From Hope and Change to Crash and Burn: The Death of the Obama Dream

From Matt Welch, at Reason, "From Lincoln to LBJ to Frank Underwood: Metaphors for the Obama presidency have gone from heroic to homicidal":

If you want to trace the downward trajectory of the dreams that liberals pinned on the enigmatic figure of Barack Obama, look no further than the presidential histories and political dramas through which they have filtered their understanding of his meteoric rise and drip-by-drip fall in popularity.

When the then-candidate for U.S. Senate burst on the national political stage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he put his historical analogy of choice right there in the opening paragraph: "On behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, land of Lincoln, let me express my deep gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention," he said. "Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely."

Yes, Barack Obama was going to be the modern embodiment of Abraham Lincoln himself, fulfilling the long-delayed promise of America's racial reconciliation, in part by using his unusual-for-politics parentage as a springboard for uniting, not dividing. "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America," Obama said, in the speech's most celebrated passage. "There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

The address, written in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois (the same place where Obama would later announce his candidacy for the White House), was an instant sensation. "I have to tell you, [there's] a little chill in my legs right now," MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews said. "That is an amazing moment in history right there. I have seen the first black president."

The ensuing presidency, and the last six years of American political life, have been so desultory that it's almost hard to remember how ubiquitous the now-laughable Lincoln comparison once was...

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