Society cannot blame ‘The Little Man Who Wasn’t There’

The biggest sea change that came in with Barack Obama is one never mentioned. The biggest change is the one that opened the floodgates for 21st Century crime. In an era where identity theft thrives, Obama’s 2008 capture of the White House unofficially ‘legitimized’ the Fine Art of Assumed Identity. For lack of documentation it has never been proven otherwise that the President of the United States of America operates under an assumed identity, and if the President of the United States of America can operate under an assumed identity, then why can’t petty thieves, rapists and murderers operate with the same privilege?

In all manner of things, knowing beyond the proverbial shadow of a doubt that someone really is who he says he is, is everything for survival on any even playing field. Detectives who solve crimes, including heinous murder, scientists working in labs to improve life for the masses, depend on facts to draw their conclusions. When Barry Soetoro, who changed his name to Barack Obama, gained entry to the White House, there was another big change. It can be summed up thusly: Presidents no longer needed to be presidential, just to act presidential. Nor do we really know whether it really was Barry Soetoro who became Barack Obama, only that that is what he told us in a book.

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The two books, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope helped create the public perception of Barack Hussein Obama, and now The Road We’ve Traveled, a 17-minute video narrated by Tom Hanks, is part of the public perception gig. Promos for the video directed by Davis Guggenheim tout The Road We’ve Traveled as a ‘coming together of Hollywood and Washington’, which couldn’t possibly be more apt. For if nothing else, Obama’s administration is a coming together of Hollywood and Washington, albeit a nightmarish coming together. Today it’s Hollywood hanger-on Tom Hanks; yesterday it was George Clooney there for Michelle Obama to sit beside at a state dinner for Prime Minister David Cameron, and Halloween 2009, a secret Alice in Wonderland-themed party with Johnny Depp. Obama has a lot in common with the Hanks, Clooneys and Depps who come down from their silver screen adulation to tell the great unwashed how to vote: They are all fed lines. Hollywood stars by their directors, Obama by whomever whispers to him what to say on his TelePrompter. If a single iconic image could portray Obama it would be a projection screen. Whatever it is you need to make your life perfect -- peace, justice, a new kitchen -- Obama will fight a revolution just to get it to you, but only Hollywood and American Idol style. You won’t be able to use what Obama gives you in any real sense, but your belief that Obama works for the masses is the image needed to keep him framed as the Pocket Messiah. The Obama camp would have you believe that they are collecting the $1 billion they claim they will raise for the 2012 campaign three measly dollars at a time from the little people they tantalize over the Web. “Just $3 more” is the almost 4-year-old mantra for raising Barry bucks. For the gullible, there is the promise how just $3 will get you a dinner date with ‘The Man Who Isn’t Really There’. According to Michelle Obama, it’s her husband’s way of being able to say “thank you”. We can think of a thousand and one more meaningful ways. The most frustrating thing about Obama is how he can’t be pinned down. Ghost-like, he darts in and out of our lives, but just like a ghost can never really be held accountable. It’s almost as if American educator and poet Hughes Mearns, who penned the poem Antigonish, had the advent of a Barack Obama in the White House down pat back in 1889. Antigonish was inspired by reports of a ghost of a man roaming the stairs of a haunted house in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was originally part of a play called The Psyco-ed which Mearns had written for an English class at Harvard University. In the year 1939, Antigonish was adapted as a popular song titled "The Little Man Who Wasn't There" by Harold Adamson with music by Bernie Hanighen. (Wikipedia). A July 12, 1939 recording of the song The Man Who Wasn’t There by the Glenn Miller Orchestra with vocals by Tex Beneke became an 11-week hit on Your Hit Parade, reaching # 7, came in the heyday of movies like The Thin Man and The Invisible Man.

Yesterday, upon the stair,
 I met a man who wasn’t there
 He wasn’t there again today 
I wish, I wish he’d go away...

 When I came home last night at three 
The man was waiting there for me 
But when I looked around the hall 
I couldn’t see him there at all!
 Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
 Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!) 

Last night I saw upon the stair 
A little man who wasn’t there
 He wasn’t there again today
 Oh, how I wish he’d go away

Meanwhile, it should go without saying that it would be impossible to pin the misery he’s creating on “a little man who wasn’t there”.