequences if his alleged promises never come to fruition - PEOPLE WILL DIE.

Afghanistan has been crippled by centuries of war. Its people desperately need necessities like food and running water. It would be honorable and commendable if we could bring that to them. But, Obama is not in a position to do that. Heck, even the real President can't.

Maybe Obama really believes he can do this. He seems to have drunk a lot of Kool-Aid on the trail. Or, maybe he's using these poor people as campaign props and he'll do as much for them as he did for the people in his district (the ones living in the rat-infested, uninsulated, unheated buildings his bud Tony Rezko built on the Illinois taxpayers' dimes).

Here’s what I know. Confidence men succeed by promising their victims what they desire. They’re “blank screens.” They’re Mirrors of Erised. Democratic leaders, influential left-wing commentators, and desperate voters have spent this primary dreaming of their deepest desires. But, inevitably, confidence men have to deliver what they’ve promised – like filibuster a bad FISA bill or take public financing. When they don’t, which they inevitably won’t, the jig is up. At least, it should be.

Unless electing a flip-flopping, pandering pseudo-liberal, wannabe right-wing Evangelical driving a large careening Blunderbuss is their fondest dream, the Superdelegates need a new mirror.