Being Barry

It's been fun to watch the Chauncey Gardiner meme gathering steam as does Obama. The similarities between the two are indeed striking.

Both characters rush to enormous heights from the humblest beginnings at rather a breakneck speed. Chauncey is a completely empty vessel, and it is tough to think of a more vacuous major candidate than this fellow who launched his Presidential campaign just two years into his first Senate term.

Gail Collins dissects the Obama phenomenon expertly:

Barack Obama turns out to have a positive genius for making moderation sound exciting and is perhaps the only politician in American history who can get a crowd all worked up with a call to politeness. "We can disagree without being disagreeable," he said in his New Hampshire farewell, drawing a roar of approval.

The imbecile Gardiner knows absolutely nothing beyond gardening, but his simplistic declarations of fact are interpreted as gauzy aphorisms in the Obama vein. When he first meets the President, Chauncey is asked whether or not the country can stimulate economic growth with temporary incentives, the bewildered moron replies:

In a garden, growth has its season. There is spring and summer, but there is also fall and winter. And then spring and summer again...

To which the President responds, "I must admit, that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I've heard in a very, very long time."

Six months before Obama entered the Presidential race Andy Martin had already called out the parallel:

Chauncey Gardner is a blood brother to Obama. Platitudes, bunkum, snake oil; Gardner and Obama share a common parent.

But it's not just the inane fluff which passes as the 'Politics of Hope' that mirrors Chauncey (and the 'POH' most certainly is inane):

"In fact that is our challenge to be hopeful about the future and recognize the challenges we face are not insoluble. (voice rising) Don't let people tell you we can't solve the problems of America. They are all problems that we can solve once we make a determination that we're gonna solve them. Once we have a sense of urgency that they need to be solved, we can fix what ails us here in America."

Many of the dramatic beats of their stories are identical, starting with their very names.

Chauncey's real name is Chance, but when he introduces himself to power as 'Chance the gardener', it is heard as 'Chauncey Gardiner', and the name sticks. When he's given the opportunity to correct people, he acquiesces and insists, "Chauncey is fine". Obama is understandably loathe to point out his full name, which conflates two of America's favorite bad guys (one letter away from Osama and a middle name shared with the dictator we just deposed). He's so happy to just identify himself with an 'O' (not unlike Oprah) that when his middle name is mentioned, he actually considers it an attack (we're looking at you Bob Kerrey).

Chauncey goes on to become a media darling, though he clearly has 'rice pudding between his ears' as his childhood caretaker points out. During a TV interview, he is asked about rising unemployment and responds, "In a garden, things grow - but first some things must wither," completely unaware that his comments are being taken metaphorically.

Obama's no imbecile, but he is happy to trot out clichés like quoting the Declaration of Independence in his career-making speech at the '04 convention. He might as well have opened his speech with Webster's definition of 'vapid'.

The final shot of Hal Ashby's 1979 film is of Chauncey walking on water, and Obama has certainly been lavished with plenty of Christ metaphors. No less than Oprah herself pronounced, "I do believe he's the one."

Finally, there is Barack's tendency to duck difficult issues by not voting and allowing himself to be marked 'present'. It's this same trait that defines Chauncey's rise to dizzying heights. As he is walking on water in that final scene, his powerful acquaintances are busy deciding that he should become the next President. All those powerful people who elevate Chauncey, this lost and confused fool, simply see in him what they want to see. His enormous success is achieved simply by dint of Being There.