Obamanable
Alas poor Yoric, it looks like Obama -- Pictures courtesy of Wikipedia
by blogSpotter
John McCain said yesterday that Obama is where he is because of TV Pundits and Democratic Party elders. I can't help but think he's right -- Obama's success is less due to grass roots efforts than to a media firestorm led by the likes of Tim Russert, and Chris Matthews. Commentators are supposed to maintain objectivity; Matthews and Russert have barely been able to contain their glee at the events as they’ve unfolded.
I can give a brief run-down of things to question about Obama ...
o He prevaricated in Audacity of Hope. The book was fact-checked by a major Chicago news outlet and came up about half true. The book's title was taken from a sermon of Jeremiah Wright -- the minister he has since disowned for political convenience.
o Obama didn't pay his parking fines in college. While very minor, to myself and others it's a reflection of character. The people I know personally who didn't pay fines were arrogant, flaky or dishonest -- sometimes an unappealing combination of all three.
o Tony Rezko, a notorious Chicago contractor implicated in kickbacks has been one of Obamas biggest supporters.
o Jeremiah Wright, Obama's minister of 20 years, has made highly inflammatory anti-American, paranoid statements about HIV, 9/11 and other things.
o Michelle Obama is on record for making statements that are exceedingly cynical and unpatriotic.. "For the first time, I'm proud to be an American".
Beyond all of this, there is something in Obama's demeanor that yells, "Used car salesman!". He's superficially handsome and glib -- somebody that might sell us a bill of goods but that's about it. There are other black statesmen (Jessie Jackson, John Conyers) who have gravitas and experience, minus the smarm, that would serve us far better. There is a painful political correctness that’s set in, where people wanting to make cautionary remarks fear being cast as racists.
2008 is going to be a year where I sit by in slack-jawed amazement as the same electorate that gave us 8 years of the knuckle-dragging Nazi now goes 180 degrees the other direction and gives us a glib fibber. I think maybe Plato and the French Revolutionaries were right -- rank and file people are incapable of making informed, mature judgments about anything. When we start electing our leaders based on GQ style or superficial traits, Democracy is dying. In today’s, DMN, Mark Davis suggests that Hillary put her campaign in neutral for the summer. Come back to Denver and see if the Super Delegates still support Obama after 12 weeks' elapsed time. I'm hoping she does that, because the alternatives to me seem Obamanable.
© 2008 blogSpotter
posted by blogspotter @ 8:46 AM
8 Comments:
I'm not sure you can claim that Obama's rise was not a grass-roots effort when he's raised the amount of $$ through small donations that he has.
Re: your run down of things to question about Obama - you now have another to add: Father Pfleger. If Obama is such a uniter and visionary, why do these sorts keep popping up around him??
I can't believe that he dropped Jeremiah Wright -- his beloved mentor of 20 years, who gave him his book title.
Re: the press - I can't believe how much they're tipping their cards. There are so many smirks, smiles and such.
I think Hillary has been villified for no more than staying in the race and wanting all the votes to be counted. Don't think she will, but wouldn't blame her for launching an independent party.
Clinton has been and remains a traitor to her party. Her continuing to divide the party after the people have spoken will hand this election to McSame on a silver platter and she will be 100% to blame. She should never be elected to a position higher than city dog-catcher again.
Now, she is saying this weekend she will finally face that she lost lost lost and yet still won't fully end her campaign or release her delegates.
A post on CNN this week said neither of the Clintons have an ounce of shame, integrity or honor. I'm starting to believe that.
100% sore loser to the better MAN!
I agree, Craig.
Obama was/is the poster child of grass-roots candidacy.
He was able to raise millions of small donations from millions of people to outspend Clinton by wide margins while she depended on far fewer donations from a wealthy few to spend less and still end up 10s of millions in debt.
He also, as almost the pure definition of grass-roots, was able to build a web and email web of unpaid supporters using their own time--and long distance--to campaign their fellow common citizen.
He is the choice of the people. She is quickly becoming the choice of only herself.
"Obamanable" is level-headed and poignant. It also brings up some reasonable questions that many people will be afraid to ask for fear of being labeled racist.
But then there are phrases like "knuckle-dragging Nazi" that bring the argument to a screeching halt for me. I hear The Left constantly comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler. As a simple GED teacher and history buff, that indicates to me that people who use such a comparison truly need a remedial course in modern world history. If people were truly aware of the atrocities committed by Hitler and the Nazis, those kinds of comparisons would not be made except in truly comparable situations. It's more of a display of ignorance that I would expect to see on the emotion-driven Daily Kos where facts are ignored.
There are almost six months between now and November 4th, so maybe someone will have the guts to ask Obama about the questions you present. Let's hope so. In the meantime, I may sit this one out. Whatever the outcome, at least Bush will be gone. I'm sick of the hypocritcal and hysterical Hollywoood boneheads who can't string two logical sentences together, Michael Moore, Europe, mainstream news and the posh-posh elite who claim to know what's better for me than I do. So, maybe those folks will go away for a while.
I am hoping for an Obama victory just to see what happens. Although, I don't think The Left is really ready for Bush to leave. The withdrawal symptoms may be worse than coming off of heroin. After all, hard-boiled hate has filled their bloodstreams ever since the Florida Supreme Court was overturned for changing the election laws overnight -"one for you, two for me..." Don't forget that some Floridians had to go see psychiatrists after Kerry lost due to "post-election distress syndrome."
Not being able to let go, there will probably be a move to get Bush and Cheney charged with war crimes. That should keep the old and bald Haight-Ashbury pony-tailers busy until the grim reaper appears. Then, they'll probably return as poltergeists. Meanwhile, the boring Republicans will just go back to work and regroup for the next go-around while the far left folks rail about moving out of the country if things don't go their way. Very mature group, those folks.
It should, at least, make for some good TV. For example, I'll be watching old movies instead.
Hold on -- it’s ignorant to compare George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler? Let me just outline 3 things here.
1. Bush lied about reasons for invading Iraq, much as Hitler trumped up reasons to invade Poland.
2. Bush was OK with suspension of Geneva Convention and use of torture at Abu Ghraib prison.
3. Bush was OK with a Patriot Act that allows the US government to look at your phone calls, library visits and internet use – much as Hitler used patriotism to erode all the civil rights of German citizens in the 1930’s.
The only thing stopping Bush was that the US has term limits and a better system of checks and balances that Germany of the 1930’s. To top it all off, Bush’s Daddy got him out of Viet Nam service while Bush unblinkingly sent 4,080 (and counting) men to their death for a trumped up war – adding cowardice to his hypocrisy. He is truly a shameful man and the worst President we ever had. The Hitler comparison stands.
Of course Bush is nothing like Hitler!!
Hitler was legally elected by the majority of his people!!
The Hitler comparison is nonsense.
1. "Bush lied" is polemical rhetoric that has no evidence to back it up. Let's not forger that Congress authorized the Iraq War.
2. Again - the fact that Bush approved torture at Abu Ghraib is far from proven.
3. Congress passed the Patriot Act with strong Democratic participation and assent. Despite some of its excesses, both Parties worked together in a time of crisis to improve the tools available to our intelligence agencies.
If we'd suffered a terrorist attack within the past seven years, we'd be having completely different conversations these days. We shouldn't drop our commitment to liberty and constitutional rights (I applaud the SCOTUS Boumediane decision), but let's not take for granted what the Bush Administration has accomplished.
Post a Comment
<< Home