Riddikulus!

In the Harry Potter books there is a monster (called a boggart) that turns into whatever the person is afraid of the most. For example, if you are afraid of spiders the boggart will turn into a giant spider. If the next person the boggart sees is afraid of snakes then the monster turns into a snake. Now try to reverse that idea. Imagine a being who instead of becoming what someone fears instead tries to personify the other person’s ideas and beliefs. That not only sounds like Barack Obama but it explains a lot about him.

Every child wants to please his parents but in Obama’s situation it would be almost impossible since their beliefs and backgrounds were so different. It is hard to imagine a more diverse group than his carefree hippie white mother, an ambitious, driven black father, his middle class, racist (his words), white grandparents and an African grandfather. The only way he could please all of them would be to turn into a mirror, reflecting the ideas of whomever he was with. Just as the boggart monster would change into whatever scared a person the most, Obama would change into whatever the person wanted to see in Obama.

Not only does this theory explain how Obama survived his childhood but it also explains so many irregularities that are starting to show up. When he moved back to Chicago after law school he soon adopted the extremely liberal views of Reverend Wright and the other radicals living in the area. Reflecting their beliefs enabled him to succeed in Chicago politics and shortly thereafter in Illinois politics. Now that he is on the national stage he found out that Reverend Wright’s beliefs are detrimental to his campaign. For Obama, discarding Rev. Wright and the old ideas was as easy as changing his clothes.

All politicians craft speeches to reflect their audiences. But Obama takes it to an extreme. When he was giving a speech in San Francisco he reflected their extreme liberal ideology when he talked about the “bitter small town Americans”. And his latest outrageous statement about his being “the symbol” makes sense in the context of his speaking in front of House Democrats who truly believe he can almost walk on water.

A major problem with reflecting what others want you to be eventually means contradicting yourself. Already journalists and bloggers are beginning to point out the more glaring contradictions. The Wall Street Journal has a good article on Obama’s flip flopping: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121633739458263831.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

In the Harry Potter books, Rowling came up with a clever and amusing way for the children to defeat the boggart. When the monster appeared in the form of whatever scared them the most, the children were told to come up with a way to make their monster look funny instead of threatening. So when a spider appeared to a boy who was terrified of them, he imagined the spider in roller skates at which point the spider was slipping and sliding all over the place. Now the spider was silly not scary. To make the spell work, the children had to yell out the magic word which, appropriately enough, was “Riddikulus!”.

We don’t have wands or magical spells but the same idea works in stopping Barack Obama. John McCain’s group has already figured out that ridiculing Obama is effective as shown by McCain’s recent humorous campaign ads. The first one has generated a lot of buzz as it jokingly tries to compare Obama’s fame and celebrity to that of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Then there is the ad comparing Obama to Moses. After numerous religious conotations the ad ended by stating that Obama is “The One” but then asks if he is a leader. Again, it ridiculed Obama by showing he is all style and no substance.

If my theory is correct then there is plenty of time to ensure that McCain wins in November. I must admit I am not a big McCain fan but at least he has the courage of his convictions whereas Obama’s convictions depend on who he is talking to. It should be easy to now exploit and even ridicule this character flaw. Just as the children defeated the boggart in the Potter novel we should have a town hall meeting where person after person, each with differing beliefs ask Obama questions. In the story the boggart became confused as it tried to rapidly change from one thing to the next, so would Obama if he tried to please numerous contradicting views in the same meeting.

Over the next few months I have no doubt that Obama will continue to contradict himself as he tries to please the whole nation. I also believe that McCain is on the right track by ridiculing Obama’s inflated view of himself. Republicans should also continue to point out the complete lack of substance and how little Obama has actually done on his own. As for the “bitter small town Americans”, perhaps whenever we see Obama contradict himself again or say something else that is over the top we should all start to laugh at the man and yell out “Riddikulus”!