Gutfeld: The Messenger and the Message

Greg Gutfeld shares his wisdom on the election of Barack Obama:

So we’ve got a new president, and damn he’s delicious.

I’m serious - I’m no liberal (I don’t like cats or candles) — but I happen to think Obama is probably the strongest Democratic candidate I have ever seen: smart, inspiring and totally presidential. In short, he’s an amazing messenger.

But I’m not a fan of messengers — I’m a fan of messages. And if the message is fundamentally flawed, I don’t care how great the messenger is.

And that’s the real story behind this election. The message Obama carried was one of “change,” which can mean anything, and everything — rendering it every bit as meaningful as the contents of a balloon.

Politics is the opposite of music. In music, if the performer is talented, she can sing about rotting fruit - it doesn’t matter. See Bjork. But in politics — you need the message — and you shouldn’t let the charm of the messenger distort your faculties. See Chris Matthews.

So what’s Obama’s message? I don’t have a clue, yet. And neither does anyone else.Worse, It’s been so long, that most people have forgotten what liberalism smells like: big, intrusive government, high taxes, weak foreign policy. I don’t know if Obama is going to embrace the whole package– but his record says, “Sure, why not!”

I do like to think Obama will move to the middle - and there’s a good chance he will.

Fact is, our country, as a whole, hates liberalism. It’s why the actual word ceases to exist –even its practitioners have buried it in the backyard. It’s the soiled diaper of labels.

But if Obama does shift right — it’s one thing we can thank McCain for. Seriously — McCain did more than Obama himself in shaping Obama’s future presidency. By focusing on Obama’s socialist rhetoric, his queasy tax plan and his creepy choice of friends — maybe America might start doing the same, and that could keep Obama in line.

The fact is, Obama is smart enough to see what the Republicans do right — even if he won’t admit it. Right now, the Iraq war is over — which is why it wasn’t a campaign issue. Under Bush, we’ve had no terror attacks in seven years, a free Iraq, an impotent Libya and a powerless Syria. If it wasn’t for the crap economy, the election would be far closer. Which is hilarious — since the bad economy originated from the Robin Hood practices of the left.

The final irony of this whole thing: a candidate considered soft on terror will be forced to prove otherwise — as Biden unwisely pointed out. McCain, an old warrior however, would have had to prove he’s a peacemaker. Which means, of the two candidates, Obama is more likely to bomb the hell out of something.

Although no one asked — I will not be moving to Canada.