It’s an easy one, folks. The good and bad news all in one: Barack Obama is a hack.
As he announces he may “refine” his views on Iraq, as he steps back from NAFTA protectionism, as hc “clarifies” his positions on capital punishment, gun control, abortion, capital gains, etc., etc., we now see writ large close to the most conventional politician to come down the pike in some time. How much of this backpedaling is for real? I am almost certain not even Barack knows for sure. As commenter Terrye writes below, he could “go back to position#1″ the moment he’s sworn in.
Still, there is some reassurance that the candidate of amorphous “change” is in reality the candidate of “politics as usual.”
The bad news is that public doesn’t seem to know it– or if they do, they don’t care. A large number appear to regard Obama as a demi-god and his campaign is clearly reveling in it. They are floating the idea of changing the venue of his acceptance speech from Denver’s Pepsi Center to the much larger outdoor Invesco Field. I’m not going to indulge in the obvious comparisons. But I am disturbed by this development. 76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.
In any case, Happy Fourth… and if you haven’t, check in on Roger Kimball’s meditation.
’76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.’
The ghost of Leni Riefenstahl is smiling. After all, that sort of crowd manipulation worked out so well for Germany.
Welcome to Denver, or as we like to call it, New Nuremberg.
Barack, Barack uber alles…
Scott
I heard Obama yesterday defending his flip-flops by talking about McCain’s changes on drilling offshore and how he was “against Bush’s tax cuts before he was for them.” I hope McCain is sharp enough to note the difference between having circumstances change his mind about something (like having a huge oil supply problem changing his mind about drilling, and seeing that the tax cuts worked changing his mind about the tax cuts), and Obama simply making it up as he goes along, with no changes in circumstance (other than political expediency of the moment) causing the changes of mind.
Also, I’ve heard McCain explain his vote against the Bush tax cuts, and his reasoning was MORE conservative than Bush’s. McCain was against them at the time because they didn’t also require cuts in spending. It wasn’t as though he was simply against tax cuts in principle, he was against run-away spending. Clearly, he saw the tax cuts worked in terms of economics, including increased revenue to the government resulting from them, but he has also stuck to his “anti-earmark” guns.
I hope he can effectively draw the distinction to the electorate between when and why he changed his mind and the way Obama is changing his mind.
Given the regime you folks support (and that your party has supported), I wouldn’t be pulling out the authoritarian/totalitarian card so quickly. You’re rapidly pegging all of the irony meters in the world at 11.
For what it’s wroth, Henri Alleg. I am a registered Democrat and wanted our country to take action against the likes of Pinochet and Somoza in the past, just as I supported action against Saddam. I have been consistent in that regard, in case you care. Have you?
They are floating the idea of changing the venue of his acceptance speech from Denver’s Pepsi Center to the much larger outdoor Invesco Field. I’m not going to indulge in the obvious comparisons. But I am disturbed by this development. 76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.
It happens every Sunday for several months out of the year.
The Romans had bread and circuses. We have beer and football.
Republicans in Colorado were some of the most vocal supporters of the tax to build the stadium.
‘76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.’
Draw the distinction, please, between people CHOOSING this and BEING FORCED to do so. In a free society, people may think as much or as little as they choose. They may join a cult if they like. And by the way, Roger, you seem to have forgotten an email conversation we had concerning PJ Media readers having their own little ‘Yes we can’ moment. There’s never a shortage of yes-men and backslappers – but please let’s not pretend they’re only lined up behind Obama.
A gathering of the Obama’Nation
I understand he intended to feed the 76,000 with two loaves of bread and a few fish, as well.
Henri: For all the comparison of Bush as a dictator, his stance on personal freedom is much more laudable than the Party you appear to support. While Iraq was botched tactically, can you really say it is going to be worse off in the long run? He supported the Second Amendment and is opposed to limiting the First Amendment with frivolous “hate” speech legislation. Obama has been against every one of these ideas/positions at one time or another (and might switch back if there is an advantage), how exactly is he supporting more personal or societal freedom??
Oh yeah, and before you try to accuse me of a political bias… I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat… I think both of your parties are too corrupt and too tolerant of inept but poltically adept bottom feeders.
We will need a movie that starts with a clip of Obama’s airplane descending through the clouds to meet the rapturous thousands who are waiting for him by torchlight. Are book burnings next?
irishlad,
Where did you get your narrative about 1) all of the motivations for McCain’s original tax vote, and 2) the long term effect of the Bush tax cuts?
