The Democrats and the Messiah Complex

Virginia Postrel reviews "Charisma: The Gift of Grace and How it Has Been Taken Away From Us" in today's New York Post, and within the first few paragraphs some excellent points are made about the nature of "charisma", and how it has become the Fatal Attaraction of the Democratic Party:

DEMOCRATS are "hypnotized by charisma," warns former Sen. Bill Bradley in his new book, "The New American Story."
"Ever since JFK's Camelot, Democrats have been looking for a leader whose very presence would ensure the nation's primacy."
His party's obsession with charisma, Bradley suggests, has distracted Democrats from the work of party-building and policy making. "Many of us are still waiting for another charismatic leader whom we can invest with powers more magical than real," he writes.

You can see this dynamic in the race for the 2008 presidential nomination. Hillary Clinton may be the Democrats' top fund-raiser but she's losing, badly, to Barack Obama in the charisma contest. He is the fresh young prince onto whom Democrats project their hopes and dreams.

But that's not charisma. It's glamour.
Glamour is an imaginative illusion - the word originally meant a literal magic spell - whose meaning comes from the audience's own aspirations. Glamour requires mystery. It is escapist. It does not spell out an agenda. It allows the audience to imagine whatever it desires.

Charisma, by contrast, is demanding.....

For the last forty years, the Democrats have been looking for the reincarnation of JFK to lead them out of the wilderness. They got Bill Clinton instead, a reasonable facsimile until he helped lose the party's control of Congress and was outed for his terrible taste in women (one could almost see JFK looking down from above, shaking his head in dismay as Bill trysted with his makeup-smeared heavyweight).

With 2008 coming up in the side view mirror (and thankfully, this time objects are actually further away than they appear), the lefties longing for love know that Hillary cannot fit the JFK bill. She's dowdy, shrill, and pedantic - on a good day. Obama, on the other hand, has it all for the messiah-seeking Democrat - good looks, a winning smile, soaring oratory, and the politically correct skin color. Yet as Postrel points out in her review, this makes him more of a celebrity than a serious candidate for the most powerful job on earth.

What he lacks is experience - in both government and in life - and real policy outlines that can convince 51% of the American people to vote for him. Obama's skillful phrase-turning and solemn vows will make the Democratic base swoon, as they fall in love with another man whom they believe can fulfill their JFK fantasies. But the broader electorate always demands answers, and actually studies ideologies and policy positions - just ask John "JFK" Kerry, who had a "secret" plan for liberating Iraq, and who never released his own military records - how well sweeping generalizations work with the general public.

The media will try to convince us that we, like them, are drawn to celebrity like bugs to the zapper and will be unable to resist Obama's magnetic pull. And as in 2000, and in '04, the American people will need to teach them again that substance matters....