Where Did This Cult Meme Come From?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Enough is enough...

[MadBadger]

1. I believe a certain DUer with a name that is very similar to a Senator from DE.

That DUer seemed to have brought it in earlier today after posting some anti-Obama articles. Though I could be wrong.

[angie_love]

3. Biden-----ista?

[rodeodance]

38. Careful--they did not come from her--she/he only posted them from newspapers.

[xultar]

47. Exactly. Post an article from a news magazine and suddenly the OP is responsible

for writing content.

[eShirl]

2. dunno but it's as instantly ubiquitous as a Republican talking point (n/t)

[emilyg]

4. I thought it came from an article in NYT

I might be wrong.

[murielm99]

13. Not just there.

The Sacbee, the LA Times, the Sun Times and the Guardian UK.

The Obama supporters think they can beat it to death by posting innumerable threads about it.

[kennetha]

5. The Facts

It came from the facts. Obama sort of presents himself as a transformative Messiah. And his followers respond to him as if the sheer force of his personality and his personal narrative was enough to just instantly transform politics. Naive nonesense!

[Big Blue Marble]

6. It seems to have come from on high,

especially since it also showed up on a ABC blog and other places at about the same time.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/and-obama-wept.html

http://www.datalounge.com/cgi-bin/iowa/forum/thread/gossip/6004472/page-1.html?watch=1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/barackobama/story/0,,2236804,00.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2008/2/7/112248/5633

http://edstrong.blog-city.com/obama_leads_a_messianic_cult.htm

http://bustardblog.typepad.com/bustardblog/2008/02/the-cult-of-oba.html

http://dailysally.blogspot.com/2008/01/youth-for-obama-adult-or-cult.html

http://www.idsnews.com/blogs/thesamplegates/?p=157

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/greenwald/2374

http://leftword.blogdig.net/archives/articles/February2008/07/Obama__Cult___Evangelicalism_or_Political_Campaign_.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/170951.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080206183329AAcZPbr

http://www.radicalleft.net/blog/_archives/2008/1/7/3448360.html

Notice a pattern. Amazing number of these are dated February 7th.

Suddenly this is a topic of conversion all at the same time?

[Yossariant]

24. It started way before then --- going back two years, at least:

Messianic rhetoric infuses Obama rallies

By: Ben Smith and David Paul Kuhn

Dec 9, 2007 06:04 PM EST
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7281.html

December 11, 2007 12:00 AM

Obama the Messianic

A savior offering messages of “the truth" and hope.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTQ4ZjExZmUxOTllMGRkOGFmNWY2NWUwZDQ2ZmRhYzM=

Will Al Gore endorse Obama to complete the messianic campaign?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/1/29/0174/56149

January 31, 2006
The Mystery of the Obama Cult
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2006/01/the_mystery_of_the_obama_cult.html

[Diane R]

7. It seems to be the Rovian talking point of the day.

[MadBadger]

8. You mean Pennian?

[Jawja]

43. Agreed.

Sounds like a Rethug talking point, especially if it broke at the same time in various GOP media publications.

[kennetha]

9. Let's Just Hope!

This meme gets picked up in both the MSM and the democratic electorate. If it does, then the Obama wave may crest just in time! I think I still like the guy and would be glad to see him be VP and get some more seasoning. But the whole messianic cult thing frankly gives me the creeps.

[Big Blue Marble]

15. MSM is already spreading it.

See my post above. This is no accident. The Clinton team wants you to think exactly the way
you are thinking. You bought the Koolaid; please don't drink it.

This broke on the 7th all around the internet and in MSM.

[dkf]

10. Talking about cults creates fear. Yet more fear mongering from Hillary people.

Typical.

[kennetha]

11. Not Fear Mongering

I'm not afraid of Obama. Just don't like Messianic politicians. I want a realist-pragmatist infighter for president.

[EFerrari]

14. Then maybe you should try reading up on his policy positions?

[kennetha]

22. Maybe he should try explaining!

Maybe he should try explaining his policy positions instead of just dealing in vague generalities rather than specifics. Maybe he should talk a little bit more prose than only talking poetry -- and mostly self-referential poetry at that.

