Meme-Watch: WaPo Pundits Get Messiah Complex

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 12:42 PM on June 12, 2009.

Conservative WaPo columnist Charles Krauthammer  -- my fave! -- today:

When President Obama returned from his first European trip, I observed that while over there he had been "acting the philosopher-king who hovers above the fray mediating" between America and the world. Now that Obama has returned from his "Muslim world" pilgrimage, even the left agrees. "Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world. He's sort of God," Newsweek's Evan Thomas said to a concurring Chris Matthews, reflecting on Obama's lofty perception of himself as the great transcender.

Conservative WaPo columnist Michael Gerson  -- he coined the term "Axis of Evil"! -- Wednesday:

It is President Obama's defining rhetorical strategy. For every contending thesis and antithesis -- Islam vs. the West, Iran vs. America, Palestinians vs. Israel -- he is the synthesis. All sides possess a shiny shard of the truth. Obama assembles the mosaic.

Discounting for gush and swoon, the reaction of Newsweek's Evan Thomas to the Cairo speech was revealing: "I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world, he's sort of God." Here is an American president so Olympian in his perspective that he is "above the country." Obama seldom chooses to be a participant in ideological struggles. He aspires to be history's referee.

I guess this is the best they've got, which is really kind of sad.

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.