A WIZARD IS A WIZARD AFTER ALL

Dorothy.........If you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your
......................... promises!

Wizard........Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz? You ungrateful
.........................creatures! Think yourselves lucky that I'm giving you an
.........................audience tomorrow instead of twenty years from now!
.........................Oh! The Great Oz has spoken!
........................ Oh! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
.........................The Great Powerful-- has spoken –

Dorothy.......Who are you?

Wizard........Well, I - I - I am the Great and Powerful - Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy.........You are?

Wizard........Uh -

Dorothy.........I don't believe you!

Wizard.........No, I'm afraid it's true. There's no other Wizard except me.

Scarecrow...You Humbug!

Lion...............Yeah!

Wizard.........Yes - that's exactly so - I'm a humbug.

Dorothy......Oh - you're a very bad man!

Wizard.........Oh, no, my dear. I - I'm a very good man. I'm just a very
........................bad Wizard.

A humbug? A very bad man? A very good man? A very bad wizard? Just 100 days into a new administration, these are the questions being asked by an increasingly disillusioned electorate. As buyer’s remorse starts to creep in, America is just starting to ask the questions it should have been asking two years ago. The country wants to know who it is that it has chosen to be its President. More importantly, who is it that lurks behind the curtain, producing the sound and light show and projecting a two-dimensional face to the transfixed masses? Exactly who is this Modern-day Wizard of Oz?

Throughout the campaign, Barack Hussein Obama presented himself as the anti-Bush to a weary electorate – an electorate that had been beaten over the head for over seven years by the liberal media’s constant drumbeat against President Bush. Forget about the absence of any more 9/11 attacks. Forget about the Democratic fingerprints all over the sub-prime lending debacle at the heart of our banking/credit crisis. Forget about the miserable performance of Princess Pelosi’s Democratic Congress. The citizens of Oz had been convinced that Bush did nothing right and all the bad things happening to them were Bush’s fault. Forget about the gymnastic feats of tax dodging, influence peddling, social engineering and other malfeasance of Democratic members of Congress. Forget about the headline-grabbing transgressions and worse of Democratic Governors. In the Land of Oz, Republicans are the party of greed and self-indulgence. The Democratic Party represents goodness and light, a massive tent sheltering all of life’s victims.

If you’re a victim because your neighbor earns more than you, welcome. If you’re a victim because you’re a single mother with four children from three different fathers, and need someone to support your fatherless household, your pain is felt. Welcome. If you’re a victim because you believed the spiel of the snake-oil salesman and invested in his promise of unrealistic financial returns, we respect your innocence and hold you blameless. Welcome. If you’re a victim because you disagreed with the policies and laws of the foreign country in which you were born and decided to disregard this country’s laws and enter illegally, we are not judgmental. Welcome to our healthcare system, our educational system, our banking system. Welcome to our everything.

Into this tent rides The Manchurian Candidate, a worker of wonders, a sorcerer with super human powers. With “CHANGE” emblazoned on his cape and riding a white charger named “MEDIA”, he promises to wave his magic wand and make us all feel better again, ‘cause that’s what a wizard does. And, in the absence of any sense of personal responsibility, we seek supernatural solutions to our everyday problems. We seek wizards. If we see our crops are dying from lack of rain, we call in a wizard called “The Rainmaker”. If we overeat and become overweight, we call in a wizard called “The Diet Doctor”. If we lack meaning in our lives, we turn to a wizard called “The TV Pop Psychologist”. If we seek excitement for our lives, we rely on a wizard called “The Celebrity”. And, when we feel we can’t shift for ourselves any longer, we cede all responsibility for our own well-being to that biggest Wizard of all, the one we call “The Government”.

In his quest to be the biggest Wizard of all, Barack went forward as the essential jedermensch, the everyman, ‘fellow citizen of the world’, as he called himself in Berlin in July 2008. He was all things to all people, sensitive to everyone’s misfortune, promising to use his healing powers to solve all of the world’s ills. When elected he would be President of all the people and no one would escape his largesse. Since the election, he has performed well as the teleprompter reading, canned speech delivering, talking points enumerating, stand-up comic – the not ready for prime time President.

He is the embodiment of Oz, the direct opposite of the Miracle Worker. The real Miracle Worker, Annie Sullivan, used her talent and tenacity to enable Helen Keller to know and communicate with the real world beyond her blindness and deafness. She managed to penetrate the black and soundless world of a young girl and gave her the tools to create an abundant life. On the other hand, we have the Ozian Wizard, Obama, who uses his talent to blind us to reality while delivering the message fed to him by the shadows behind the curtain.

In the final analysis, what is our Wizard capable of delivering? If we look at the model, the original Wizard of Oz, we may get some guidance.

Education -...Did the Wizard of Oz give the scarecrow a brain? Did he
...........................educate him? No, he only presented him with a diploma
...........................so he’d feel educated. Sound familiar?

Healthcare - Did the Wizard of Oz give the Tin Woodsman a heart?
...........................No, he only presented him with a ticking clock to make
...........................him think he had a beating heart. Might this be a
...........................metaphor for healthcare reform?

Security -.......Did the Wizard of Oz give the Cowardly Lion courage?
...........................No, he only gave him a medal with the word “courage”
...........................written on it. Word instead of action. Form instead of
...........................substance. Bye-bye to National Security.

But, what’s the difference if he’s good or if he’s bad? A wizard is a wizard, after all.