Once more, a conservative uses the word "Messiah" in connection with Senator Obama, as if to allege that Obama's supporters view him as such. Unfortunately for that "argument," the only ones who connect Obama and Messiah are the conservatives themselves.
This time it's "Uncle" Pat Buchanan, in a syndicated piece ostensibly about the difference in press treatment for Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Towards the end, Buchanan writes,
Can one imagine "Saturday Night Live" doing weekly send-ups of Michelle Obama and her "I've never been proud" of my country, this "just downright mean" America, using a black comedienne to mimic and mock her voice and accent?
"Saturday Night Live" would be facing hate crime charges.
How do we know? When the New Yorker ran a cartoon of Michelle in an Angela-Davis afro with an AK-47 slung over her shoulder, New Yorker editors had to go on national television to swear they were not mocking Michelle, but the conservatives who have so caricatured Michelle and The Messiah.
Is there a media double standard? You betcha.
Beyond the blasphemy (for those that care) of the notion, it's simply a lie, and an insulting one at that, since it implies that those of us who support Obama's candidacy are doing so on "faith" rather than information and knowledge. In fact, the only people who are using the word "messiah" about Obama are the Republicans who oppose him. To we who are his supporters, Senator Obama is "merely" a brilliant, thoughtful and energizing political leader, who while not perfect is much better than the alternative choice given to us on November 4th.
I challenge anyone to find a verifiable report of a mainstream supporter of Obama describing him as the Messiah. (Nope, sorry, Louis Farrakhan, whose views the Senator himself has denounced, doesn't count.) A quick search of Google News and Google Blogs just doesn't show any kind of pattern, other than Republicans making that charge against Democrats (including one misleading link to a piece here that made the claim in a farcical way). For myself, my religion teaches that I must believe in the coming of the Messiah, even if he tarries. I don't believe he's the junior senator from Illinois, though, and I don't know any Democrats who do.
Once more, Obama's detractors are using false allegations rather than actual policy differences to try to scare voters away from him. Perhaps they finally realize that the facts don't work to their favor. {ProfJonathan}