There's a scene in an excellent Woody Alan movie, "Play It Again Sam," where Woody, a hapless pickup artist, hits on a woman at a museum.
In this scene, he sidles up to a nice-looking babe looking at a picture and asks, "What does that painting say to you?"
She goes on at considerable length about the art work, its bleak nothingness that symbolizes futility and desperation. Woody's eyes get wider and he becomes increasingly horrified and upset as the woman continues on in a depressing analysis about the hopelessness, the utter sham, of life on earth.
After she finally finishes, Woody asks, "What are you doing Saturday night?"
"Committing suicide," she replies.
"How about Friday?" says Woody.
Well, Barack Obama, the rock star/presidential candidate, still has people crying and wailing in exultation as he takes his rhetorical flights. Delivering his speeches brilliantly, Obama promises to change the awful nothingness of life in the United States when he takes up residence in the White House.
So far, he's doing great. But how long can he keep delivering these uplifting downers? Maybe long enough to win, but columnist Dan Henninger has his doubts that it will stand the test of time. It's an interesting analysis of the Obama phenomenon.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/obama_at_the_top.html [2]
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