"...and the sharks will come."

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There's a parable in this piece of dialog from Iron Man 2, in which Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) explains to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) just how effective his recent public intimidation of Iron Man/Tony Stark really was:

"If you could make God bleed, people will cease to believe in Him.
 There will be blood in the water, and the sharks will come.
 All I have to do is sit here and watch, as the world will consume you..."

Barack Obama is bleeding over his handling of the Gulf oil spill; when you have devout worshipers such as Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews all but openly wondering, "Can't this jerk get anything right?!!!", there is definitely blood in the water.

(Updated at the end)

They, and many others have spent almost two years now singing his praises to the skies, and even they appear to be slowly realizing they may have been conned. Among the things "Hell hath no fury like", even worse than liberals thinking they have been conned would be liberals having to face that they may have conned themselves. That ain't pretty.

It's not likely he can do anything about it. He is who he is; a narcissistic frat boy (even in his late 40s) completely in over his head but totally unable to face that fact and adapt to reality.

Bill Clinton could read the writing on the wall and adapt to changing circumstances as easily as breathing, but for psychological reasons discussed in previous posts ("Don't forget the money angle, Paul" and What's Wrong with Obama?) Obama is simply incapable of doing this. Not even to save himself; indeed it's unlikely he even sees anything he has to save himself from.

This ain't the end yet for him, not even for the worship of him; nobody can match liberal "true believers" for denial. But his own narcissism (and consequent arrogance) combined with the teeny-bopper adulation of his worshipers have set expectations that deity would have problems fulfilling; let alone a mere mortal (which, let's face it, is really all he is, though he may be unable to accept that fact).

This guarantees future high expectations (even in the face of recent reality; learning from experience is not a hallmark of his devotees) and still more disappointments.

And, here I must contradict what I just said about learning from experience. Although I believe that that his supporters don't score too well there, I also believe that the disappointments and frustrations will accumulate, perhaps on a subliminal level, and will eventually lead to outright rejection and fury from loyal supporters who, at the moment, may be just mostly irritated and wishing he would get a clue.

At this time, I cannot even begin to predict when a tipping point will come; only that it is almost inevitable. Then...

 "...and the sharks will come."

UPDATE - 05 JUL 2010 - At the store where I now work part-time, we have a young black security guard who absolutely worships Obama. Quite often, he would go on-and-on (and on) about how Obama got health-care reform over the objections of Republicans who did nothing but obstruct.

A couple of days ago, his bone of contention was the mismanagement of the Gulf oil spill and its' impact on us. What I found interesting was that, this time, instead of ranting against the Republicans, it was "the government" that was his target (BTW, his rants were dead on), and while he couldn't (yet) bring himself to say "Obama" instead of "the government", it was pretty clear that they were one and the same to him.

The bloom definitely appears to have worn off of that particular rose; if this guy has opened his eyes and is now suffering from buyer's remorse, then I regard it as yet more proof that blood is in the water, and somewhere down the line will be a feeding frenzy that will cause some to shield their eyes in horror.
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