Something in the Wind

OK, going out on a limb here.

Does anyone else get a creepy, hair-in-the-air, goosepimply feeling of dread when the TV shows pictures of Obama?

I can't help it. It isn't cause he's black. It isn't cause he is a Democrat. It isn't cause he seems like a thug (he doesn't) or dangerous in and of himself. It is the way the crowds respond to him... fanatical, with a certain light in their eyes... while he has a dead, unattached look in his. I've seen a lot of candidates and crowds that surround them, and I have never seen this before. Never. Not on TV, not in real life.

I am about as far from a religion as you can get. I am not a fanatic atheist, nor an agnostic, nor a Christian, Jewish, whatever. I simply exist. I used to be a pretty good biblical scholar, back in the day, but threw all that over - a phase in my life, gone but not forgtten. I can still participate in a good biblical argument, still protest 'new' ideas like the Rapture, gay-bashing, abortion, snake handling, and all of that folderol that depends on a few handfuls of usually viciously or cruelly interpreted scripture. But I have lots of deeply Christian friends; they - and friends who are Wiccan, friends who are agnostic, all say the same thing - they believe that Obama may be the AntiChrist. Granted, a lot of people have been accused over time as being the AntiChrist; Ronald Reagan was one, all sorts of folk, accused by all sorts of folk.

I won't go that far. But the creepy feeling prevails.

Before you ask; no, I don't like McCain, either. But I understand him - violent childish temper tantrums, self-important, loud mouthed and arrogant and self-seeking as well as self-satisfied. McCain irritated me no end with his flip flopping and talking out of both sides of his mouth, depending on which side of the wine glass, dinner table, or railroad tracks he happened to land. A bought and paid for special interest man. No mystery there. No suspicion - he is what he is, and that is - worthless, to me. He elicits disgust, disdain, yes; but no creepy feelings.

Ever smelled something, just a little whiff, of something burning? Does your head come up like a hunting dog scenting a deer, surrounded by still, still forest? As you continue to smell it, do you start looking around for the source, sniffing in different areas, trying to decide if it is in your home our out, how far away it is, looking for the smoke rising from somewhere? As it gets stronger, do you start getting concerned, start wondering if you left the stove on, if it is a ballast burning in a light, if it might be outside or at your neighbor's house?

That's how I feel as I watch the news media and John Q flock to and salivate over Obama. Something doesn't smell right. I keep watching for him to promise something solid other than the ephemeral "change" but he doesn't. I keep reading for him to be definitive about something, but he won't. I keep listening for declarative sentences that mean something - something, anything, I can agree with or disagree with vehemently - but there is nothing there. Nothing at all. Yet folks are acting as if he and he alone has the answers to their ennui and angst.

Something's burning and I don't know what it is; something doesn't smell right, feel right, like the calm befoe a violent storm - and I can't put my finger on it, can't nose it out, can't grasp it any more than I can grasp a wisp of smoke. All I know is that, when I watch him and his legions of cheering happy followers, the hair around my ears stands up, and goose bumps form on my arms... every time. I have never felt this way before about any human being. And maybe that is what bothers me the most... that I, who have met all sorts of important and self-important people, and always saw them, related to them, just as people, some with failings, some with good ideas or inspiration or selfish intent, cannot "see" Obama. At all.

I may delete this after awhile. It feels peculiar to even be talking this way... thinking this way... but I have such a feeling of dread that I had to express it.