Sultan Knish

Obama's Coat of Many Colors

Like every good con artist, Obama knows that the trick to winning your mark's confidence is to convince them that you identify with them. Except in this case "The Mark" are the American people or enough of them to get him through the goalposts of the Democratic National Convention and the general election beyond, as BHO tries his own 'Test to Destruction' of Abraham Lincoln's truism, "You can't fool all of the people all of the time."

For now Barry Hussein has managed to successfully fool some of the people some of the time, namely Democratic Party voters. And he did it in true con artist fashion by trying to pass himself off as everything to everyone. To young liberals, he was supposed to be a radically progressive visionary. To old line Democrats, he was supposed to be the second coming of JFK. To rich party elites, he was one of them, a wealthy Harvard and Columbia grad from an academic family. To the working class of Pennsylvania, he tried to reinvent himself as an ordinary bowling cheeseburger eating son of a working class family.

And that's where he screwed up, because you can only double date so many demographics before one of them finds out what you've been saying about the other one behind its back. And that's what happened when Obama cracked wise to his rich liberal hosts about those backwoods people with their bitterness, religion, guns and hatred of immigrants. Obama was doing what Obama does best, reinventing himself in the style of a celebrity for every new demographic but while he was busy bonding with his new friends over their mutual distaste for working class people, he wasn't counting on having those same snide remarks go public and live.

Like every con man, Obama's outward image is appealing precisely because it's fake, a carefully woven coat of many colors, with no substance underneath. And like every con man, that identity begins to unravel when exposed to enough scrutiny. The consistency that a lie requires is nothing compared to the consistency that the many lies which define Obama require to maintain under the pressure of a campaign. Finally like every con man, Obama responds to the revelation of the inconsistencies, personal, moral and political, with glib rhetoric that tries to change the topic and recontextualize the situation. But you can only strain the coat of many colors so many times before it begins to tear and the constant shifts Obama must undergo creates a kind of narrative jet lag until the public grows tired of paying attention to whom Barack is trying to be at any given moment.

In his endless quest to reinvent himself, BHO has become the worst kind of chimera, a man without a face, painfully eager to turn private narrative into public image and fictionalizing his life in the process. Obama is his own biographer and even when he writes history, under his smooth pen it flows out as fiction. Navigating his many identities, American, Foreigner, Christian, Muslim, Black, White, Poor, Rich, Liberal, Progressive, Undefinable, Experienced, A Fresh Voice, Black Nationalist, Racial Unifier, Healer, Bigot creates the kind of schizophrenia that must in the end bring down even the greatest of con men, as we no longer know who Obama is anymore and until even Obama himself loses track of who he really is.

Obama's biography like his convention speech was about navigating identities, a fundamental preoccupation for a man whose life is based around presenting himself as many things to many people. Obama's campaign reminds one of the character played by Will Smith at the beginning of his movie career in Six Degrees of Separation, itself based on the true story of David Hampton, a con man who moved through the upper classes of New York society under a false identity and conning the wealthy out of their money.

Who is Barack Obama? The real answer is that like all con men. he's a lie. Not simply because he's lied on any single point but because his entire identity is a constantly shifting lie as he juggles a hundred balls in the air, trying to play to every demographic in its own turn.

With America as his "Mark", Barry Hussein has tried to sell himself as the country's savior but his halo can only stand so many dings before it begins to look tarnished. And the shiny coating is quickly coming off as millions of Americans begin asking the same questions and coming up with some bad answers.

His narrative gymnastics, his political yoga, his self-help contortionist act has brought him to this point and left him empty, both inside and outside. Like a brand of soft drink, Obama has become a brand and a logo, but the person who stands behind it remains an ugly enigma, a calculating liar who may no longer even remember who he himself is anymore.