Obama Selling ‘Hope.’ Should We Buy?
hope [hohp] noun, verb, hoped, hop·ing. –noun (source)
1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the bestv. intr.
2. To wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment.
In the week prior to opening his presidential bid, Senator Barack Obama was quoted in the New York Times:
Mr. Obama went so far as to tell Democrats in Washington last week that voters were looking for a message of hope, and disparaged the notion that a presidential campaign should be built on a foundation of position papers or details.
“There are those who don’t believe in talking about hope: they say, well, we want specifics, we want details, we want white papers, we want plans,” he said then. “We’ve had a lot of plans, Democrats. What we’ve had is a shortage of hope.”
Yet, what is Senator Obama selling? If hope is wanting something that can be had, events that will turn out for the best or a wish for something with an expectation of fulfillment, how does hope turn to reality?
Blogger extraordinaire Pat Santy writing in Dr. Sanity and regarding the many Democrats that have abandoned Hillary for Obama stated: “…the left, who willy-nilly have jumped the Clinton ship and climbed aboard the Obama ‘vessel of hope’.” [emphasis added] And so have hundreds of thousands of non Hillary enthused Democrats, independents and not a few Republicans… all looking for “hope” and thinking they have found it.
And, maybe they have!
From perhaps a psychoanalytic point of view, hope can be said to deliver someone from feelings of hopelessness or helplessness. Certainly there are hundreds of thousands citizens that feel hopeless and/or helpless given the pounding the MSM has made on the economy raising specters of recession, even to the point that congressmen and a certain president, who ought to know better, believe that pumping billions of dollars into the economy, borrowed from the future, and the reckless spending of congress (both Republican and Democrat led congresses) that created much of the problem in the first place.
Eric Erikson, a psychoanalyst famed for his disagreements with Freud and his psycho-social developmental model, defines hope as: “…the belief that even when things are not going well, they will work out in the end.”
Things will work out in the end! Well, one may legitimately ask how will they work out. Is hope shorn of work towards a goal, or is hope something that is only based on wish fulfillment? Can hope, in and of itself, create a new reality and change the current one?
I would guess not. In fact, I would state that given nothing but hope, than nothing will change. Obama is in fact counting on those that do not understand what he is saying will be in his corner come election time. There are those who might go further and state that his entire campaign is based on the “hope” that he can convince enough people that words, uttered in the most sincere and uplifting manner will overcome a dearth of experience.
So, what is a voter supposed to, who is the average voter supposed to back? I suggest that it is the candidate that tells you things you don’t want to hear, the one that tells you that you are going to have to roll up your sleeves and make some effort to change things. We haven’t elected a U.S. senator for president with no experience at the national (presidential or vice-presidential) level since John Kennedy, and now, regardless of who wins the Democratic race, the next president will be a U.S. senator baring some unforeseen candidate entering the race and capturing the imagination of the public.
Kennedy sold hope, but he also stated that work was necessary for the fulfillment of the promise of America. In his Inaugural Address he proclaimed: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” He also stated:
” Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
Kennedy had it right, we must be prepared to “bear any burden, meet any hardship” and roll up our sleeves if we are to overcome the problems that currently beset our nation. And this cannot be done on the basis of hope alone.
G.M. Roper blogs at GM’s Corner.
Big news, Obama sells “hope.” The big difference as compared to JFK is that Obama also sends the message that SOMEONE ELSE will pay for it (typical Democrats, these days…).
But a snake oil charlatan he remains.
Please watch, it gets interesting at 00:26 secs.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_bkXNfvGHvk
Gee, all they have to do is convince all those lying preachers to stop telling them that their own government is out to get them. That should immediately make them feel better.
This is rather problematic. Suppose you’re a member of Obama’s key constituency living in inner-city USA, what do you have besides hope? The Democratic Liberal agenda has systematically deprived you of an education, destroyed economic growth, destroyed the traditional family, fanned the fires of racial animus, and has you locked in a political patronage system founded on graft, corruption and favoritism.
