Obamarama

NY Times ^ | February 4, 2007 | WILLIAM SAFIRE

[neverdem]

“Politics has become so bitter and partisan,” Senator Barack Obama said, “so gummed up by money and influence. . . .” Though the rest of his sentence petered out into a bureaucratic “big problems that demand solutions,” what struck me was the forceful word picture evoked by the verb phrase gummed up. Here was a presidential candidate unafraid to use a slang verb with verve.

It’s an Americanism in the sense of “spoiled,” first cited by the O.E.D. in the college slang at Yale in 1901. Rudyard Kipling helped it along to trans-Atlantic status with a pregnant observation in a 1932 short story: “Research is gummed up with thinking.” (If you dare to hang that Kipling aphorism on the wall of a stiff-necked research institution or Washington think tank, then you’re a man, my son.) Senator Bob Dole in 1982 cautioned against undue optimism about passage of an extension of the Voting Rights Act with “the works around here get gummed up pretty easily,” and lest we forget, that senator went on to win the Republican nomination for president.

Obama, often described as a “media darling” (just as Senator John McCain was in 2000), is a politician who apparently chooses his words with care. Consider the adjective he chose to deal with questions about his purchase of a strip of land adjacent to his home from Tony Rezko, his longtime friend indicted (not convicted) last fall on charges of extorting kickbacks from companies seeking state business. At first, Obama acknowledged that “it was stupid,” a harsh admission, but later found an adjective better suited to a candidate for high office: “I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase that strip from Rezko, given that he was already under a cloud of...”

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

"He is a clean boy" Biden

[cgk]

Obama, often described as a “media darling” (just as Senator John McCain was in 2000), is a politician who apparently chooses his words with care.

That may well be but it doesn't appear that he chooses his company with care.

---

From IslamicHope.Org's Home Page, the lead banner:

That's Najee Ali to the right of Obama in the center.

Najee Ali (not his real name) was convicted in 2004 of a felony hit run and perjury. It was revealed Ali (real name Ronald Todd Eskew) had 9 prior bench warrants, 2 pending court appearances, 3 driver's licenses and 2 social security numbers while being investigated for identity theft. Just the kind of guy you want to appear publicly with.

[snarks_when_bored]

It's cute for Obama to be publicly self-deprecating about a shady land deal with a crooked pol that enhances his finances, but the questions about impropriety and/or criminality remain valid even after the press conference and photo op are over.

[Bernard]

He's a Democrat from Chicago. It's hard to come out of that environment without a little dirt or slime.

[alaskamomma]

What a boneheaded article..

[tomnbeverly]

So when is this guy going to answer a serious question? Lets start with

1. What specifically are you going to do to stop the Islamic Radicals from coming to America to chop off our gummed up heads?

Go Barrack Hussein Osama no even the medi induced liberal 15 points is going to help you.

[sheik yerbouty]

ya left out "and a partridge in a pear tree"!

[isom35]

I want to see someone use the phrase "obama mama drama" at some point.

[spokeshave]

I would be happy just to see Barack Hussain Obama

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

http://obama.senate.gov/


Hussein is missing on his official senate bio page.

[YaYa123]

"One way to zap a hitherto little-known person getting a rush of publicity is to afflict him with the bogus title media darling. That’s because media, when construed as singular — especially as mass media and mainstream media — connotes to its crowd of critics some manipulative monolith whose control of communication is to be resisted.''

Safire fails to mention the real import of the MSM's obsessive love affair with Obama. It will be a convenient cover when enmasse, they drop him like a hot potato to support Hillary. That will happen when Hillary and Obama go head to head in the first Democrat primary. Can't you just see the headlines as the MSM tries to convince voters the choice was theirs.

" Obama fails to capitalize on media's early support"

" Hillary's experience trumps Obama's freshness"

" Gender v Race = Gender Wins"

[taxesareforever]

what struck me was the forceful word picture evoked by the verb phrase gummed up.

It really is funny what turns the media on with Obama. Doesn't the phrase "gummed up" just send goose bumps down your back? If a conservative said this the media would call him illiterate and not qualified to run for any office let alone President.

[D-fendr]

want to see someone use the phrase "obama mama drama"

Give The Swimmer another month or so...

[edpc]

so gummed up by money and influence. . . .

I think he means like when politicians use their positions and engage in shady real estate deals. From the WaPo...

Obama and [Tony] Rezko's [well known Chicago political insider and fundraiser] wife bought adjacent properties on Chicago's South Side, closing the deals on the same day. Seven months later, wanting a bigger yard for his $1.65 million house, Obama bought a slice of the Rezko property for $104,500.

[Loud Mime]

“Politics has become so bitter and partisan...

Gee, when Clinton and his private little Goebbels, named Carville, entered the scene it decayed to its present state.

Like health care, legal costs, growth of government and racism, the democrats cause the problems then claim that they're the solution. They're the extended warranty salesmen of government.

[tiger-one]

And ask these questions.

Will you show us your birth certificate if you are running for POTUS?

Did you sign up for the Selective Service? And produce those records?

[word_warrior_bob]

The media would love a "diversity" ticket, Hillary & Obama, can you imagine the hysterics they would be in promoting this ticket??

They will be able to throw out a couple of their favorite words on a regular basis to any who oppose them, RACIST and SEXIST.

The Democrats are really going full bore with this diversity thing. Will the 2012 ticket include a "transgender" candidate?

[KStorm]

"Gummed up" means not enough liberal policies rammed down our throats.

Anyone who thinks BHO, or any other member of the Democrat party, is going to cooperate with their poitical enemies is both foolish and stupid.

[gotribe]

What was the final verdict on obama's early education? Was he educated in an indonesian madrassa or not?