Obama Fatigue

Yogi Berra used to say: “Nobody goes there anymore — it’s too crowded.”

My wife has modified that line to say: “I couldn’t talk to anybody at the party; there were too many people there.”

And now we have this little gem, about Barack Obama: “People don’t really know him, but they are tired of hearing about him.”

According to Pew Research, “The Democratic candidate’s media dominance may not be working in his favor: Nearly half (48 percent) of the public says they have been hearing ‘too much’ about Obama lately. And by a slight, but statistically significant margin — 22 percent to 16 percent — people say that recently they have a less rather than more favorable view of the putative Democratic nominee. Not surprisingly, a very large number of Republicans say they have heard too much about Obama lately. But 51 percent of independents share this opinion, as do as many as a third of Democrats.”

Barack Obama has the thinnest résumé of any presidential candidate in the last hundred years. He has had no executive experience. While he wrote two best-selling books, he has had no great legislative victories. When he was in the Illinois Assembly, he was best know for his “present” votes. In the United States Senate, he was a man in a hurry to run for president, and made no lasting mark on that venerable institution.

We don’t know much about Barack Obama. We don’t know how he will act in a crisis. We don’t know what he really believes. We don’t how he would negotiate with Congress. We don’t know how he would stare down dictators. We don’t know how he would fight terrorists. We simply don’t know.

And yet the voters are tired of hearing about it.

It could be that they are tired of the media love-fest. It could be they were offended by his trip to Berlin. It may be that they just are completely weary of the politics and this longest campaign in history.

They also might be tired of his hectoring, lecturing, highfalutin rhetoric, and his constant calls for change for change’s sake. It could be they are tired of his mobs of young, idealistic volunteers who pester normal people as they walk to work. It could be they are tired of his constant calls for a “more perfect union,” especially when they are made overseas.

But there is still a lot to learn about Barack Obama. About what he learned from his friends when he was in Hawaii, especially those friends who expressed great disdain for America. About his relationship with shady characters in Chicago, some of whom have gone to jail. About his relationship with the infamous Rev. Wright, and what that tells us about his capacity for loyalty and friendship.

Sen. Obama was not born in a manger, as some would have it. He is a real person, with a real story, and real opinions and a real track record. None of this has been truly explored by the fawning media.

The American people may not want to know the whole story about Barack Obama, but if they want to even consider him for president, they’d better get over their Obama fatigue and learn what really makes him tick.

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