A reasonable article in the conclusion, but it makes two mistakes.

Machiavelli was a republican thinker. He believed that a republic was the best form of government and that the autocratic rule of the Medici and other tyrants was not ideal. He did view the rule of the new republic in Florence with skepticism after important members of the opposition were exiled after the Medici were put back in control.

Pelageus did not argue that Adam and Eve did not sin, nor that that was passed down. The belief that he did argue this is an artifact of the British classical establishment of the late 18th century onwards.

This is hilarious, and predictable. A desperate attempt to critique Obama's potential to be the most popular American president at home and abroad since FDR. Many groups, especially AIPAC, are terrified of Obama's potential popularity and eloquence as a leader, because they are terrified of a truly independent president whose mass appeal completely trumps the ability of special interests like AIPAC to smear him.

Obama could be the nation's first woman president, just like Clinton was the first black president. Obama won over Hillary because he was the more feminine of the two. Alice in Wonderland would feel at home.

Powerful essay--insightful, pertinent, and it accurately defines Obama as the biggest swindler in American history. References from literature and history serve to identify Obama exactly: a false prophet, a travesty, a Trojan Horse.

This is simply a fascinating, engrossing, thoughtful, and stupendous piece.

Great article (I'm gonna have to look up "apotropaic," though.) Noteworthy: even the New York Times's ultra left-wing pundit Paul Krugman admitted a few months back that Obama's campaign was coming close to a "cult of personality." Something about Obama makes me queasy; when I read something he has said, I get the feeling I used to get in high school when a girl had a crush on me and I didn't feel anything back. That kind of queasy.

Whether you agree with Beran's analysis or not, this was an incredibly refreshing piece. Few writers can navigate the Western canon as well as Beran has in this essay and still come up with an original idea. It's good to know the classical education is still alive.

I *think* your article reflects my concerns about Obama. In a nutshell, I simply do not believe that "we can transcend those limitations in human nature that the Founders acknowledged when they drafted the Constitution," as you wrote.

Good article, but I must say that I had to use the dictionary several times re: some of your $100 words. My critique is that I think you could have said all of this just as eloquently without the "big words." I have a large vocabulary, but some of these were a bit pretentious.

Beyond that, great article.

Superb, insightful; this article should absolutely be required reading at high schools and colleges around the United States.

Obama's very post-masculine, Oprah-type, shamanistic positioning turns off men. Even black men don't like him, though of course they'll vote for him out of racial solidarity. But outside painfully and terminally hip yuppies, Emo college kids, and women, Obama faces tough sledding. Men won't like him. It won't be for anything as mundane as his politics, either, but rather his effeminate nature, his post-masculine posturing, his shamanistic posing.

Men DESPISE Oprah. She and the ladies of The View are what most men hate more than anything. I'd be shocked if Obama got many votes from white or Hispanic men. That very therapeutic culture appeal to women and rich yuppie men hurts him among every other type of man.

Obviously this piece was a long time in the making because, gladly, it is also obsolete. As I write, the race is a dead heat in spite of Obama's mojo, a fawning press, and McCain's stillborn campaign. Imagine, it's only July and the American people are already coming to their senses.