I think the reason he doesn't do that is because it would undercut the case for his candidacy. His policies hardly differ from Clinton's, and where they do Clinton's approach is vastly superior. So if he focused on policies and prescriptions, he couldn't run against Clinton as "the past" and present himself as "the future."

We are the change that we have been waiting for. What a load of hooey.

[EFerrari]

29. What cracks me up is that people are hitting on Obama

for succeeding.

All of them strive to hit exactly the note he's hitting, to project an image and to plant a story. So now he gets opprobrium for doing it very well. That's hilarious.

lol

[Bongo Prophet]

42. Next thing you know he will be like Chavez, a dictator. PR is a powerful thing.

Those of us with decades of monitoring dirty tricks have experience in knowing whether something is grassroots or PR firm down, or whisper campaigns.

I suspect rove's hand, but Penn is of the same mold, and has done similar psyops in several countries.
That is not an accusation or conspiracy theory, it is pattern recognition.

We need more info, but the main thing is not to buy into it, or spread discord among us. How many times do the left (in this case, a waterd down center) self destruct by internecine fighting?

They said it could be either 1932 or 1968.
Seems like many here are going for 1968.

I want 1932 squared.

[EFerrari]

45. Penn is an overreaching idiot which is likely why he was hired.

It's February. We have four months to go.

[dkf]

18. The word "Cult" is not supposed to instill fear in the general public?

You couldn't turn him into a scary drug dealing black man, now you turn him into some scary space age hippie type. Sad.

[Big Blue Marble]

26. It is definitely intended to stop his momentum

with fear and disgust.

[EFerrari]

12. It's so funny that the worse the Hillarious campaign can come up with

is that Obama has committed supporters.

[kennetha]

16. Committed to what?

A set of governing ideas? Like a Democrat abandoning even the ambition of Universal Health Insurance? No thanks!

Or committed to a cult of personality, in the naive hope that the sheer force of one man's narrative and personality will somehow magically reshape the political landscape? Again, no thanks!

[MadBadger]

20. committed to a candidate that is right on day one.

[kennetha]

25. Except he's wrong on day one and badly wrong!

About national health insurance and not standing up for universal coverage. That's completely wrong, in my opinion, and may set the fragile cause of national health insurance as far back as Hilary's terrible handling of it the first time round did.

As for Iraq, there's as far as I can tell no daylight between Obama and Clinton on what to do about Iraq going forward and no daylight between their voting records since Obama joined the Senate and actually had the opportunity and obligation to cast an actual vote.

[EFerrari]

27. Find some daylight between Clinton and Obama and get back to me.

Or, explain to me how Hillary will deliver universal health care WHILE she services her Big Pharma donors.

lol

[Sensitivity]

17. I was carefully planted in the MSM by well paid analysts

Do not be deceived. This was not an accident any more than the "swift-boat veterans for TRUTH" was.

[dkf]

19. Yup..."cult" is a smear not only on Obama but on anyone who supports

him.

I'm sure it was dreamed up by some Rovian type working for Hillary.

[kennetha]

23. Actually, I thought of this myself awhile ago.

I don't think it's at all Rovean. Any fair-minded person looking at the Obama phenomenon has to see something messianic about him. He himself claims to be leading a "movement" not a campaign. Describing it as a "cult" admittedly has a somewhat different emotional tone from describing it as a "movement" but they are both ways of getting at a similar reality.

[dkf]

31. Well nobody ever talked about the cult of Martin Luther King Jr.

He had people doing some really wild stuff.

Everybody reveres JFKs words and go back to listen to the power and beauty of his speeches but I don't hear about the cult of JFK.

On the other hand, maybe you do think they led cults too. Whatever.

[kennetha]

32. see post 30

No I don't think MLK lead a cult. His was a broad based movement with a specific and focused agenda that sought to bring about concrete and specific changes. It wasn't just about poetry and speeches.

