The Gatsby candidates?

In thinking about things this weekend, one thing that occurred to me to how frequently we are exposed to "self-made" politicians. These folks emerge out of whole cloth, perfectly pitched to the zeitgeist of the election year they are seeking votes in, and offer the public the alluring prospect of starting over after a period of political dislillusionment.

It's all very appealing, but there's a certain suspension of reality required to fully buy into all this. Why, exactly, is the "new boss" not gonna be "same as the old boss"? 

This weekend we were served up the spectacle of John Edwards, who may have been a better lawyer than Bill Clinton but has proven not to be a better liar or a better husband. He argues now he is the victim of his own narcissism, and the thought hit me. Here is a Jay Gatsby.

Jay Gatsby was a fictional character whom we are seeing a lot of in real life. He showed up as the perfectly attired host of massive parties at his Long Island mansion, but no one seemed to know how he bought the mansion or what he did before becoming the premier socialite of the region.  And it didn;t seem to bother his legions of new found "friends" . Gatsby got by through guile and charm until he crossed someone who could ruthlessly engineer his demise.

Nick's modest cottage is next-door to an enormous mansion owned by the mysterious Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is extremely wealthy, and no one seems to know much about the source of his wealth although rumors abound. What he is known for is hosting outrageously luxurious parties, where hundreds of people show up each weekend. Although many of the guests are uninvited, Nick soon receives a rather formal request from one of Gatsby's butlers and finds himself embroiled in the party scene, although he claims to despise mindless entertainment.

At the party, Nick finds that none of the guests know much about their host. Hardly any of them have even met Gatsby

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gatsby

As an attorney, I'm sure it was a huge rush to go from trying to pry money out of juries to riding Lear Jets around the country. And this changes a lot of people. But I  can at least piece Edwards's professional life---if not his attraction to weird biological clock ringing women--together. It's the flashy ambulance chaser on steroids.

There's an even bigger Jay Gatsby than John Edwards.  Much as  the debonaire millionaire arrived in West Egg almost as an apparition, we are treated to Obamamania without any real idea who the real Obama is. 

We are starting to slowly get a sense...maybe. Here's a man raised by grandparents because his mom was too busy doing her own thing. Someone who professes to understand America despite spending virtually none of his childhood and adolescence within the first 48 states admitted to the Union. 

Much as the fictional Gatsby is taken under the wing of a member of the establishment, Obama goes through the Ivy League , and then emerges in a large city where it appears he was the clean cut front man for a bunch of sharp operators.  He renounces the idea of being a suburban working commuter as too mundane, seeking some higher form of existence, something with more flash and glamour than his neighbors, toiling away in the bond business.

Indeed, Obama seems more at ease in foreign capitals than blue collar American towns.

Much as Gatsby's millions seem concocted from thin air, so is Obama's political rise. An obscure local officeholder catapults to the U.S. Senate after both his primary opponent and general election opponent have nasty divorce records unsealed which implode their campaign. What are the odds this happens accidently? Who or what wired this outcome?

Barack Obama wants to run America, but there's something that doesn't ring true, no matter how many ratings points he places behind TV ads praising "Kansas values".  Perhaps the legion of old friends---Wright, Ayres, Rezcko-- thrown under the bus belies this effort. One wonders what sorts of strange agents that Obama still befriends that just haven;t gotten into the soup yet.

At the end of Fitzgerald's masterpiece we learn about Jimmy Gatz, an ambitious farm boy whose true passion was the largely unrequited love of a beautiful woman. So, what is the real truth behind Barack Obama?   

I fear it will not be quite so simple, or quite so understandable. But the story may end just as badly and we may have no choice then to be part of the plot.