“The Freddy Krueger Honorary ‘Back From the Dead!’ Tour”

I have been intently following Barrack Obama’s recent cross-country “Raise Taxes-apalooza” tour, or as I refer to it, the “The Freddy Krueger Honorary ‘Back From the Dead!’ Tour,” for a while now. Before I go further, however, this post is not an opinion on raising taxes or the overall performance of Mr. Obama himself. I will save that for my next posting coming in a couple of days. Instead, I offer you my take on the laughably partisan political stance of a man who was supposed to be able to transcend politics altogether. It has neither inspired nor angered me, but instead, quite the contrary, it has tickled me.  It has filled me with the sort of jaded amusement specially reserved for those times when I get to witness a public official so blatantly, and inefficiently, enter the muddied scrum of politicking. In an age where government seemingly cannot do anything right, least of all provide protection and service to its own citizens, the least is can do is provide a few giggles.

This amusement is a product of having front row seats to witness first hand President Obama’s ongoing and increasingly awkward dance with selling his tax policy. It is a tango that has gone on from the start of his first presidential campaign until today. Tax reform has proved an uneasy partner for him, causing him to shift goals and approach more times than a teenage boy attempting to finagle his way into second base. As an unabashed lover of the old VH1 show, “Behind The Music,” however, I was able to form a more apt and complex analogy. Obama’s political journey, it turns out, has taken on the form of a narrative that most closely resembles the journey nearly every music group takes along the bumpy road to stardom.

In these cases, a band usually releases a great and original first album. This, in turn, gains them a rabid and cult-like following of fans. This was Obama during the 2008 election, where he railed against the Bush tax cuts for the rich, endearing him to the grass-roots liberals who never quite trusted Hillary Clinton, whom they suspected, with good reason, to be more “business friendly.” They perhaps got this idea from her own husband’s failed experiment with a different sort of personal taxation: letting the rich sleep in a bedroom near him and collecting the proceeds. Of course, this came out after Clinton, having removed nearly as much financial regulation as Reagan himself, pardoned Marc Rich, the financier who paid his dues to society by, well, paying Clinton.

This first album, or the 08 election, spoke to a liberal sect who had, in recent years, acted like concert goers floating listlessly from each new fad or band of the moment, hoping to capture a the new hot thing they could call their own, with the ideology of Nader and the looks of Edwards.  They had eagerly gotten into bed with Howard “The Hulk” Dean. This was followed, begrudgingly, by a flirtation with John Kerry, the man who attempted to break Al Gore’s record of most consecutive days on a campaign trail while seemingly under the heavy influence of horse tranquilizers. Finally, they had discovered the hot new band that made music just for them, and he was unlike any other candidate we had previously seen in our history.

Inevitably of course, that same band is burdened with unreasonably high expectations to follow-up their sizzling debut. The groups delayed second album inevitably becomes influenced by eager and greedy record company executives, which for the sake of comedy I envision as Rand Paul sporting a Clive Davis-esque jumpsuit, sunglasses and all. Once this album, mangled by conflicting influences and vision, is released, it is always panned as merely junk for the mainstream. By now, their original core fans have deemed them as “sell outs.” This is the equivalent of the point not so long ago, when Obama extended, and in some cases, lowered, those same Bush Tax Cuts he once so vehemently disagreed with. This, of course, was the result of his desperately attempting a compromise with Republicans after his politically disastrous and belabored passing of the albatross that was Health-Care Reform. To those who loved him first, this was the ultimate betrayal.

One interesting note and similarity: during this tumultuous period, the hardcore fans always seem to blame a certain band member, almost always the drummer with the long hair and hefty drug problem, for their supposed bad influence in navigating the bands future. It is always the drummer who showed up late each day for recording sessions with a new girlfriend, and its always he or she who introduces the front man to either cocaine or heroin. Knowing this, it might make sense for someone to frisk Rahm Emanuel for drumsticks the next time they run into him in Chicago.

Finally, comes the all-important third album. For successful bands, with a new drummer in place, this is usually when they get it all together, and make an album that brings them back to their roots. In admitting they had strayed, they are making a desperate plea to their former groupies that they are, once again, cool.

This is the point that Obama finds himself today. He is trying to be ‘cool’ again. He has visited college campuses and the headquarters of Facebook to make his point about raising taxes, ironically both places supported by the interest of those who serve as the cultural gatekeepers of ‘cool’, yet also by those who don’t even pay taxes in the first place. He needs his hardcore fans again, if not for the countries sake, at least for reelection sake. Hence my pet nickname of the “Back from the Dead” tour. Perhaps, then, it is not a coincidence that Obama has centered his liberal spiritual awakening around Easter Sunday season.