BHG

Blogger “Bookworm” quotes from “Destination Unknown,” an Agatha Christie novel in which the heroine, coincidentally named Hilary, witnesses a speech by the “The Director,” whom Bookworm describes as “an actor, hired by the book’s actual malfeasors, to give speeches that say actually say nothing, but into which each listener can read his own beliefs”:

Trying to remember his words later, Hilary found herself unable to do so with any accuracy. Or perhaps it was that the words, as remembered, seemed trite and ordinary. But listening to them was a very different thing. . . .
In spite of herself, Hilary was stirred and uplifted. The Director spoke very simply. He spoke primarily of Youth. With Youth lay the future of mankind.

“Accumulated Wealth, Prestige, Influential Families–those have been the forces of the past. But today, power lies in the hands of the young. . . .”

There was more of it–all the same heady intoxicating stuff–but it was not the words themselves–it was the power of the orator that carried away an assembly that could have been cold and critical had it not been swayed by that nameless emotion about which so little is known.

Our worry here is not that Obama resembles The Director or any parallel real-life figure. It is, rather, that the effect he has on his followers is all too similar to that of a demagogue. As far as we can tell, Obama is a perfectly decent chap–but the display of “that nameless emotion about which so little is known” makes us queasy.