Because of the 40-year Liberal War on America you don’t have the tools to succeed, you don’t have the environment to succeed, and you don’t have the will to succeed. If you’re not able to recognize the Democratics for who they are then all you have is hope – hope that somehow, somewhere, someway things will take a miraculous turn for the better. Otherwise, it’s just hard work ahead and nobody wants that when there’s *hope*.
Obamasells hope, is just another form of dope, to be smuggled into our social fabric by the left. Obamas economics are just same ole leftist garbage, he has no economic bona fides cept what he learned at rev wrights apocolypse now church.
lets face it, its easy to fool the recent univ grads, the young, they have no sense of econ themselves, and are too damn lazy to find the energy to work outside the curriculms they accept as end alls.
As part of the non voting majority I registered for the first time in 30 years, i did so not wanting, to smoke obamas hope.
Obama needs to wish in one hand and sh*t in the other hand and see which one fills up first. I am tired of listening to his wishing, sounds like some kid or something. The media is the same way, give me a break. I have already decided not to vote for the Demo’s this time around, no one worth a sh*t. Changing as many of my friends are also, voting for John McCain, more center road person……Former Demo !!!!
To hope is to wish. To wish is not to do, but the opposite. Wishes and hope are made in idleness. Success is made in action. (So of course is failure.)
Barry O is selling his own hope to get to play with all the toys, and reinstate racism, apply Marxist politics and economics to the operations of the national government.
The man is not an empty suit but an ideologue with little power to think differently or independently from the plastic world he occupies.
His statement about concealed carry laws, after what two decades have proven, indicate he is untroubled by facts when his leftist coda is at stake. Even more troublesome, I think he is unable to hire aides/advisors who DO the homework and come up with answers not allowed by the coda. If he is able in this regard, then he has failed to hire people he will listen to. No President can be so blind, the problems are too complex.
The end game of Obama’s politics and economics is another Zimbabwe. My guess is he notices that Mugabe is not missing any meals while the country he owns is in famine. He knows he will not suffer the impact of his ideas, and he can keep a base going through patronage. There is no difference between him and many of the political class in this mindset. In great measure, this is why government is failing to produce what it claims and has become the worst solution for this country’s problems.
Funny video, Ed Wallis. (well, not so funny…)
“I can bring the country together”, promises the man from Chope ?! (change & hope)
I doubt it, since he has been endlessly emphasizing divisions since identifying with the Reverend Wright and 1/2 of his heritage, the black half, which group he apparently sees as a key demographic in winning the nomination.
I’ve never seen such an emphasis on our lack of togetherness in this country. I’ve never heard such yakking about race and sex as I have in this (enormously boring) and seemingly endless election cycle.
Barack even threw his poor white grandma under the bus, when he needed to make some dumb point about race.
“Hope” is not an action verb.
The hope Obama brings should never be underplayed. It is a hope that is about race, America, the World, the future, and about him and me. It is a burden he has to carry. And it is a burden that he should never forget. Because it is a burden that people don’t want to carry for much longer. He should never forget what this is about. He brings hope. But he also carries the hope of people who have all but given up on politics. And he is asking people to roll up their sleeved and start working for that future. More on this in my blog at http://angryafrican.net/2008/03/03/obama-dont-ever-forget-the-burden-of-hope/
Harry,
You know anything about Zimbabwe? Or Robert “Madness”" Mugabe? I think you need to go and read up a bit about Zimbabwe before you make wild statement like that. Mugabe is a warlord out to detroy his people so he can stay in power. Obama is nothing like that. Obama is more like Mandela were he is showing a future that people can be proud of. But a future they should work for.
Is Obama the American Mandela? Obama brings a message of hope and change to a country at the crossroads. It is choice between the past and the future. But is Obama the American Mandela who could inspire Americans to a better future at home? And a future where America takes it rightful place at the global table? Is he the one? The question of whether Obama is the American Mandela is discussed in my blog Angry African on the Loose at http://angryafrican.net/2008/02/20/is-obama-the-american-mandela/
Oh, Angry African, oh yawn. Can’t you simply afford some banner ad for your blog instead?
The only “hope” Obama carries is the hope that SOMEONE ELSE (just a guess here: “typical white persons”?!) will be able to pay for his stupid, bloated, totalitarian “for blacks-only” social programs.
