Obama’s the one
It appears that Obama is starting to pull away from Clinton.
I’ve made no secret of my preference for Hillary over Obama: I think she’d mount less of a challenge to McCain, but if elected I also think she would be less likely to abandon Iraq as precipitously as Obama would.
It’s not a foregone conclusion that Obama will be the nominee, of course. But it’s looking more and more like it. Just read the pundits; the consensus seems to be that Hillary is toast.
This means that the media may (may) finally begin to subject Obama to more careful scrutiny. This would be a good thing, if it happens; no candidate should get a free pass. Already the Wall Street Journal and the Economist have pieces that are not exactly valentines to Obama. But then again those are not exactly the most liberal rags in the world.
I try to comfort myself with the idea that, if Obama is elected President, maybe he’ll get smarter about the world real soon. After all, he’s an intelligent guy. Another advantage is that his election would be a bitter pill to swallow for those Europeans who keep carping on what a racist country America is.
Is Obama an optimist? The Economist thinks his candidacy represents and generates optimism, and of course there’s that insistent drumbeat of “Yes, we can.” But as the Journal points out, there’s also the question of “can what?” And the answer in Obama’s speeches is negative, despite all the positivity:
Listen closely to that Tuesday night Wisconsin speech. Unhinge yourself from the mesmerizing voice. What one hears is a message that is largely negative, illustrated with anecdotes of unremitting bleakness. Heavy with class warfare, it is a speech that could have been delivered by a Democrat in 1968, or even 1928.
Americans are not all that unhappy with their country, according to polls. And previous elections (anything involving Ronald Reagan comes to mind) have demonstrated that negativity about America hasn’t sold well in the past:
In late December, Gallup released a poll in which 84% of respondents said they were satisfied with their own lives. At some point in the next 10 months, people will have to square Sen. Obama’s Grapes of Wrath message with the reality of their lives.
Obama is a fascinating character who combines strong charisma and an upbeat message about unity and solving problems (naively so, some us say) with a bleak vision of America’s present.
Enter John McCain. Not exactly the happy warrior, he presents quite a contrast to Obama.
McCain’s body language is tight and constrained, legacy of multiple injuries; Obama is loose and at ease. McCain’s no beauty; Obama is remarkably telegenic. But McCain’s no slouch in the humor department either, and he has the advantage of experience.
Of course, some of that experience is a record long and studded with events one or two of which is sure to offend almost every constituency in America. But as many have pointed out, although Obama hasn’t got much of a record at all, what he does have is way to the left.
We’ll see what happens if and when the MSM starts reporting on that one. You can be sure McCain will try to see that they do.
Obama is old wine in new bottles, the same old liberal pieties trotted out and articulated by a new spokesman, and however articulate and compelling he may be, in time the realization will hit with a thud. Sé³lo falté³ una cosa: la vereda de enfrente.
I wouldn’t count Hillary out yet. She’s still got some dirty tricks up her sleeve, I’m sure. The Florida and Wisconsin gambits are still hot, if long shots, and she’s got a good shot at doing well in the next round of primaries.
Honestly, I’ll be very, very surprised if Hillary isn’t the nominee.
I try to comfort myself with the idea that, if Obama is elected President, maybe he’ll get smarter about the world real soon.
I think so, too, but if he’s surrounds himself with Kucinich-style liberals, well, then we can only hope that Michelle will rescue us, which is a thought that severely taxes the notion of hope, by slapping some sense into him … I don’t know a lot about her.
Hillary, that rattle snake, will have anyone done away with, I mean, do anything to get elected.
I really like posts like this.You have such a precise, insightful grasp, dare I say,..nuance…of the complexities and tradeoffs coming in November.
This really reminds me of McGovern vs Nixon.
I can’t stand Obama. To me, he’s cold as ice. Watch how his “smile” curdles around the edges as soon as he’d finished talking with the person in front of him.
His speeches are colossal clouds of gas, delivered in a low-brow televangelist style. He reminds me of Broderick Crawford in All the King’s Men, a sinister, calculating, truncated populist.
I supported Giuliani, then Thompson, then Romney, and now McCain. He’s my fourth choice, but at least the guy doesn’t reek of fraudulent, calculated good cheer and barely suppressed hostility.
Obama’s mixed-race heritage is much more of a problem for him than is generally accepted. When he speaks of the terrible treatment he’s experienced as a black man in America, you can see the bitterness.
I don’t want another bitter president. Bush has retreated into bitterness over the way he’s been treated by the Dems and the media, and it’s affected his judgment. He came into the office with a sense of illegitimacy, due to his family dynamics and his troubled personal history, and he was never accepted by the Washington elite he admires so much.
I see the same problems with Obama: bitterness, self-pity, and a chip on his shoulder.
At least McCain is a cocky bastard, like an old Tom Cruise in Top Gun. He isn’t juvenile and needy.
We don’t need another president who feels compelled to prove himself and who’ll collapse and sulk when things don’t go his way.
This is a good post. It’s like a tapa: all the flavor and creativity that hits the spot, but doesn’t leave you stuffed.
Obama is remarkably telegenic.
No. He has ginormous ears and those purple, purple lips, ugh!
I won’t watch those puple lips spilling treacle for the next 4 years!
neo,
Another advantage is that his election would be a bitter pill to swallow for those Europeans who keep carping on what a racist country America is.