[kennetha]

30. Do you like "movement" better?

What if we stopped calling your group a "cult" and called it a "movement" would you like that better? I suspect you would. But the problem is it's a "movement" based on almost nothing except the rhetorical style of one man and his personality. It's not a broad based social movement with an articulated and specific agenda, just some vague incantation of "change." Not to say that Obama doesn't have policy prescriptions in mind, but probably 90% of his followers probably don't know much about them and don't know that they differ hardly at all from Clintons and where they do differ Clinton's are vastly superior.

They just want to sit at the feet of the messiah. Ah shucks. I guess "cult" is a better phrase than "movement." The Civil Rights movement. The Anti-War Movement. THe Women's movement. Now THOSE were movements.

[dkf]

34. Actually, what I believe in is Obama's ability to openly talk

to people who may not be on the same "team" but who can come together to make common sense and practical solutions to problems.

He isn't interested in "winning". He is interested in getting things done.

The thing that really sold me on him is the description of how he got to be President of the Harvard Law Review. He was able to bridge gaps and create positive solutions where all sides felt they had a fair shake.

THAT is what I believe in.

And looking at his policies, past and present, I feel confident in the causes that he chooses to work on. I love his desire to make government more open and transparent. I like that he realized the Iraq War was a stupid idea. I think he picks the right issues such as nuclear proliferation.

In terms of health care...I wish he would bite the bullet and go single payer but we all know it is political suicide. Anything short of single payer seems like a waste of time to me because I believe the system that we have now and will build upon for all the Dem plans is unsustainable.

Anyhoo...if that is your idea of how I belong in a "cult" all I can say is...whatever.

[kennetha]

35. From Prez of Harvard Law Review to Prez of the US

You really think being President of the Harvard Law Review somehow prepared him for being President of the US? You really think that a leadership style that "bridge gaps" among a bunch of Harvard Law students will somehow work to bridge gaps in this huge, diverse, and divided country of ours?

If that's what you think, I guess I do think you have a cultish outlook.

Sorry.

[dkf]

36. I think it is a governing philosophy that runs through his life

I cited it because it was the first incidence I noted of his leadership type, and he has shown an ability to do this in the Senate also. I liked the transparency legislation he put together with Tom Coburn, whom we would normally revile.

I also like that he challenges people to do what is right...like when he went to the evangelical churches and told them they haven't lived up to the ideals of Christianity when they treat gay people badly. Or when he went to Detroit and told them they need to make cars more fuel efficient.

I like how he leads his life, how he treats his wife (and what good taste he has). I find him an admirable fellow.

To you, this is not enough. To me, I see enough that I trust him to make good decisions...And he has run a freaking impressive campaign. To outdo the Clinton Machine on organization and fund-raising? Awesome.

[jgraz]

21. From the same people who gave us the "Edwards is a phony" meme

Guess what? You're already soaking in it.

[EFerrari]

28. Dean is angry, Kerry is a flipflopper, and on and on. n/t

[bridgit]

33. O = Oprah...

:shrug:

[Hekate]

37. Smells like Rove. Who does it serve to divide Dems so deeply we won't be able to unify...

... around the eventual nominee, whoever that is? It doesn't serve Clinton very well, and it doesn't serve Obama.

Who does it serve? You already know the answer -- and it isn't Democrats.

Hekate

[rodeodance]

39. I think the press picked up on something suble that is happening in the

Obama campaign--Sacramento Bee atricle talked of the training going on at a campaign place in California.


It spread-nytimes. guardian. etc. Press likes it that is for sure. but if there wasn't some smoke--they would not have been able to run with so far in 2-3 days.

[Glimmer of Hope]

40. It is so obvious. People don't want to be part of a cult. Oh dear!

[TomClash]

41. Try Mark Penn/Jim Carville/Paul Begala

The usual suspects.

[Doctor_J]

44. It started in the right-wing MSM, and many DUers seem to enjoy repeating it

Probably the same ones who watch Fox News all day.

[Jed Dilligan]

46. I predict its lifespan will be about equal to Snubgate's.