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{"id":141,"date":"2010-11-15T23:02:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T03:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/philosophicalfragments\/?p=141"},"modified":"2010-11-15T23:02:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T03:02:30","slug":"more-on-the-wages-of-spin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/philosophicalfragments\/2010\/11\/15\/more-on-the-wages-of-spin\/","title":{"rendered":"More on the Wages of Spin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I published a column today called The Wages of Spin<\/a><\/em>. \u00a0It addresses the question of whether the Obama administration has suffered its loss of public confidence due to a poor product<\/em> (its legislative initiatives) or a poor sales pitch <\/em>(the public relations effort explaining those initiatives and the (ostensibly) manifold ways in which they benefit the American people.<\/p>\n

To which I answer: YES. \u00a0The Obama administration has offered a poor product, not because it has not passed momentous legislation but because it has not been the legislation the American people wanted. \u00a0And the sales pitch has been grating, often condescending, often stern and lecturing. \u00a0Obama has not failed to make a pitch, but he has failed to make it well. \u00a0I was never as dazzled as the media told me I should be by Obama\u2019s rhetorical brilliance. \u00a0But regardless, when it comes to selling something other than himself, Obama has not been especially winsome or convincing.<\/p>\n

But I also answer: NO. \u00a0Neither of the above. \u00a0The problem has not been the product or the sales pitch. \u00a0It has been the salesman himself \u2014 partly because the salesman was<\/em> the product that was sold in the campaign, and yet what was sold to the American people in the campaign is not what was delivered to the American people after the campaign. \u00a0I wrote my brother a letter to this effect after Obama was elected. \u00a0Obama won the election, but at the cost of setting himself up for inevitable failure. \u00a0He won the election by promising the moon and conveying a false image of himself, but this meant that his administration would plummet to earth as the American people learned the truth about him. \u00a0Namely, that he is not a transformational figure with transcendent talents but an inexperienced, ordinary politician without any special ideas or solutions. \u00a0He does not even really have a governing philosophy.<\/p>\n

There is a lesson here for Christian civil servants. \u00a0We\u2019ve talked about this before: it is not enough just to say that flights of rhetorical fancy are \u201cpolitics as usual.\u201d \u00a0Obama allowed and encouraged others to see him as a miraculous, even messianic figure. \u00a0This was not only unwise. \u00a0It was untruthful. \u00a0Christian politicians should only promise what they can reasonably deliver. \u00a0They should not allow themselves to be seen as saviors. \u00a0And they should not use such rhetoric in the election cycle that it will lead inevitably to discouragement and disillusionment in the administration.<\/p>\n

I feel as though the Obama camp made a Faustian bargain. \u00a0They were willing to say what they had to say in order to win the election, even if it meant setting up the administration for failure \u2014 and setting up the American people for discouragement. \u00a0A huge number of voters, young voters in particular, would be disillusioned when they discovered they had been duped. \u00a0Yet the Obama folks were willing to pay that price. \u00a0The ends justified the means.<\/p>\n

Please read the column<\/a> to get the rest, and feel free to leave comments there or here. \u00a0Thanks!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"