Mar 14th, 2008
Obama criticised over 'cult-like' rallies
A brilliant speaker, Mr Obama often uses the rhetorical trick of rapidly repeating words and slogans and using catchy phrases that tend to attract young Americans, while having very little substance.
Favourites include the call: “We are the hope of the future. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
Dr Sean Wilentz, a Princeton historian and stern critic of the current administration of George W.Bush, said: “What’s troubling about the campaign is that it’s gone beyond hope and change to redemption.”
When Oprah Winfrey endorsed Mr Obama in Iowa last month she proclaimed: “I believe he is The One.”
At the campaign’s “Camp Obama” - a training programme run ahead of primaries in key states - volunteers are schooled to avoid talking to voters about policy, and instead tell of how they “came” to Obama, just as born-again Christians talk about “coming to Jesus.”
New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote: “Obama’s people are so taken with their messiah that soon they’ll be selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings.”
Obama fever has also broken out on the internet - and a rash of new sites has opened, poking gentle fun at the senator’s over-the-top campaign.
Tags: obama, preacher, s