Youth for Obama - Adult or Cult?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/

"Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age." Ambrose Bierce

Barack Obama's appeal to younger voters has a false bottom. It's more image than substance. Jingoism and star power don't equal ability and experience in choosing who's got the chops to run a responsible government.

Yet Obama's young supporters see nothing but a hero.

How many of them can tell you his exit strategy for ending the war in Iraq? His proposals for health care, education, income tax or social security reform? His position on immigration? His foreign policy plan? Who some of his cabinet members might be?

Okay, maybe that's unfair. Most adults can't tell you either ... because Obama hasn't offered any substantive platforms. Just hyperbolic rhetoric.

Still, many of his passionate young supporters can't tell you what office he holds and in which state. They don't know his record in the Senate, his committee appointments, what bills he's sponsored. How many of these kids, do you suppose, have read his books?

The young seem to recognize only three things for certain: 1. The country needs change. 2. Obama is young and hip -- he smokes, drinks, admits to past drug use, has a hot wife. 3. Obama can speak their language and make them feel part of the process.

That skill alone is admittedly critical ... far too many young people participate in elections. But their excitement over Obama's potential to make history as the first Black president imbues him with an aura of superhuman power. Which is dangerous on so many levels.

Elite, sheltered college students haven't a clue about the insidious power of prejudice and hate. Nor do they know it's still strong enough in this country to make Obama not a hero but a footnote: the first Black presidential candidate.

Yes, we need change. The Republicans have governed for eight years with nothing to show but debt, decay, degradation and death. The Democrats, with a strong candidate and a Democratic congress, have a real chance to turn our country around.

But first that Democrat has to beat a Republican in the general election. I don't think it's Obama. Not just because he's Black, although that's huge. Yes. It is.

If you think race still isn't an issue in this country, remember Katrina. Among many other things.

The youth cult around Obama doesn't get that. They believe their support gives them power and are reveling in the feeling. I don't blame them, but it hardly makes them unique.

Because they're no different from millions of right wing, gun-totin, bible thumpin Republicans of all ages who blindly supported George W. Bush's supposed change to a culture of Compassionate Conservatism.

Young or old, we've all suffered from his immature inability to govern responsibly. His posse of evil corporate flunkies led him--and us--down a primrose path of doom.

It's time real adults took over. Obama's time will come, but he needs more seasoning first himself.