ABSTRACT
Barack Obama’s irony comes from his acceptance of presidential models with conflicting foundations. Obama acts as a prophet, an evangelist, and a statesman. As a prophet, Obama warns the nation of its excesses, its favoring of the powerful over the weak, and its over-dependence on both its own might and virtue. He critiques the normative model of American exceptionalism with a model that argues for the exceptionalism of each nation. As an evangelist, Obama preaches the national gospel of the good news of American dreams that can still come true, of hope that even if audacious is not impossible. As a statesman, Obama is pragmatic and calculating, preferring to deal with facts on the ground rather than to allow the rhetoric of principled action to blind him to the necessities of politics, and of achieving outcomes that are “good enough” for the present.
