Over in the Geraghtistan province of the NR ummah, Jim posts this fantastic Michelle Obama speech:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

Ask not what your country can change for you, ask how you can change for your country. Good luck with that.

In Britain, Mrs Thatcher’s deputy, Viscount Whitelaw, once accused the Labour Party of “going around the country stirring up apathy”. That sounds rather appealing if the alternative is a government that “will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual”. I wouldn’t mind if it was a high-minded call to a self-reliant citizenry, but you get the feeling all it boils down to is a demand that we take our place and twirl our batons in the 300-million cheerleading squad for Barack! The Barack Obama Show starring Barack Obama. The “shed your cynicism” bit sounds like a scene from one of those dystopian movies where you get slid into the Cynishedder as a bitterly sardonic old crank in a pork-pie hat and after 30 seconds bathed in the rays of the Obamatron you emerge in a turquoise 1970s catsuit with a glassy-eyed stare.

Whoops, I think I hear the knock on the door now…