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Obama, the Platitude Salesman
Townhall.com ^ | February 15, 2008 | Charles Krauthammer

Posted on 02/15/2008 10:46:53 AM PST by Kaslin

WASHINGTON -- There's no better path to success than getting people to buy a free commodity. Like the genius who figured out how to get people to pay for water: bottle it (Aquafina was revealed to be nothing more than reprocessed tap water) and charge more than they pay for gasoline. Or consider how Google found a way to sell dictionary nouns -- boat, shoe, clock -- by charging advertisers zillions to be listed whenever the word is searched.

And now, in the most amazing trick of all, a silver-tongued freshman senator has found a way to sell hope. To get it, you need only give him your vote. Barack Obama is getting millions.

This kind of sale is hardly new. Organized religion has been offering a similar commodity -- salvation -- for millennia. Which is why the Obama campaign has the feel of a religious revival with, as writer James Wolcott observed, a "salvational fervor" and "idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-driven by pure euphoria."

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dncfalseprophets
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1 posted on 02/15/2008 10:46:54 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Consumers have any culpability here?


2 posted on 02/15/2008 10:50:54 AM PST by The_Republican (You know why Chelsea Clinton is so Ugly? Because Janet Reno is her Father! LOL! - Mac is Back!)
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To: Kaslin

Good column, thanks for sharing. I think people with a real relationship with God will be largely immune to this B. Hussein Obama cult, but those who have no anchor in their lives . . . God save us from them.


3 posted on 02/15/2008 10:51:44 AM PST by Greg F (The RNC doesn't pick the winning candidate. The RNC sucks up to the winning candidate.)
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To: Kaslin

Can they name a politician who ISN’T a platitude salesman? They all are at some point oor other.


4 posted on 02/15/2008 10:54:27 AM PST by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: Kaslin

Rush has the funniest commercial where he has people gushing over Obama’s “hope” and “change” sermons.

You know, it almost seems like secularists have discovered the Church of Obama.


5 posted on 02/15/2008 10:54:48 AM PST by I still care ("Remember... for it is the doom of men that they forget" - Merlin, from Excalibur)
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To: I still care
You know, it almost seems like secularists have discovered the Church of Obama.

They already have their own church. Obama is but the latest edition of their Jimmy Swaggart.

6 posted on 02/15/2008 10:57:42 AM PST by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: Greg F

To expand on my point, I think the people that get thrills in their legs from Obama are in spiritual danger. It will be clarifying if this cult continues; we’ll learn a lot about the people in our lives from thier reactions to it.


7 posted on 02/15/2008 10:59:25 AM PST by Greg F (The RNC doesn't pick the winning candidate. The RNC sucks up to the winning candidate.)
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To: Kaslin
platitude salesman? Photobucket
8 posted on 02/15/2008 11:06:11 AM PST by lmc12
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To: All

It’s no wonder that Obama is Clinton ‘92 redux, running on (from) Hope (Arkansas). It must utterly gall Billery that Obama has stolen their moves as the nouveau outsider.

Jimmy Carter pulled the same stunt and look at all the ills we are still dealing with because of his failed presidency. Where’s that lasting middle east peace you promised us Jimmah? Still waiting.

Obama is no different and will suffer the same fall they both did should he gain the White House.


9 posted on 02/15/2008 11:13:56 AM PST by JoshM99
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To: Kaslin

Obama/Winfrey ‘08 - Soma! Soma! Soma!


10 posted on 02/15/2008 11:17:53 AM PST by manapua
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To: Kaslin
If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. We're all in this together and we must all keep our shoulders to the wheel, our feet on the ground, our noses to the grindstone, our eyes wide open and on the stars, our minds out of the gutter, united in a single purpose with one goal, looking busy, with hearts full of love for one another, always ready to change a losing game, to be good neignbors, to share the bounty of the earth equally with one another, while each of us worships his or her own God in his, or her, own way, striving for world peace, spending the war money on schools and health care for all, welcoming all people to our land, and never ever dealing from the bottom of the deck in this the new, New Deal.

This is why I am joing the Children's Crusade of 2008 and voting for the one man who can deliver us from evil, and am definitely casting my vote (s) for Barack Hussein Obama ,,, unless Mrs. Clinton makes me a super delegate, pays to have all my children's teeth straightened, and makes me Ambassador to Costa Rica. Her husband (Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend) also said something about a new car.

