Barack Obama is not a great speaker. He is far more like John Kerry as a speaker than he is like Martin Luther King. Yet people are bamboozled by him. Maybe it is the exotic name. Maybe it is the studied appearance of self-assurance that makes Stephen Colbert look tentative. People who trust Obama are not rational — they are bamboozled.
How else can one explain Obama’s concerns about the "threat" posed by the Taliban in Afghanistan against America? No one has ever shown that the Taliban were explicitly aware of or supportive of Al Qaeda plans to attack New York City. The Taliban have not traveled outside their country to attack the U.S. The Taliban accepted an invitation by the Bush Administration to visit the Bush family’s Texas headquarters city of Houston to discuss oil pipelines, but would not play ball. So, they were thrown out of the game, and offered a "carpet of bombs" which they have received. In defending themselves on their home ground, the Taliban have gone from potential business partners to terrorists. And Obama is bamboozling his followers into expanding the American military presence in Afghanistan, which was planned years before 9/11/01.
One good way to understand the sincerity of Obama is to follow the money. Is Obama promising funding to match his rhetoric for social good for his supporters? Is Obama interested in regulating corporations to as to enhance the public good, or is he paying lip service to public good while aligning himself with corporate interests?
The very fact that Barack Obama presents the illusion of organic blackness is a form of bamboozlement. He was raised by his white mother and abandoned by his black father. He is close to his white grandparents and never knew his black grandparents. He talks like an American mid-westerner and disassociated himself from a black minister who railed against injustice and racism. Barack Obama’s blackness is literally skin deep. He is a front-man with a facade that suggests something that is not true deep within. He is a bamboozler.
The illusion of change is a cynical form of bamboozlement. The change offered by Obama is a face-lift, an external makeover. He knows how to push buttons to make people believe he represents what they want him to represent. He offers a feel-good process that will be a bitter disappointment to his closest supporters in the public if he happens to get elected. Those who expect the most from Barack Obama will be those who will be most disappointed by him.
