by Brian Douglass

Created on: August 18, 2008

Seeing the pictures of Obama's trip to Europe and the crowds that greeted him and looked to him as some sort of savior (as is far too common in Europe), I could not help but be reminded of another person who ran on charisma and was seen as the savior to those who followed him: Adolf Hitler. A key principle of fascism of any sort is a cult of the leader, this can be seen quite well in the World War II era fascist governments. Perhaps best seen in Hitler himself, the Fuhrer, the man who would lead the German people once again to greatness and the superiority that they were destined for as the master race.

Obama's followers exhibit this same sort of blind adoration of their leader, the view that he will bring them salvation. Salvation in this case goes under the very vague name of "change." Obama is always talking about change. But, change isn't always good. What sort of change will Obama bring? I suspect that he really doesn't know himself about many things. He is simply using the words to bring in gullible young people looking for something, anything to just make things better.

The economy has been worse, but it is pretty sorry at the moment. We are in the middle of a long war which is costing real American lives, something that Americans seem to have forgotten about since we defeated Hitler. Seeing dead bodies is never something good, but the reaction of some, especially the youth to seeing their peers shipped home in flag draped caskets is a bit too negative. Instead of adding to our resolve to see the battle won in memory of those who gave their lives, people want to cut and run. Who cares if we leave Iraqis with genocide? At least no more Americans will die "for oil." Bush has made a mistake refusing to acknowledge that this war really is about the West vs Orthodox Islamic Hardliners. His continuation of calling Islam the "religion of peace" and refusal to admit that Islam is the reason why Islamic terrorists kill is self defeating. With no clear purpose (other than economic), no wonder there is waning support for the war regardless of what that entails. Of course going after Iraq rather than Iran was a poor choice to start with in this war, but that time is long past.

Onto the stage steps a new man, a man with no real record in world politics to speak of (which should be a bad thing), a good looking, young black man with a nice looking family. This man speaks of change. And the crowds go wild!

Who is this man and what change does he bring? Well, what we know

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