11 posted on 02/15/2008 11:21:41 AM PST by Kenny Bunk (Dream Tickets: Gore/Obama vs. Petraeus/Blackwell.)
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To: Kaslin

Demcrats don’t want a president. They want a messiah. Obama is partly the Republicans creation because of the talk shows success at sowing disgust with Clinton. Now we have a much bigger monster on our hands. Obama is a much loved, attractive, anti-semitic, far-left radical who didn’t vote to protect babies that survive abortion procedures.


12 posted on 02/15/2008 11:27:39 AM PST by TheThinker
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To: I still care
New Obama ads from Rush (Mrs. Clinton take note):

Obama Ads on The Future: One

Obama Ads on The Future: Two
13 posted on 02/15/2008 11:27:43 AM PST by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Kaslin
Obama beats Clinton because he is more likeable than she is. That is not exactly much of a task. Besides that he is less of a Washington insider and has a lot less baggage.

Obama beats McCain because he is more likeable than she is. That is not exactly much of a task. Besides that he is less of a Washington insider and has a lot less baggage.

Bush beats Gore because he is more likeable than he is. That is not exactly much of a task besides that he is less of a Washington insider and has a lot less baggage.

Bush beats Kerry because he is more likeable than he is. That is not exactly much of a task. Besides that even as President he is less of a Washington insider than the the guy who said I voted against before I voted for it.

To Mr. Krauthammer, the fact that Obama wants us to believe he is some kind of blank page candidate, who suddenly appeared on the scene and is selling nothing of substance as change has little to do with the fact that he can win.

14 posted on 02/15/2008 11:36:01 AM PST by Biblebelter (I will NEVER EVER vote for McCain or any other current Senator.)
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To: Kenny Bunk
LOL. That is the post of the day!

But you forgot to stress that we must always think of the children as they are our future. So we must teach them well and let them lead the way. To those greener pastures where lion and lamb live together in perfect... perfect harmony. The dark days are behind us as we create our sunny days, chasing those clouds away, finding our way to where the air is, oh Lord, so, so very sweet.

15 posted on 02/15/2008 11:39:37 AM PST by manapua
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To: The_Republican
Daniel Henninger had an interesting column in the WSJ yesterday, "Obama at the Top."

After acknowledging that Obama is "almost insanely eloquent," Henninger points out that his message is a downer: "He is selling deep grievance over the structure of American society. That's the same message as John Edwards, or Dennis Kucinich for that matter. Hillary Clinton's mistake may have been to think this is 2008, not 1938...Barack Obama isn't selling sunshine in America."

16 posted on 02/15/2008 11:43:36 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

That’s great point! He is trying to sound like Mendela or Gandhi......however, their big problems were kind of like feeding the starving poor.......not the extreme obesity......our “poor” are faced with.

Again, that is truly a great point. Don’t think McCain could exploit it and present it in a humorous way.....but he certainly is potraying best country in the world as beaten down masses.......


17 posted on 02/15/2008 11:50:16 AM PST by The_Republican (You know why Chelsea Clinton is so Ugly? Because Janet Reno is her Father! LOL! - Mac is Back!)
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To: manapua; Kaslin
But you forgot to stress that we must always think of the children

Lissen you, I did NOT forget the gd children! They were crushed because while they had their little shoulders to the wheel, they fell into the grindstone. It was of course, operated by vile Republican capitalist warmongers, who if allowed to prevail in the next national election, will repeal the Emancipation Proclamation, reinstitute child labor, and try the Schlieffen Plan again in Europe. They will burn all the Oprah books and Barbara Streisand ablums. But as you so eloquently (and quite originally) put it, The dark days are behind us as we create our sunny days, chasing those clouds away, finding our way to where the air is, oh Lord, so, so very sweet.

Let us join hands now, and sing "Kumbaya," as the Anointed One, AKA, Barak Hussein Obama, leads us in all our diverse glory unto The City on the Hill.

18 posted on 02/15/2008 12:02:11 PM PST by Kenny Bunk (Dream Tickets: Gore/Obama vs. Petraeus/Blackwell.)
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To: The_Republican

Henninger thinks Obama’s message is a depressing one, whereas he says McCain’s rhetoric has an “upward, positive” arc. The question is whether the public will perceive it that way and respond like they did to Reagan’s optimisn,


19 posted on 02/15/2008 12:23:36 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: I still care

People who do not believe in God were most likely to vote for Obama out of the five or so candidates a while back. It is no coincidence they think he’s the messiah.


20 posted on 02/15/2008 12:30:14 PM PST by Quackattack
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