All the phrases politicians, salesmen and religious leaders use seem wasted to me. President Kennedy pleading for Americans to “Ask what you can do for your country,” holds no more weight to me than our fake president from “24” asking, “Are you in good hands?”

But even those who are usually immune to the coiffed, smooth-talking politicians have reached a level of hysteria reserved for music superstars and appearances of Jesus Christ in a coffee stain. All because of Barack Obama.

Average citizens can be forgiven. The last eight years have forced Americans to buckle down under fear of terrorism and an uncertain future. For the good of the nation, they agreed to a path that left them with recession, foreign policy traps and a general drop in national morale. So over-the-top idealism is something that the average American wants to hang on to.

The media has less of an excuse. Perhaps years of cynical punditry has left commentators parched and in need of a drink of the Kool-Aid they always criticized. However, to see the entire MSNBC staff (save for increasingly cranky Joe Scarborough), CNN analysts and even the occasional Fox News reporter treat Barack Obama’s ascendancy as a given is almost more disappointing than their journalistic atrophy before the invasion of Iraq.

So to see the endorsements pouring in from editorial boards across the country — even the Chicago Tribune, which has never endorsed a Democratic nominee for office — is not surprising.

But even with the enthusiasm over the historic nature of his candidacy, I would expect the explanations of these newspapers to be tempered with some semblance of rationality in their support of one of the most inexperienced candidates since … well, the last president.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. While The Capital Times chastised their older brothers at the Wisconsin State Journal for even whispering the name “McCain” in the same sentence as “honorable,” they should have focused on something else: the Journal’s complete neglect of any worthy analysis or intellectual honesty.

There is not a single mention of policy. The only mention of any of the challenges facing the country come in vague platitudes that Obama himself could include in stump speeches: “American must not decline. America must remain a beacon of freedom, democracy, innovation and prosperity.”

Oh, they have specific concerns: Obama needs to tackle wasteful spending. Obama needs to reject extremist influence. Obama needs to tackle “entitlement” programs. But nowhere do they make clear that Obama would actually do any of these things. Only that he inspires the hope that he could.

Make no mistake, this is an endorsement precipitated on dreams of what could be, encapsulated in a man.

But they’re not the only guilty ones. While The Chicago Tribune made a bold move in endorsing Obama, they make only three points: We can trust Obama because we’ve seen him in action in our own state (although, they certainly didn’t agree with him most of the time), we don’t think McCain can wrangle his party out of fiscal irresponsibility and while Obama’s economic plan disappoints us, he at least did some good things for ethics reform and charter schools. Vote for him.

While its encouraging to see swing state newspapers like the Akron Beacon Journal use issues like Obama’s economic plan to justify his election, the vast majority of the endorsements use the same logic: He has the vision/drive/inspiration to change this country.

Perhaps he does, but hope does not save a country from tightrope walks over foreign policy quagmires. Inspiration doesn’t stave off economic crises. Making the American people feel better about themselves and country only provides relief until the next catastrophe strikes.

As the editorial above shows, this paper has examined the issues and decided that while Obama is disappointing on a few issues, his pledge to change the course of foreign policy toward diplomacy, provide health care where the free-market has consistently failed and provide a reasoned and nuanced system of relief and capital infusion into our economy is what sells us.

Not his messianic status. After all, with the messiah comes the apocalypse. And that’s not a future we should even begin to consider.

So, to the rest of the media: push the cultural implications aside and examine the policy points. Don’t be afraid to be a wonk; it should be your job. And if your explanations prove true in a decade, then we can celebrate a rebirth. But let’s not condemn that possibility by riding a wave of emotion into a presidency. After all, it takes more than just the captain to steer the ship away from the rocks.

Jason Smathers ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in history and journalism.