(Vanity) Barack Obama, the Candidate for Everyone?

grey_whiskers ^ | 5-19-2008 | grey_whiskers

[grey_whiskers]

The course of the Democrat primaries this year has surprised everyone: most pundits figured going in that Hillary Clinton had the nomination all sewn up, and that by next year she would be crossing the country on "Broomstick One". But a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation. Another candidate, named Barack [Censored] Obama.

Charles Krauthammer has written a brilliant and insightful piece on the errors made by Hillary Clinton's team, and how they contributed to Senator Obama's success. But I feel that his analysis did not credit the brilliance of the candidate himself. Obama has correctly sensed the mood of the country, in that the left was primed for "anyone but Bush, lead us out of the wilderness". (Well, anyone but Bush, *except* the Clintons; we've had enough of them too. His comeback to Hillary in the debate, that "I'm looking forward to having you advise me too" was the perfect comeuppance to her smugness, and positioned him as an underdog which people could feel good about supporting.) He also realized the dissatisfaction of the Republicans with the endless stream of RINOs and brush-offs of conservatives by the power brokers in DC. And finally, he was able to position himself flawlessly (in today's all-too-PC political climate) as the only candidate legitimately able to challenge Hillary in her historic role as the first viable female candidate for the Presidency of these United States. Not on the basis of experience: oddly enough, her only experience was as the captain of the Titanic during her failed bid to nationalize health care. Not on the basis of military experience, either: while McCain, as a POW, can "out-tough" Hillary from the right, Obama didn't even try to do so. Instead, he veered to the left, and has offered to negotiate with state sponsors of terror, such as Iran and Syria.

So how did Obama vault to the top of the Democrat party? By simultaneously pandering to, and denying, the class warfare rhetoric of the left. As a black man, he holds a trump card over Hillary's historicity -- everyone instinctively knows that a black man ranks higher on the preferred victims' hierarchy than a mere Yale Law School graduate woman, no matter how much her husband has cheated on her. Senator Obama's on-again, off-again embracing and rejecting of the Rev. ("God D#$@ America!") Wright, and the intemperate remarks of his wife ("...for the first time in my life, I felt proud of America.") -- despite multiple Ivy League degrees and a job earning more than most physicians -- are all part of Obama's attraction for his fans. "He hates America, so he's one of US!" the left thinks; in the meantime, they try to sell him to Middle America by saying "Well, no wonder he's angry -- he's black. Isn't it wonderful how he doesn't play the race card?" And his upbringing in Indonesia has exposed him to both Muslim and Christian thought. How wonderfully...multicultural of him!

So this explains his appeal to disaffected lefties, guilty elitist white liberals, and to black people: but it also shows how he (despite the talk of 'transcending' race) is failing to appeal to Middle America and the Reagan Democrats. "God D@#$! America!" was bad enough. But his remark that some Americans were bitterly clinging to their guns and religion (as though the Puritans were a group of anti-NRA atheists) caused him to lose any chance of winning some demographic blocks ever again.

So while he can flash his famous smile, and declare that "We are the change we have been waiting for" to crowds of 75,000 in liberal havens such as Portland, Oregon, he is still lacking the broader appeal which will lead to a sure victory in the General Election. He can't win the big states, even against Hillary? To paraphrase Charles Dickens, "He was the best of candidates; he was the worst of candidates."

Which brings to mind one other thing. I suggested that Barack Obama is actually a multicultural candidate. But I think that he is multicultural based more on his policies and mindset than on anything else.

He is, as Joe Biden (Plagiarist - DE) observed, an "...African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Until you puncture the crust, and get friendships with race-baiters like Rev. Wright.

So he's an inverted Oreo.

He is passionately committed to the environment, and refuses to wear the American flag because he doesn't like cliches.

Until you realize he has connections to terrorists like William Ayers and Bernadine Doehrn.

So he's a watermelon. Green on the outside, red on the inside.

And, as mentioned before, he his of mixed parentage.

Until you realize that he is the most liberal member of the US Senate. Worse than Hillary; worse than Kennedy; worse than Chuck Schumer.

So he's a newspaper. Black and White and RED all over.

No wonder the press loves him so much!

[CharlesWayneCT]

Webb is a very smart man with very bad ideas. But he would make a much better President than Barack Obama. Its scary, but true.

At least Webb has military experience, he has some leadership skills and experience, and he did something real with his life before he joined the radical anti-war left.

If it wasn’t for Webb’s strong anti-war views, I would be more afraid that John McCain would pick Webb. Webb hates George Bush, but I bet he has an admiration for McCain.