Obama's Cult of Personality: If It Looks Like Indoctrination and Sounds Like Indoctrination, Then It's Probably Indoctrination

I remember when the 1972 Bob Fosse movie came out, Cabaret with Liza Minnelli, Michael York, and Joel Grey. Great movie. I remember that this was a powerful scene, even then. The recent attention to the video of the kids on YouTube singing to Obama reminded me of this scene. Having our little children sing to "the leader" is a creepy, new phenomenon, something I don't ever remember happening before in my lifetime. When I was little, we sang songs in school about our country. What ever happened to that?



Obama is The One who has made his administration so much about the cult of his own personality. There are a lot of people who pretend not to get it--or maybe they really don't see how making children sing a song venerating a particular individual--even if he is the President--is different than singing a song about the country. Something tells me that people like this Norah O'Donnell at MSNBC (what do you expect, MSNBC) would have a lot more clarity on the issue if these children were singing a song to George W. Bush and the glories of invading Baghdad. Norah, are you really this stupid in real life, or do you just play stupid on TV?

Here she is "interviewing" Tim Carney, conservative columnist, about the children singing. This is what passes for interviewing on MSNBC. She's mystified--mystified how this could possibly be indoctrination. Oh, and Norah? Your grammar is absurdly bad. Is English really this woman's first language?

O’DONNELL: No, Tim, I just wanted to get your take on that. I mean, this is children. They're singing a song. And I'm not clear myself. If you can make your point again about why this is indoctrination, political indoctrination to praise your president. I remember certainly in elementary school when Ronald Reagan was President and we sent him jelly beans. We designed all of these things about Ronald Reagan. We sent them to him. And I don't think everybody in the class ended up a Republican because of that.

O’DONNELL: Because, it's about praising the President and making our country great again. I don't see anything as- anything about, you know, let’s give health care to everybody. Or, you know, no more tax cuts. I mean, there’s really nothing in there that’s that actually that controversial.

And doesn't that question just say it all?

Go to PajamasTV for a film by Bill Whittle about branding and the Power of Iconography.

Update: Michelle Malkin has a great post on this issue, Friday morning.

Update #2: Fox News has a fascinating follow-up to this vodeo. The Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education says the issue will be reviewed "to ensure that students can celebrate Black History Month without 'inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom.'" Laura Ingraham made the point this morning on her radio show: How is singing a praise song to Barack Obama "celebrating Black History Month? Shouldn't they be learning history?" she said. Perhaps, just as the history of the United States seems to have started with Obama's administration, if you listen to his recent speech at the U.N., similarly, Black History started with Obama's inauguration. Mmmm.. . . mmmm. .. mmmm.