The Only Thing We Have to Believe is Belief Itself...

Frank Belloc, combat psychologist; he counsels reporters and pundits, cameramen and crew covering Barack Obama; he brings them down from the dizzying highs and swoons in the post speech moments so their coverage looks and feels more fair and balanced.

“I don’t get a lot of work from Fox,” he tells me over bottles of Belgian beer at the Abbey Bar in Harrisburg, “Sometimes I gotta come in and calm down the hue/sat mixer; but that’s something completely different.

“Same goes for MSNBC; except I do get more crew work from them, so the cameras aren’t shaking, but the talking heads there don’t care what they sound like. Olbermann is openly hostile to the suggestion he could use help moderating his commentary.

“But CNN is good work. The news heads are concerned that they don’t get too worked up. Tony Harris is a handful, believe me; but he’s just like that.”

“But, Frank,” I said, “What can you say of the candidates? Their psychological states? Have you had any insights?”

I sip deeply of my Brasserie des Rocs Grand Cru. I can feel Margaret Safire, sitting with us, constitutional law professor at Cornell and former member of the Clinton campaign, drinking whisky for she will have non of the beer that is the spécialité of the place, stiffen noticeably. She is like to have been shell-shocked herself by the imagined Tuzla sniper fire, it is a shame to say.

“Obama, for all intents and purposes, is an only child and decidedly a child of divorce,” Frank said, wiping the sweat from his fluted tripel glass. “And therein comes a sense of entitlement; a feeling of individual empowerment. This is reinforced by the break-up of the parent’s marriage; mother’s and father’s often feel a need to overcompensate for the feelings of loss and the child of divorce, especially one as bright as Obama, grows up with a strong conviction that they are going to fix things; make it all right. This candidate has that in spades; he truly believes he is the answer; he has the answers.”

“He just does not have the policies,” grunted Margaret, “or his zombie’s are completely unable to articulate them.”

“Ma cherie,” I gently pat her skirted lap.

“No, Ms. Safire has a point,” Frank said. “This climate of charisma, the Obama phenomenon, is real. People are able to suspend their ordinary disbelief by the way this candidate is able to speak to them. Whether they consider it the greater good, a higher purpose; somebody like Obama is able to transcend policy specifics. In fact, a great deal of his supporters can’t fathom what it is you mean when you say he’s not transparent about exactly what it is he intends to do. They’ve projected their hopes and dreams in their place. They could no more question his platform than they could their own, and in their opinion, better nature.”

“Next stop, Halle-Bopp,” Margaret sneered.

To be continued…