(Political) Life Imitates T.S. Eliot

Here is a blurb from a recent bit of political commentary:

The most destructive gap for President Obama is not the Republican lead on the generic congressional ballot, or even a job disapproval that has surpassed approval -- it is the gap between aspiration and reality.

And here is a bit from T.S. Eliot's famous poem "The Hollow Men."

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow 

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

The innate and fatal flaw of the 2008 Obama campaign's glittering presentation of a utopian dream is the simple fact that it can't square with the reality of a dangerous and complicated world.  Anyway, you do remember, don't you, how that Eliot poem ends?  Is that how this administration will end up?  It currently looks discombobulated on all fronts and woefully lacking in real statesmanship.  (Of course, if Iran gets the bomb, we might end with a bang.  But I digress.)