"Is Barack Obama the Messiah?"

You had to know it would come to this. Mr. Obama is a winsome young laddie with tremendous charismatic appeal and has been turning audiences into true believers wherever he goes -- and I mean "true believers" in the blindest, most credulous sense of that expression. Mr. Obama feeds this, of course, at times by trading on quasi-religious nuance (e.g., "The hour is almost upon you," "You will have an epiphany," "we need politicians who can BE the truth"). Swooning bodies add to the charismatic religious revival atmosphere. Disciples have begun sharing "Obama conversion stories," talk about the "feeling you get in his presence," and Obama has been compared to Jesus Christ, and has been called "the New Wine," "the collective representation of our purest hopes, our highest visions and our deepest knowings." (For documentation on all of this, click on the link at bottom.)

The fascinating thing is that in his public speeches Obama is basically saying nothing -- better than anyone has said it before. If one pushed the mute button and simply read his speeches, I wonder what the effect would be. If one examines his actual policy positions, they are rather unexceptional and not too different from Hillary's. He is clearly committed, like other major Democrats, to such policies as racial preferences, multiculturalism, liberal immigration laws, and the transfer of power from America's constitutional republic to non-accountable global bodies and international law. John O'Sullivan has described him, profoundly, as not merely "post-racist" but "post-nationalist" and "post-American." This would give us something of serious concern worth debating.

But instead of pressing the mute button and reading the text, look what people are falling-all-over-themselves for: "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?"