Maybe you do the selective editing of reality on your own. But, you seem so sincere that it looks more like you’re a middleman. I’d like to know your source.
Three words to remember: “the Bradley Effect.”
Obama will never be president. Despite his overwhelming advantage on all fronts, he and McCain are still tied nationally.
That means Obama loses, because a significant percentage of his supposed supporters won’t admit to a pollster that they’re not going to vote for him.
They won’t vote for him for legitimate reasons, but they’re afraid of being tarred as racist for admitting they can’t support him.
So they give the pollster some happy talk, and then Obama goes on to lose in the general election.
And if you’re not convinced that the Bradley Effect is relevant, just wait until gas hits $6.00 a gallon, and the Messiah is still lecturing us on how drilling for our own oil won’t change anything.
He’s going to lose because he’s a smug, arrogant, grim, belligerent, socialist, flip-flopping, cosseted, affirmative-action jackass who thinks he’s entitled to be president, and he’s too afraid to debate McCain.
Americans won’t give him the job of commander-in-chief. They’re having fun now with all the hoopla, but when it comes time to make the decision, they’ll vote in the old white guy.
Trust me.
Oh, and he’s much more useful to the Clintons and the black “civil rights” leaders as a failed presidential candidate than as a president, so they’ll sabotage him, too.
I think the word you meant to use was demagogue.
Two metaphors spring to mind with Barack Obama. The first is ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing.’ Not exactly sure what sheep he has been imitating at this point, but the insinuation that he is NOT what he seems is more compelling by the day, and very unpleasantly so.
The second metaphor is that of a shepherd calling to his flock of sheep. His every pronouncement is met with “OOh Baaah Maaah!”
Get it? I wish I did not.
“Americans won’t give him the job of commander-in-chief. They’re having fun now with all the hoopla, but when it comes time to make the decision, they’ll vote in the old white guy.”
That just about says it all.
Tom W,
Well I’m sure that many would be pleased if you’re correct. Presumably then all will be well by making the Bush tax cuts permanent, and adding new tax cuts for businesses, and taxing businesses for health care such that they drop employee coverage because of the corresponding new health care tax credit that won’t cover premiums, and continuing in Iraq until the Iraqis finally settle their differences and makeup so we win (or they kick us out in favor they’re allegiance with Iran, whichever comes first), and unilaterally capitulating in trade deals rather than using access to our consumer market as leverage to push trade partners for a more even the playing field for American workers.
Time will tell.
thier
their
I suck
“76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.”
You can’t argue without playing the Fascist card, so you’ve lost the argument. You know, Roger, back when Bush was overwhelmingly popular, you and like-minded writers were praising the American people for getting behind that young “war president”; now, they bet on a new horse, and you dismiss them as cultists. How elitist.
I admire John McCain a great deal, but I have legitimate policy differences with him. I could’ve voted for the John McCain of the 107th Congress, but not this one. Opposing someone on policy grounds is legitimate; opposing someone because you believe he is a covert Fascist-as is your view of Obama-is not.
Speaking of policy and the like, writers actually interested in such things, and not the sensationalism of politics, have shown that Obama has been more consistent than you want to believe in his opposition to the Iraq War and his support for withdrawal. The overwhelming worry of you and everyone on this board seems to be that the senator is a black Howard Zinn, hell-bent on destroying the foreign policy consensus of the last half-century. You want a Zinn-twin? Write in Kucinich.
Here is one blogger:
http://tinyurl.com/578dlc
“During the primary, agreeing with Clinton (that plans for withdrawal must not change no matter what happens on thr ground) would have been the popular thing to do. Obama did not do it. And he was right not to. Preserving some flexibility to respond to unforeseen circumstances is almost always the right thing to do, and this is especially true when you’re talking about your policy for something like Iraq. Just to state the obvious:
Obama is saying what he will do if he is elected. He won’t be able to do any of it until he takes office, nearly seven months from now (if he wins.) The situation in Iraq can change quickly and unpredictably. Moreover, in the nature of things, there is information about the situation there that he will only have access to once he takes office. For Obama to say that he knows for sure, right now, exactly what he will do, in every detail, and that neither the advice he receives from the commanders on the ground nor anything that happens in the intervening months could possibly change his mind, would be idiotic. Politically expedient, perhaps, but idiotic nonetheless.
Saying that he will be open to advice and new information, however, is not the same as saying that his fundamental views on Iraq are open to change, absent some genuinely unpredicted and catastrophic development. It’s one thing to be open to a somewhat different pace for troop withdrawal, and another thing altogether to change your mind about the wisdom of getting out of Iraq in the first place.”
