Obamamania

There are several articles this morning at RealClearPolitics.com relating to Obamamania, which I describe as the Dem Messiah complex where appearance weighs out over anything else. That anyone could seriously describe Barack Obama as qualified to be president is just amazing, but that's the kind of blind faith that seems to be at work on the left. John Fund even has this amazing quote in his column:

"I don't particularly want to wait until he is ready," novelist Nora Ephron told PBS. "I'm ready for Barack Obama."

They forgot to add the notation that she was swooning at the time. Fund thinks there's a decent chance that Obama will get some good advice and hold off on a campaign for now, at least until he has something he could call a political resume. Having served only a couple of years in the Senate and a few years in the state legislature is not exactly the kind of executive experience you would hope a president would have.

For some reason, some of his supporters seem to think is ethic heritage is some kind of qualifier as well. Look at this description:

Who better to help the country get over its racial hang-ups than a 45-year-old man who was born in multiethnic Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and who grew up partly in Indonesia? He's the political equivalent of Tiger Woods.

One big difference - Tiger's got a game. Nobody handed Tiger the green jacket at the Masters because he's a walking racial melting pot.

I disagree with Fund regarding the odds that Obama will run. I don't think he'll be able to resist the siren song of the media and others who look at him as some sort of Savior, above the experience requirements of mere mortals. I think he'll jump in, get a big lead in the early polls, but when the voters start getting serious about picking a candidate, will quickly fade as experience wins out.

Michael Barone did some experience comparisons in his piece:

Rudolph Giuliani cut crime and welfare dependency by more than 50 percent in New York City, and then performed astonishingly well on Sept. 11. John McCain has taken the leadership role on all manner of issues in the Senate and has gotten results. Mitt Romney made millions as an investor, rescued the Utah Olympics and pushed a universal healthcare program through in Massachusetts.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has experience working and achieving results in the White House. Al Gore made serious contributions to governance in Congress and in the White House. Obama's resume includes one executive position: He directed Illinois Project Vote! in 1992. Two, if you count his presidency of the Harvard Law Review. He's been a law professor at the University of Chicago since 1993 and served in the Illinois Senate from 1996 to 2004, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Imagine a race between Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama. Giuliani has centrist positions on some issues, while Obama has a voting record well on the left in the Senate. Giuliani has some interesting and novel things to say about issues; Obama can surely make good arguments for his stands, but they don't seem likely to be very interesting -- certainly not as interesting as, say, Bill Clinton's discussion of issues in 1992. And Giuliani can argue that he knows how to handle crises and how to get results from massive bureaucracies and uniformed forces.

Obama can say that he has that ability, too, and perhaps he does. But we have no way of knowing for sure. Obama has the ability to be a strong candidate. But it's not clear, perhaps not even to himself, whether he has the capacity to be a strong and effective president.

In a serious world it's hard to believe that the U.S. would elect an unserious candidate. Yes, we elected Bill Clinton...twice...in a time when the cold war was over and it appeared that foreign threats were gone. But on 9/11 we received a reminder that ignoring terrorist acts such as was done in the 90's won't make the bad guys go away, and only serious candidates should now apply.

UPDATE: From Saturday Night Live:

"Barack Obama was in New Hampshire Sunday. When informed of this, President Bush excitedly asked, 'Did we catch him?'"