Barack Obama: Man or Myth?

Barack Obama: Man or Myth?

There was never a shred of doubt that once he took office Barack Obama would disappoint and fall short of the expectations of his supporters.  It seems only natural enough.  Many Americans remain cynical and jaded by modern political culture and not only accept, but expect politicians to be skew their intentions and capabilities once elected to office.  We expect politicians to promise much more than they can deliver during their campaigns and then blame their lack of action on politics in Washington, the vague, universal rationalization for virtually any perceived problem in Washington.  In my opinion the American people’s perception of the failure of Barack Obama to achieve what he promised the American people in 2007 and 2008 is an exception to the general failure to achieve campaign promises, not in its result, because he has certainly failed to deliver on his promises to the American people, but in the way the American people perceived him and created their expectations for his presidency.  Barack Obama is unique among recent American presidents in the fact that he was mythologized before he entered the white house.  Barack Obama became to the American people more than just a politician he came to represent aspects beyond being a human being; ideas, wishes, an entire movement.  He was ascribed many extra-human qualities, in essence he became a myth, and what mortal man could live up to the expectations of a myth? 

Usually presidents are mythologized after they have left office and the changes they brought come to define their myth.  As time passes and they enter history, their shortcomings and failures seem smaller and inconsequential compared to their accomplishments, or the other way around and their success seem smaller and inconsequential compared to their failures.  It is as if looking at a petrified butterfly in amber, the amber magnifies and distorts the butterfly encased within.  What is unique about Barack Obama is that he was mythologized before he became and accomplished anything as President.  In many ways he was mythologized based on expectations, tangible or otherwise.  Barack Obama was able to construct a powerful imagine depicted in stark contrast to the image created by George W. Bush and his presidency. 
People are often attracted by the simple, vague, and easy to define.  In short most people do not want to spend time critically thinking and are attracted to easy solutions.  Painting George W. Bush in a negative light given the difficult to justify war in Iraq, of which George W. Bush deserves much criticism, was a very easy task.  Defining oneself in opposition to someone painted in such a generic negative light is an easy task, given the paradigm of simple and vague, one must present oneself in a generic positive light as well.  Given that Barack Obama had relatively little experience in elected public office, most of his speeches had, by necessity, to be rhetorical and non-descript in detail.  This aligns quite well with the basic appeals of people in general, being attracted to easy solutions that are simple, vague, and have an emotional appeal.  The simplicity and vagueness of this branding tactic was summed up perfectly in Barack Obama’s campaign slogan, Hope.  Not only does Hope have such a built in emotional appeal but it is so vague it is utterly impossible to criticize.  It is simple and beyond reproach.  But Hope’s vagueness also created great expectations among his followers and precisely because Hope is so open-ended and undefined, imaginations of the expectations ran wild.  I’m not sure if Barack Obama knew exactly of the power that his rhetoric was unleashing in 2007 and 2008.  He galvanized his supporters in a truly miraculous way.  There was a sense that the tremendous energy of his movement would carry the day.  There was an irrevocable feeling that what the movement stood for was right and good, that any criticism didn’t matter, because their energy would carry the day.  What was interesting about Barack Obama’s presidency is that one could see that wave of energy crest and then recede along with the dreams and expectations of his followers.  All of the massive buildup and rhetoric was done before his election.  In large part because his campaign was so vague and simple, the mythologizing process that usually occurs after a presidency was performed before his election.  There was no need to simplify and debase his accomplishments, because he had not been elected yet to accomplish anything.  There was nothing to simplify into a pathos of his presidency, that had already been done by his campaign and the media.  Barack Obama had already gone through the process of being mythologized.  His face was already immortalized in a famous universally recognized campaign poster with the simple word Hope underneath.  By the time Barack Obama’s presidency began, he was already mythologized.  His supporters had vague lofty expectations for his presidency outside the realm of normalcy, encouraged by the nature of the campaign he ran. 

Specific laws and policies, unlike vague notions and promises, are open to criticism in a way that vague notions are not.  Specific details provide the ability to predict their consequences and thus criticize negative consequences.  Given that any governing solution would end in a specific law or policy, the actions of Barack Obama during his presidency were of a different nature than those actions during his presidential campaign, moving from vague simple emotional appeals during his campaign to concrete specific laws and policies during his presidency.  Given the different nature of his actions during his campaign and his presidency, his supporters should have used different judgment criteria for each, they did not.  Many supporters judged his specific laws and policies by the expectations created during his campaign, how could vague policies of a mythological person compare to the realities of governing.  In effect, Barack Obama was a victim of the unreal expectations that he created during his presidential campaign in 2008.  He rode an incredible wave to the presidency in 2008, but was left stranded when that wave receded.  The expectations he created and unleashed in 2008 were a double edged sword, that galvanized people to incredible heights, but which also created unrealistic expectations for his presidency which would be incredibly difficult to live up to.  Those expectations mythologized him and after all, what mortal person can live up to expectations of a myth?