Just a thought: Who needs Mugabe’s sword, when one can tax people to death?!
HELL NO to The Charlatan Obama.
What, exactly, can a President do about “race”? Other than things that Obama won’t try, such as smashing the grip of unions and Democratic political machines on failing inner-city schools, there’s not much he can do policy-wise.
And if Obama craters the economy with his taxes, regulations, and bureaucracy, it’ll be a long time before another Black man of the Left is trusted with the reigns of power. Race relations could actually go backward if he flunks the test, especially if it’s accompanied with lots of blame-whitey nonsense.
And if they don’t give us what we like;
He said men, that’s when, you gotta go on strike!
The Band
Why do liberals make these incredible comparisons? Obama was raised by his mother first, and later his grandmother. He went to the finest private schools in Hawaii, and then on to Yale and Harvard. By all indications, he was never poor or even lower middle class. Contrast that with Mandela who spent 26 years in an apartheid gulag in South Africa. Obama’s name should not be in the same sentence, let alone compared to Mandela.
Obama wants to:
1. Increase social security taxes.
2. Roll back Bush’s tax cuts.
3. Piss off staunch American allies like Colombia.
4. Take away the right to carry concealed weapons for protection.
5. Pull our troops out of Iraq (or maybe not). Who knows where he stands?
6. Keep abortion legal even in the 9th month.
7. Government run health care. A true nightmare.
8. Keep the borders open.
9. Get us sucked into a global warming agreement where we pay and pay.
I see classic, regressive, liberal values here without a shred of hope and change.
As any engineer will tell you, “Hope is not a plan.”
RE: Angry African. I don’t see Obama as the “American Mandela” – he simply has not suffered anything even approaching the torment faced by Mandela in defending his stand (McCain, obviously, has much more in common with Mandela on this count).
More to the point, I am pretty proud of this country as it stands. I don’t *need* Obama to make me proud. I am proud that we thought it within our national mission to liberate Iraq despite how it has turned out. I am proud that we are the kind of people who would decry Gitmo even though I think that the reality of the situation is that we needed something like it at the war’s outset. And I’d argue that the world is a rough and tumble place: we won’t take our “rightful place” by just mouthing platitudes.
With ALL that being said, you are damn right to dress down Harry for his brainless comparisons of Obama to Mugabe. I won’t be voting for Obama but, if he is elected, I’ll be proud to live in a country in which one’s skin color isn’t a disqualification for leadership. If and when I disagree with his policies I will do so in a respectful manner; honoring his position as our chosen president.
Totally agree wit the Angry African.
Mandela is a Communist. So is Obama.
You hit it brother. Keep up the good work.
I hate to say it, but in my 34 years of life, never has the American public seemed so wussed down and immature.
The fact that someone like Obama has gotten this far, sadly, proves that America has ‘jumped the shark’.
Angry African, you reveal much more than you know. You say that Obama carries a burden, and should remember that burden, but also that people don’t want to carry it much longer. Which is it?
That contradiction is why you’re angry. Hoping society will solve it for you is an illusion – no society will ever get you past it. You’re going to be miserable until you resolve it yourself.
Your choice.
“Hope” is nothing but “wishful thinking.”
Americans should never forget that out there or even in here there are people (of all races and not just Arabs) who have such a sense of religious fortitude and thus are persevering enough to take up flying lessons for years (yes for years) in an American flying-academy just so that they can have the skill to take a few minutes to divert a plane in flight to destroy non-Muslim lives and property.
The man that would have looked out for all people was squeezed out of the race and that man is JOHN EDWARDS.
FOr nearly eight years the murderous Bush regime has lied, tortured , killed and maimed yet where are the people who want to indoct these killers? It is reported that it was the MEDIA that eliminated Edwards. Because of MASS IGNORnce the U.S. FUTURE LOOKS MIGHTY BLEAK!
Hope is not always a bad thing. If our hope is invested in man — or any earthly thing — it usually leads to disappointment. If we depend on imperfect man to cure the ills in our imperfect lives, happiness will forever elude us.
