“You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just recreate yourself. You can’t just reinvent yourself. The American people aren’t stupid.”

Who said it?

Ah, yes, more words of wisdom from that holy man of hypocrisy, the high priest of Hopenchange, Barack Hussein Obama.

This particular barb was aimed at Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Obama knows that “Mayor Palin” is far more qualified for the presidency than he is. However, anyone with any insight into humanity has already discerned that Gov. Palin puts forward no facade, charades or pretense. With Mrs. Palin, what you see is what you get.

Obama, on the other hand, has spent the last four years under the tutelage of his mentors John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy, and more recently among a few thousand political hacks and handlers, endeavoring to make stuff up and recreate and reinvent himself on the bet that a majority of American voters are stupid.

Pray it ain’t so.

To differentiate between Obama and his facade, the logical place to start is his record of legislative accomplishments. But Barack Obama has no such record. So, we resort to that old English proverb, “You can judge a man by the company he keeps.”

On the short list of ignoble Leftist radicals and hoodlums with whom Obama has maintained more than a passing acquaintance (aside from Kennedy and Kerry) would be Frank Marshall Davis, William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Tony Rezko, the ACORN crowd, Richard Daley, Jeremiah Wright, Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Kwame Kilpatrick, Jimmy Carter, Rashid Khalidi and, who am I leaving out … oh, yeah, that radical in the red dress, Michelle Obama.

There are many others, of course, but a few of his colleagues from this list should give all Americans pause. Obama’s close association with Marxist mentors and convicted terrorists like Frank Marshall Davis, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn is reason enough to disqualify him from ever receiving any security clearance, much less holding public office. And his 20-year spiritual mentorship under the racist reverend Jeremiah “G-D America” Wright defines Obama to his core.

Barack and Michelle Obama often quote the radical Saul Alinsky, who is considered to be the patron saint of “community organizers.” Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals, proclaims, “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins – or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”

Considering the company Obama keeps, one must ponder the question, “Has the Democrat Party ever fielded, in its entire history, a candidate more ill-suited for the office of president?”

Fortunately, although Obama has succeeded in fooling some of the people all of the time, there appears to have been an avalanche of defectors from the moderate ranks of his supporters. For example, in the last two weeks, his eight-point lead over McCain among white female voters (those who elected Bill Clinton – twice) is now a 12-point lead for McCain/Palin, which explains why most of Obama’s attacks have been aimed at Gov. Palin.

Indeed, conventional wisdom suggests that Obama’s latest reversal of fortune is the result of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin joining the McCain presidential ticket. But there is more going on here than just the Palin bounce.

It seems that McCain’s character-rich speech at the convention enlightened a lot of folks who were, hitherto, unenlightened. That enlightenment has finally prompted moderates and independents to take a critical look at Obama’s character. And many, as evidenced by increasing support for McCain, are repulsed by what they see.

As those who self-identify as “Democrats” learn more about their party’s anointed candidate for the most powerful office in the world, perhaps they will consider a line from the Wizard of Oz – a quote which has metaphorical applications far beyond the movie.

“I am the great and powerful Oz!” thunders the Wizard to Dorothy and her friends. “Do you presume to criticize the great and powerful Oz? You ungrateful creatures!”

Alas, even as Dorothy’s tiny dog Toto tugs on the curtain to reveal a petty little man behind the thundering voice, the Wizard attempts to continue the ruse, orchestrating a booming declaration, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

Between now and 4 November, those who choose to ignore the petty little man behind the curtain orchestrating all that rolling rhetoric about “hope and change” do so at great peril to our nation, and to generations to come.