It is tough being all things to all people and promising more entitlement and spending at every turn, and then talking about “fixing” government and “changing” how Washington does business. The contradiction takes real rhetorical acrobatics to explain away. It is even tougher to hide all the radicals and Marxists you associated with, supported and excused over the years, and the racist clergy that bellowed hatred to your children. Of course, it helps if the press covers for you, ignores the frequent absurdities and falsehoods and inflates your successes. It helps a lot.

Since critical analysis is not a skill widely found in today’s newsrooms or in many voters’ living rooms, Barack Obama, a man unqualified to lead a Labor Day parade not to mention the nation, has a shot of being president. At least the disastrous Jimmy Carter had been a governor with some fiduciary experience.

In Obama’s case, it’s all about managing the image and setting the stage. After all, sound bites and snapshots are what people remember, those annoying misrepresentations, and that blatant pandering are lost on them. Obama’s campaign knows it, so you get “Change” and “Hope” repeated endlessly, in a crude brainwashing allegedly effective with the average voter or more accurately, simpletons, which the Democrats and particularly Obama believe the American people to be. It is an old technique, made more effective with modern media.

In times past, a few barrels of beer lubricated the pandering, but then a candidate could travel to only so many places and talk to only so many people. The substance of their words received detailed examination, as newspapers were the common method to gauge their message. You can put a newspaper on the coffee table and reread it; you can chew on a candidate’s positions because the forum demands he actually have one. He was even expected to be able to convey his positions in readable English. Today the sound bites come at us at a furious pace, the speeches are bad theater, there is no substance found in either. In our double espresso, eat your lunch on the road world, it’s all visual, few take the time to dig into a candidate and learn what he or she really represents. The Democrats count on it.

The May 19 snapshot of Senator Obama in front of thousands in Portland was a campaign manager’s dream, and the press carried the message verbatim, free of charge—a beautiful spring day, as many as 70,000 people and Obama standing with arms spread in a messianic benediction. The headlines were breathless, the newsreaders quivering with excitement, and the editors studiously avoided revealing the real reason so many people were in that Portland Park. It was free music, the modern equivalent of free barrels of beer.

It’s a simple tactic actually, advertise a wildly popular rock band, in this case and ironically, one called the Decemberists, and they will come. Name bands such as the Decemberists, Arcade Fire and Superchunk pack them in. Thousands will show up, college students, high schools students, and the merely curious. Make sure to advertise well ahead of time in the right places. The next important step is to be sure to have the candidate jump in for the photo ops before its obvious the crowd is dissipating, which in Portland it quickly did after the music ended. Few who were there will actually get out of bed to vote in November. No matter, it was the photo op Obama’s people were after. Slackers will after all, be slackers.

The rock concert atmosphere the Obama campaign works hard to establish is counterintuitive to the serious JFK-like image they otherwise promote. It’s the careful producing and staging that makes it work. The great voice and the polished delivery make the many nonsensical things Obama says palatable, at first. The magic dissipates when you listen to the details, if you can find them. That of course is politics.

We really do not know Obama, as his record is so painfully short. He is as far left as they come, at least judging by his voting record in Illinois and Washington. What do responsible voters use to gauge his merits? Certainly not his words alone, that would be foolish. Perhaps his past associations will help, as his campaign goes to great lengths to hide or excuse them.

Orbiting Obama’s rising star have been some unpleasant people, people most Americans would never invite over for coffee and a chat. By my count, we have two racist clergymen reinventing history and calling damnation down on the country. We have convicted violent Weathermen terrorists, unrepentant and befriended by Obama. We have openly Marxist campaign workers, we have anti-Semites, we have open border La Raza supporters, we have the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a group Obama supports and one widely accused, indicted and in several states convicted of voting fraud and voter registration abuses. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) is on board, as is MoveOn.org, the Democrat propaganda organization. We also have virulently anti-American billionaire businessman and fifth columnist George Soros, and of course, we have the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, the Socialist Party, and just for fun let’s mention endorsements by Hamas, Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Add to that the who’s who of radical, leftist, “progressive” and post-modern academics, labor unions, organizations, entitlement advocates and race baiters and you have a good idea of who will influence our president should Obama get elected. All the wrong sort of people really like him; they know what he believes far better than the average American voter does.

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance.” – Ahmed Yousef, Hamas Political Adviser

Obama claims to be a peacemaker, someone who can bring us all together in a cozy utopian embrace, yet reinventing himself is a fulltime job, as his past in no way supports the claim. Most people understand that candidates’ associations are a reasonable reflection of their character, and their history a dependable predictor of their future actions. Obama can say anything, and will, to get votes. That’s politics. What will he do once he is in office? Look at his friends.