the truth is out there

Michael Crowley characterizes his worries about the Dems’ convention as “hand-wringing.”

More handwringing about Obama’s optics: I see that tickets for his acceptance speech at Denver’s Invesco Field stadium sold out instantly. In light of the apparent traction Republicans got with their ‘Celebrity’ meme you have to wonder if the Obama team is reconsidering the wisdom of this move. I would recommend any possible stagecraft to minimize the event’s scale.

For the most part, his commenters disagree with him—many of them snottily. Here are a couple of the more polite responses [e.a.]:

August 8, 2008 1:02 PM This strikes me as a terrible overreaction. That Obama is well-liked, able to stir crowds and capable of motivating previously disaffected voters is the overarching story here, not his supposed “celebrity.” That line of attack was a stupid ploy that’s been ridiculed even by many of McCain’s supporters. I see no reason to let the Republicans’ boneheaded taunts scare Obama into diminishing his popularity.

That was true before McCain launched his “celebrity” line of attack. It isn’t true now, according to the London Telegraph, which isn’t quite so caught up in the minute-by-minute state of play as we are:

The punchline is this: the more seriously he took himself, the more Barack Obama has become a laughing matter.

Only a month ago American comedians and satirists were complaining that they found it hard to get people to laugh at the first black presidential nominee. A New Yorker cover cartoon showing him as a Muslim extremist was roundly denounced.

But growing Obama fatigue among voters after his pseudo-presidential visit to Europe and the Middle East has unleashed a wave of satirical fire, mocking Mr Obama for his apparent belief that he has the election in the bag.

Another one of Crowley’s commenters writes:

August 8, 2008 1:08 PM Right. Obama should pretend he’s as unpopular with the Democratic base as McCain is with the Republican base. Maybe they should put him in front of a green screen and have him mumble about compromise and bipartisanship: that will get out the vote. Look, Obama’s ability to motivate new voters to register and exercise the franchise will give him a serious advantage in November, and this venue is a way for him to do that. If the Republicans want to equate Invesco with a Nuremberg rally, let them have at it. I think that there are plenty of ways to counter that. Who would you want to support: the fresh guy who inspires or the old doddering flip-flopper who ridicules large-participation in the electoral process? Yes, that is a simplistic formulation, but so is McCain’s idiotic celebrity meme. And Obama’s path actually gets people to the polls.

I agree with the point in bold, too. It would be risky to make too much of the “empty suit” meme, and it is certainly politically risky to accuse Obama’s followers—every single one of them a potential voter—of being cultists. Some of them are, but many of them are not.

He is inspiring, and he has inspired a lot of people to pay attention to politics, which is a tremendous accomplishment, since most people (everywhere) prefer to go about their daily lives and to be narcotized rather than to pay attention to the outside world…until it impinges on their freedom.

They certainly prefer watching to reading books. Even in Russia! (home of the ultra-serious, morally purposeful writer)!