The Annointed One?

There is an amazing disparity right now between an overwhelming support of the American people for Obama the president, and a similar majority in opposition to many of the man’s key policy initiatives.

Perplexing.

After giving this unusual discrepancy some thought, I am drawn to the conclusion that it might have everything to do with Obama’s amazing rhetorical style. He speaks with such utter confidence – such conviction – I have only ever witnessed similar power coming from the pulpit on Sunday morning.

And there is a sort of religious quality to Obama when he speaks. One gains the sense that his moral compass is unerring – that, long ago, he gained a firm grasp of Truth, in all its complexity. This isn’t communicated so much by his words – which are often muddled and contradictory – as it is by how he says them. How many sermons have you listened to (if Christian) that were mostly inane, but were delivered in such a tone as to make them seem utterly essential and of the deepest profundity? The cadence of speech -- faster, slower; the rise in volume to deliver a loud exhortation, the fall to near whisper to strike the heart – the certainty of a teacher instructing his students.

Now, maybe, Obama has filed off some of the extreme edges of the preacher’s rhetorical devices (things like the ecstatic whisper and the red-faced bellow), but he does ring, sometimes, with the cadences of salvation – he does speak as if he is channeling higher Truth…he does clip his sentences like a teacher, unimpressed at having to recap the lesson.

American people respond to this voice. Whether actively Christian, or just retaining some of the cultural residue of our common heritage, we naturally are inclined to submit to leaders who exhort us with moral confidence……And Obama has adopted the mantle of moral leadership with the confidence of one who has been anointed.

How long will this effect last, I can’t say. His morality is that of an ideologue. He preaches the “Truth” of the Leftist, yet he does it in a way that lulls poorly-grounded conservative spirits to yield…he speaks with such certainty – such seeming clarity -- that he seems to have transcended mere ideology.

Messiah complex? ………………He certainly seems to have the ego for it.