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March 18, 2008

Obama And The MSM - A Chauncey Gardener Moment

Topics: Political News and commentaries

Ever the gardener, he straightens out a bush and then walks off... across the surface of a small lake. He pauses, dips his umbrella into the water under his feet as if testing its depth, turns, smiles, then continues to walk on the water. - "Being There"

As I listened to Obama's speech today my mind drifted back to a 1979 movie that I must have seen a half dozen times. I could see in front of me Chauncey Gardener - the main character in the movie "Being There." It wasn't so much what Obama was saying, it was the humor I found in the lack of substance in what he was and has been saying and the media's role in perpetuating a myth. The only difference between Chauncey Gardener and Barack Obama is that Chauncey was a man of simplistic innocence, a passive and simple-minded gardener with no pretensions, and Barack is a manipulative, opportunistic, politician.

Some readers might recall Being There," starring Peter Sellers. It is a rather skillful dissection of politics and power where the audience is "in" on the joke from the beginning, quite unlike Obama's followers and the Obamaphylic media.

As Voting Matters Blog describes the plot and the role the media played, the story revolves around Chance, a simple gardener who has spent his entire life with "the old man" in a big house where he tends the garden and watches TV.

After the death of "the old man," Chance, is evicted and wanders the streets of Washington D.C. where he encounters Rand, a wealthy business man. Rand takes Chance under his wing. Through a series of mis-understandings, Chance becomes known as Chauncey Gardener, whose utterances about gardening are interpreted as evidence of deep wisdom and understanding. Chauncey becomes a media darling who is touted by political power brokers to become the next president

So what does this movie have to do with politics today? Nothing (edit - I would say everything), really -- except that it illustrates the role of the media and political spinmeisters in creating a political candidate (edit - and the media's acceptance of Obama's utterances and excuses as wisdom and revelation).

What we have before us in the candidate Obama and the media's treatment of him, is indeed the epitome of what could only be described as a Chauncey Gardener moment in political history.

Posted by Richard at March 18, 2008 11:22 PM

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