Obama reminds me of Huey Long. He is a demagogue. And despite the culture of fear and paranoia so carefully cultivated by the left, Bush has not in fact been authoritarian or dictatorial or any of those things. Any sane person can see that.
Note that I said sane.
Obama will stand there before the screaming chanting multitudes, doing that arrogant little half smile and hilt tilt thing and millions will be entranced. Millions of others will be getting the willies.
Obama is a politician. That is not a bad thing really, but it certainly does not make him the second coming of anything.
And I think Obama will revert to position #1, if he can remember what it was.
‘Draw the distinction, please, between people CHOOSING this and BEING FORCED to do so.’
So, all the Germans were just following orders? What was it Natalie Portman said in that Star Wars movie? “This is how freedom ends, with thunderous applause” or some such?
Jay:
I have always supported Bush, but I never fainted when he spoke. I never applauded him when he blew his nose and I never mindlessly chanted his name. The very point of Obama’s campaign has been his transcendence. It has been the history making, almost metaphysical nature of the whole thing. Who him use public financing? Perish the thought, he is above such trivial matters, etc. You can not have it both ways. If I am expected to look at Obama as if he were some sort of political messiah then it goes without saying the Obama campaign should note the fact that it is becoming more and more obvious that his feet are made of clay.
Mister Snitch!
Umm, every one of those National Socialist party minions did “choose” to be at those mass rallies. Look at their faces. They are alternately stern in their resolve and ecstatic at being given a chance to catch a mere glimpse of their benighted Fuhrer (leader). Mass-transit systems were packed for days leading up to those political spectacles designed to instill a collective sense of solidarity and wonder at being subsumed into something they believed was so special.
As for me, I won’t start to get worried until tens of thousands of folks from all over the nation are gathered together for an evening of solidarity and chanting for the victory of some charismatic third-way leader whose soaring oratory on hope & change embodied the revolutionary spirit and collective will of a progressive people’s movement based on the politics of race and meaning.
Oh, wait…!?
Happy Fourth?
No, Happy Independence Day.
“You can’t argue without playing the Fascist card, so you’ve lost the argument.”
Facist card? It seems more like Beatle-mania to me.
Terrye,
Do you realize that it is BHO’s adversaries (like yourself) who push the messiah, Koolaid, cult, Obamabot themes? BHO very often refers to his capacity for mistakes.
And, for the most part, his supporters’ enthusiasm is unremarkable. Folks have been excited for politics, sports, and entertainers in the past. Really, being enthusiastic about politics is probably the most productive pursuit among the three that I’ve listed.
Jay,
I’m in a similar boat. I even campaigned for McCain in the 2000 primary.
I agree about Iraq: the suggestion that BHO would use a few pages of a withdrawal strategy from his website as the actual procedure for the removal of troops is insane. Of course there would be guidance from the military (and other parts of the government) related to the actual logistics and physical circumstances on the ground. The specific implementable withdrawal plan will involve the work of thousands of folks.
And, like you noted, it was HRC (in full straw grasping pander mode, on the way to losing) who drew the deepest line in the sand, BHO left the door ajar.
Obama makes mistakes?
I recall it always being his campaign, or some junior staffer or someone before they went under the bus … Has Obama ever said he was mistaken without blaming someone — anyone — else? (About something impoertant that got screwed up … his notes on the questionnaire — that type of stuff.)
I’m not exactly sure what required “moderation.” Michelle Obama DID say “Obama will make you work” to a group of women in, I believe, North Carolina a few months ago. I did not make it up. However, it is your site and you certainly have the right to run it as you see fit, so I have no problem with that.
I heard BHO healed many people that day!
He clearly indicated his bitter remarks were poorly chosen. That was a big deal.
Although taken literally, he identified a very narrow slice of bitter folks because he had many qualifiers for these folks (i.e. it was not just “rural voters”), and he said they only clung to one of five things–one of which was anti-trade sentiment (not so bad or rare.)
Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know the specifics of his original statement. I even saw reporters in the WaPo and NYT (as well as CNN) completely alter his statement where the subject folks were expanded to all rural voters, and the word ‘or’ was changed to ‘and’, not to mention that only guns and religion were presented as the things to be clung to.
See for yourself:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
No doubt the oceans will lower themselves when Fast Barry starts speaking.
‘76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.’
Draw the distinction, please, between people CHOOSING this and BEING FORCED to do so.
