Hubris on Steroids

October 21, 2008

In many years of covering and paying attention to politics, I’ve heard a lot of strange stuff, but this one is near the top.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden predicts that if Barack Obama is elected president he will face an international crisis within his first six months in office. Biden says it could come from any one of several places – Russia, or the Middle East he mentioned. But then, speaking of Obama and how the crisis will be deliberate in order to test his mettle, Biden said this: “He’s gonna need your help. And the kind of help he’s gonna need…not financially to help him – we’re gonna need you to use your influence within the community to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

So, an unknown and unpredictable crisis will require an unknown and unpredictable response from a President Obama, but his skills are so messiah-like that in advance we are to support him in his response because he will be right, even if it might appear that he is wrong. This is hubris on steroids.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.