Tee-hee!

By Megan McArdle
The ever-brilliant Jonathan Rauch:
Your chart here shows chronic punditry, with episodes of prognostication. Looks like you had a hard year last year. In 2007, I made two contrarian calls. First, don't write off John McCain. Second, write off Barack Obama. My average was 50 percent, which is as well as a lot of people did last year. It's also as well as the average chimpanzee did. Is that why you're depressed? No, it's these doubts, this hesitation. About Obama. A man I respect. Admire. I want to fall for him, love him as so many others do. But ... I can't. I try, but I can't. Ah. This is not so uncommon. Obama Resistance Complex. You have Barack blockage. You are afraid to love, to commit. No, no. Some of my conservative friends think that Obamamania is a messianic cult. I don't. I understand the enthusiasm. I can't remember when I've seen a politician with as much promise. He is eloquent, charismatic, cool under fire. He's the best kind of intellectual: super-smart but not patronizing. He has taken political risks to show moral leadership. Who else would have stood at Martin Luther King's pulpit and condemned homophobia and anti-Semitism in the black community? And wouldn't it be something to have a black president! Think of the bloody chapters in American history a President Obama could close. I want to believe. I go home, shut my eyes, and say, "Yes I can!" But I can't. Take a breath. Here, blow your nose. Now, try to tell me why you think you have these issues. Let it out.
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