The sad part of that question is the assumption that those cheering Nazis yelling “Heil Hitler” were there under compulsion of some sort…anyone who’s read about Hitler’s Germany knows they were there voluntarily, and the tears of joy when he spoke were genuine. Fortunately, nothing Barack Obama has said yet makes me think he’s anything like another Hitler. I won’t vote for him, but I can maintain some perspective.
76,000 people blindly screaming “Yes, we can!” in a giant stadium is not an image I relish seeing in a free society.
Especially when they’re screaming praise for a man who wrote in Audacity of Hope: ‘I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.’
Then again, it could turn into a tremendous overreach like the Wellstone funeral.
Henri Alleg, you people really need to learn the meanings of the word “authoritarian” and “fascist” because you’ve been using them wrong for the last 8 years. Learn what they mean, so you can recognize when the real authoritarians and fascists are shutting you up.
Terrye wrote: I have always supported Bush, but I never fainted when he spoke. I never applauded him when he blew his nose and I never mindlessly chanted his name.
A very good point. The only chanting that ever accompanied Bush in his heyday was USA! USA! For the country, not the man.
Bush was never anyone’s idol.
Save the Date!
On August 28th, 76,000 fanatical Barack Obama supporters will fill the Invesco Field in Denver to join the Obama Cult of Personality and mindlessly chant slogans as they sign the country over to their glorious leader.
Forget Recreate ’68, Barack Obama is going to Recreate ’38.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7ZJmrzmeXA
1jb:
People like me??? I am not the one who called the man a lightworker. That is the point. Obama supporters want it both ways. On one hand we are to believe that Obama is a higher being, someone who will left us from this tawdry earth blah blah blah…but on the other it is his “detractors” who say that he fancies himself a messiah. I got that idea from the man himself and his Borg like fan club.
Why just every day evening someone told me that when we get a guy like that the steel mills will come back in Indiana. Oh yes and there shall be peace in the land. Gag me. He is feeding people all kinds of crap in the hopes that they will vote for him.
Oh yeah, and gas will be cheap again too. After all, the only reason it is high is that Bush and Cheney are lining their pockets. This is the kind of nonsense that passes for political debate from the Democrats and their new leaders. Blame Bush, make promises you can not keep and pretend you are special.
that should be yesterday evening. I would use preview, but like Obama I don’t make mistakes. I am just refining my comments.
I believe both FDR and JFK made nomination acceptance speeches from football stadiums without having hysterical geezer hinting that they were Nazis, but I could be wrong.
Frankly, this is the sort of stuff that killed John Kerry four years ago, you just couldn’t figure out exactly where he stood, on anything. Everybody knows that Obama is going to adapt to the current situation, but this stupid waffling doesn’t show “good judgement” but rather mere political calculation (i.e. the old politics) …
Talk about fearing the “netroots”.
For all the talk that Bush never changed his strategy .. at least when he went to General Petreaus for a “new strategy for Iraq”, he changed. And it’s working.
This clown doesn’t even have to face the possibility of blood on his hands that would come with being POTUS, and he retreats.
It’s easy to see through Obama .. no courage here. What a wuss.
Steve Smith, thanks for the support – but I just went to my doctor and he said my cholesterol wasn’t too bad for a guy my age. And I still have a pulse…. btw, I’m not keen on anybody (JFK or Shaquille ONeal) making acceptance speeches in stadiums.
Steve:
One of the things that makes it difficult for Democrats to win national elections is that they are so obnoxious. I would say you are good case in point. As for FDR And JFK, they did not have access to the kind of facilities these people have today. Why FDR did not even have prime time coverage. Imagine that.
But only us old geezers would remember the days before instant communications and color TV and Cspan and the like. I have an idea, maybe Obama could offer liquor to the people who come. Heaven knows I have heard a lot of old geezer Democrats laugh about the good old days when they would give the People whiskey in return for votes for Democrats. On one old boy told me his dad ran a bar and used to brag how not one Republican got a vote in his precinct. Ah yes, those were the good old days.
I was looking for your post on Lamed Vavniks when I found the post on Obama.
I wish Bush could have flip-flopped on Iraq policy. I wish people could say-oops I made a mistake-can I make it right. I wish we did not have National guardsman serving their third tours in Iraq and I certainly wish they were here to help with domestic national disasters.
In 2004 I was running for Congress in Illinois (only got 35% of the vote-I lost)
But I did get to meet the Obamas. I met a man who was able to get people to talk to each other that do not usually do anything but snipe at each other. He believes in labor, American Industry, Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and Health Care. He understands what building highways through neighborhoods means for health.
