Walker: I think it's because we live in such an age of cynicism and disillusionment that people were desperately waiting for someone like Obama, someone they could project their dreams onto without too much cognitive dissonance and who gave them permission to talk unironically about this like hope and justice.

I do think you're right that the idolization is disturbing. Ironically, I think this country's apathy is actually likely to make people place more faith in Obama than we otherwise would. Inflating him in our minds to some sort of savior absolves us of having to care or pay attention to current events. It is easier for an apathetic population to place its trust in a single hero to fix all its problems than it is for it to realize that everyone, individually and collectively, has to start doing things differently.

-- AnjaliBhat - 12 Feb 2009