Angry African – I’m sorry you describe yourself as such. You speak of a burden – anger can be the heaviest of burdens – keeping us from living as joyfully as we might. I hope you find yourself one day free. Free to live joyfully no matter your circumstances.
I encourage you to trust God; put your FAITH in Him. Ask Him to take the anger from your heart, and let Him lead you in directions you might never have known. HOPE will begin to grow as you see His Hand at work in your life. You’ll become aware of how much He loves you. How intimately He knows you. Have you ever known such love? If not, you’re hardly alone.
I think Senator Obama has never known such love either.
Too often in this imperfect world, relationships – ones that should have nutured us when we were most vulnerable – fail to give us the love we need. Too often man – or woman – fails us. We’re wounded; sometimes for a lifetime.
But there is One who will step in to fill that void. A loving, Heavenly Father. One who has known us before we were born. And His love is more than enough. It’s a love so great that it fills our hearts completely – spilling over into love and forgiveness for those who had wounded us years earlier. This is true CHARITY, the greatest of the three.
And we are finally, blessedly free.
Speaking of John Edwards, why is it that the Democratic party can produce nothing, any more, but lawyers for their presidential nominees? Is it because the Democratic party feeds off the misfortunes and conflicts in American Society, like our legal system? Is it because Democratic politicians help lawyers enrich themselves through the laws they enact and activist judges they nominate? Is it because Democrates are more suseptable to the oratorical bulls**t which lawyer practice?
SALLY: John (ambulance chaser) Edwards was left in the dust by his own tired, socialist, class warfare rhetoric. Americans don’t need nanny-state programs that “look out for us”, we need leadership that foments the ideals of personal accountability and responsibility. Government is not charged with ensuring my success or yours, but with creating an environment where all have opportunity, through positive choices and hard work, to succeed. Our government has failed us by allowing:
a corrupt, ineffective, union-dominated public school system to continue to indoctrinate, rather than educate, our children
welfare payments and health care for those who choose not to work
our nation to be overrun by illegal aliens
a corrupt judicial system that lets gang punks and sexual predators to openly roam our streets
continued moral decline by not protecting the unborn and by granting special right to sexual perverts
We don’t need John Edwards, we need American to step up and cry ENOUGH!
Hope is something that should only come into play when we have take steps to realize a goal.
As in: I’ve started saving my money for that new widget and I hope it’s everything I dreamed it will be when I get it.
Not: I hope I get a new widget.
We need plans. We need action. And we can’t sit back and “hope” others will do all the work. Then and only then should hope have any role in it.
How does a power-couple, such as Senator Obama and Michelle Obama square “hope,” within the families that raised them, and of which they have both spoken so often.
You can bet that neither family “hoped” that their children would go to college – they were going to go to college. It appears that at least some of that education was scholarships or grants, BUT, even without them, they were going to college. If the family could not get them there, then I’m betting BHO and MO would have found a way – no “hope” involved in that important decision.
Michelle Obama is the great hope-dasher, if ever there was one. She was brazen enough to tell women in Ohio to “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse….move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry,”…
Being a nurse or a social worker or in the “helping industry” – all fine careers, but so also would be corporate life. Just where do we know the Obama’s fortune is invested – certainly in corporate America, right where the Unions put their monies.
I would “hope” that a leading Presidential candidate would not be the most liberal Senator in the Senate. That’s a proper use of the word “hope.”
Maggie
Maggie’s Notebook
Utopia with Oblabla in charge? Heavens forfend! And pass the ammunition.
Sally,
Show where Bush lied. You can’t. A false assumption based on world intelligence is not a “lie.”
Show where he killed, maimed, tortured. You can’t, unless you equate all wars, such as WWII as involving all of those and it was the president at the time, Roosevelt, who personally did it. Can’t you see how inane this is.
Clarke
hope? come on. If you want something to happen, go out and do it. “Hoping” for something is like being a crybaby, and wanting someone to get it done for you. If you want “change” and you want a “new direction”…please dont go Obama’s way, this is america and not canada! socialism is not the way to go! thats not a good change, or at the least anything to hope for.