76,000 people screaming in a stadium may seem disconcerting to you, but being disenfranchised in 2000 is more disconcerting to me. He is getting people who have felt alienated from the system since 2000 involved in the system. He has gotten our young excited that they have the right to vote. In a democracy this is good.
Stevie, that is an OUTRAGEOUS SMEAR.
Roger said that he was “not going to indulge in the obvious comparisons” and he remained true to his word.
I am NOT calling Roger Simon a hysterical geezer, but if he isn’t a hysterical geezer then what is he?
Gloria:
I wish Clinton had dealt with Saddam and Osama a decade ago and saved us all the trouble today.
Maybe you wish that Bush had just said OOPS in 2004 and brought all the troops home and let Iraq descend into chaos. Of course if he had we would probably be back there by now. I just do not see the point in this kind of wishing.
As far as that is concerned if Bush had not gotten the go ahead from the Congress to go into Iraq, Saddam would be alive and well today and running Iraq. The Food for Oil scam would have been a great success for the Butcher of Baghdad and his weapons programs would no doubt be up and running today. He would set about finishing the job on the Kurds he started and Zarqawi would be another Osama Bin Laden. You can say I do not know that, but then again you do not know that Saddam would have changed either. You do not know we would be at peace today.
I do not care if you have met Obama or not. The man was against the war in 2002 when it costs him nothing, he was in line with Bush in 2004 and then against the war again in 2006.
He believes in Obama. So far that is all I can see that he actually believes in.
And our military, including the National Guard is a volunteer military. These young men and women in uniform are a national treasure, they really are. But if they do not want to be in the service, they don’t have to be.
“I wish Bush could have flip-flopped on Iraq policy. I wish people could say-oops I made a mistake-can I make it right.”
Um, he did and ordered the surge. I think you were very fortunate to get 35% of the vote.
“And our military, including the National Guard is a volunteer military … if they do not want to be in the service, they don’t have to be.”
My sons are Marines and both went to Iraq. Gloria pointed out how the soldiers are being overextended and Terrye responded with the above. I don’t like the reasoning implied here which seems to be that since soldiers are free agents, any utilization of them is fine and dandy, no matter what.
I’ve got an idea: lets start saving soldiers up for a rainy day.
Not as cool as McCain’s acceptance speech at an old folks’ home will be.
Obama is now calling for “voluntary” youth service, run by the government (see Jonah Goldberg at NRO). Yep, let’s get rid of those nasty Boy Scouts and bring back the good old days of der Hitlerjugend. Obama and his charming spouse are nothing but fascists, and they are not kidding. Those who feel uneasy about this open air coronation in front of 76,000 screaming fans should feel uneasy. I’m sure the Democrat’s version of Leni Riefenstahl, Michael Moore, will be there to film the whole thing.
Gloria weirdly noted: “He [the Wizard of O] understands what building highways through neighborhoods means for health.”
What? Is this an ISSUE? Are there that many new highways being built these days? Hell, maybe there are. What do I know.
Gloria opines: “76,000 people screaming in a stadium may seem disconcerting to you, but being disenfranchised in 2000 is more disconcerting to me.”
Oh Lord, will this canard NEVER die? Sheesh. Gloria, get some medication. Gore lied, people cried. He got way richer not being President anyway, by peddling his Miracle Elixir of global warming baloney. So it was all win-win for the greezy little con man and his uber carbon footprint lifestyle.
As far as the Big O flip-flopping on Iraq withdrawal, whatever. Of course he’s being politically expedient, what else is new? He’s just another political ‘ho. But if things continue to improve markedly in Iraq, when does O step up and say “I was wrong to oppose the war in the first place. We have achieved a remarkable success and the Iraqi people are now free and a democratic ally in the Middle East.”
Yeah if he says THAT I might have a shred of respect for the arrogant little twerp.
Wow, Roger. The world must be so strange and frightening for someone who doesn’t understand simple words like “refine” (“to make improvement by introducing subtleties or distinctions”)–which does not mean “flip-flop”–and “clarify” (“to make more understandable”). If people like you and the eager McCain staffers understood terms as simple as these, Obama wouldn’t always have to be reiterating his points.
Odd, though, that you repeatedly fail to notice that McCain has yet to find a policy about which can’t flip-flop; from immigration to tax cuts, the man’s only firm position seems to be that he ought to be president. Thank God he won’t be.