by Marcus Emery

Created on: August 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 24, 2009

Who is Barack Hussein Obama, anyway? He seems to be ubiquitous. He is usually the lead story in every news snippet . You cannot negotiate very many websites without finding his image throughout. He seems to be whoever the person observing him, listening to him, decides to think he is.

"Great communicator, speaks well and is so sincere" clashes with" Phoney baloney con man and heartless."

Yet each opinion is held by many persons. "Clever politician" varies from "Political thug." " Loved by the world" contrasts with "The greatest international affairs dupe since Jimmy Carter."

Many of us have read his two books. Some found them vacuous puffery. Others think they have a message. They were on the bestseller list. Some detractors say that big bucks and cunning can make those things happen. He has had associations that trouble some; he brushes them off by claiming only casual acquaintanceships. Where was he born? Probably in Hawaii; but it is well to have a red herring to turn attention to a non-fact. The authentic birth certificate turning up in the 2012 election season could then discredit those who think him born in another country.

He keeps us wondering who he is. Teleprompter cool or attack dog? Of late his voice has been raised, his manner strident. This seems to have begun at about the time he was criticized for calling a police department's action stupid. Citizens who considered him a Class Act are horrified to see him playing the blame game, paranoid about conspiracies, shrill and taunting. What does it all mean?

He's everywhere, but where is his core? What are his core values? What political uplands does he want to lead this nation toward? Teddy White used the upland imagery in his Making Of The President 1960. Would that White were around today.

He could solve the puzzle of BHO. We are left to figure him out.

We know some traits observed since his election. He has never lost an electoral battle, whatever it took. He does not intend to lose any political battle, either. He is , like the rest of us, subject to slips of the tongue, to rationalizing his mistakes, to minimizing any self-blame. He enjoys recognition, even adulation. He seldom fails to interject himself into occasions large or small.

He was a community organizer. What's that, we asked? Well, that's the modern version of Saul Alinsky's Back of The Yards movement, founded in 1939. He brings, then, a worldview from a distinctly leftwing perspective; nor would he deny it.

Is he the ultimate Nowhere man, " working on his nowhere plan" as the song said? The writer does not know. We can only know a man by his words and actions. Thus far they have not seemed of a piece. What will he do next, say nex.?t. He says few things, in my opinion, that are not calculated to raise a reaction he anticipates. On that template, I intend to gain a settled opinion to answer the question, "Who is Barack Hussein Obama, anyway?"

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