There is very interesting piece about this it’s not just Europeans but looks its beyond that all around the world
Read this The View From Yemen
Barack Obama, January 31, 2008
Unfortunately, the way to end that mindset is to kill every war-minded Islamicist on the planet and take over every madras. Does he want to do that?
Or does he want us to curl up and hope we’ll be OK as the rest of the world is submerged in darkness, disease, and death?
njcommuter instead making these rhetoric statements, go and ask him he should have ready answers for you,
Obama wants to end thought crimes. Wow, great.
Gee, I wonder if Future President Obama really thinks tough old Democratic pols like Steny Hoyer and John Murtha or even the Blue Dogs are going to forever flutter their eyelashes and swoon every time he whispers, “Yes we can!” into their ears. Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiiight.
OFFICIAL OBAMA CAMPAIGN SLOGAN:
“Yes we can, because we have the audacity to hope we can change! Got that?”
Politicians like nothing better than for voters to give them a blank check on policy matters. While Obama’s true plans (other than winning) are opaque to us, many of Hillary’s are, too. She is not about to tell us all that would be in store for us.
I keep flashing on the Robert Redford movie “The Candidate” where, with the help of a good campaign manager (Peter Boyle), he defeats a far more experienced opponent.
At the end, after winning, he asks that manager “What do we do now?”, and oh, the look of horror on said manager’s face.
(Ok! I know! The movie clearly declares itself a fantasy by showing a campaign manager having a “What have I DONE?!” moment 🙂
I am fortunate enough not have a tv so I haven’t seen Obama speak. Instead, I read about it on the net and what I read reminds me of Jerzy Kozinski’s book and movie Being There about Chance the gardener played so perfectly in the movie by Peter Sellers. Platitudes masquerading as profundity. Every “hope freak” I know has been sucked in by this guy Obama despite the fact that his real and very nasty agenda growls beneath the “uplifting” messages of his speeches.
Ok folks, homework time.
Research this phrase ” Common Purpose” as it applies to a British based international organization.
Then study about it as it applies to Britain and the EU. Particularly how it is alledgedly being used to Crush the last British Nationalist resistance to the EU socialist collective.
Study up on the “Lisbon Treaty.”
Then start listening to how many times Obama uses “common purpose” in his speeches and web page.
Check out Ted Kennedy and the phrase “politics of common purpose”.
Then take a hard look at Obamas immigration plan.
Maybe Barack al Hussein isn’t The One, NAACP is pushing him to the back of the bus:
NAACP Leader Calls for Seating Disenfranchised Delegates, Sharpton Promises Pickets at DC Democrat HQ if They Do
NAACP leader Julian Bond called on the Democratic Party leadership to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates disenfranchised by the Democrats as a penalty for moving their primary dates forward.
The next day, in a letter sent to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, the Rev. Al Sharpton said it would be a “grave injustice” if Democrats seated the Florida and Michigan delegates.
In the letter to Dean, Sharpton threatened to march on the Democrats’ Washington, D.C. headquarters if the delegates in question were allowed to vote. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will be the beneficiary if the votes are allowed.
If she gets a lot the superdellies and the Florida an MI dells get seated, Obambi is toast.
The dems know what happens politically and socially to people who thwart a Clinton.
Beware a woman scorned–Hillary will go scorched earth on the party….
I think the wheels are largely going to come off the Obama bandwagon. The fascinating question is whether it will happen before or after the nominee is decided upon. I feel pretty damn sure it will happen before November. There’s just nothing there–not a single accomplishment of any kind. Sooner or later it’s going to matter to a lot of people.
Barack al Hussein?
Um, did he know Hussein is his father name?
Why he hided sooooooooo long till last week?
Interesting, dose he rely knew his father?
There was an article show B. Obama with his adopted family?
So where his real mother and his stepfather?
Njcommuter,
Btw Obama if you change one letter from his name to “S”= Osama
“Well, now comes another bad idea … maybe even worse. The Democratic Party actually intends to put a Muslim fundamentalist in the White House. Yes, you read it right. They want to put a man of Muslim origins in the White House.”
I’d say Obamas worth at least a 15% increase in destructive policies over Clinton.
But that has to be weighed against which personality Americans could tolerate over the next 4 years.
the way to end that mindset is to kill every war-minded Islamicist on the planet
Iraq’s Jihad Myths
By Reuel Marc Gerecht
Sunday, February 17, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/15/AR2008021503098.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Just found your site and have only dipped in but I like what I’ve seen so far (I got mugged by reality on 9/11 too and have been finding my way around my new right-wing head ever since). I’ve been impressed by what I’ve heard from McCain but I’m troubled by his vote on waterboarding in the Senate. I see this as a real benchmark issue – I’m happy to take an Israeli view of dealing with terrorists but to me there is nothing to be gained and everything to lose in going down the road of state-sanctioned torture. We are defending our (imperfect) democratic societies from a bunch of angry killers with sexual problems who will hack off our heads with a rusty knife live on the internet. We already own the high moral ground, we just need to hold onto it. Waterboarding and Abu Graib etc give ammo to our enemies – spurious and hypocritical as their arguments may be, they will be aired at every opportunity by apologists in the Western media. Also, what impresses me most about McCain is his consistency – he seems to have been pro-Surge before the Bush administration. I think he’s made a mistake here. I’m open to arguments….