Posted on 02/21/2008 7:18:12 AM PST by jdm
It may be bursting. And Robert Samuelson rightly piles on:
As a journalist, I harbor serious doubt about each of the most likely nominees. But with Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain, I feel that I'm dealing with known quantities. They've been in the public arena for years; their views, values and temperaments have received enormous scrutiny. By contrast, newcomer Obama is largely a stage presence defined mostly by his powerful rhetoric. The trouble, at least for me, is the huge and deceptive gap between his captivating oratory and his actual views.
The subtext of Obama's campaign is that his own life narrative -- to become the first African American president, a huge milestone in the nation's journey from slavery -- can serve as a metaphor for other political stalemates. Great impasses can be broken with sufficient goodwill, intelligence and energy. "It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white," he says. Along with millions of others, I find this a powerful appeal.
But on inspection, the metaphor is a mirage. Repudiating racism is not a magic cure-all for the nation's ills. The task requires independent ideas, and Obama has few. If you examine his agenda, it is completely ordinary, highly partisan, not candid and mostly unresponsive to many pressing national problems.
Read it all. Obama's a very smart and very gifted person. There is no denying his talent. But if you want to sign up with his campaign, you will have to buy into policy proposals that haven't a hint of originality about them--Obama's soaring rhetoric notwithstanding. And as Samuelson points out, those policy proposals do not constitute any kind of straight talk. Moreover, they are utterly unworkable.
Something to think about when you are electing a President.
Overall, I think both political parties need to do some serious thinking about where they need to go in the future. I consider both parties to have failed.
think ... that's too much of a burden...
People who are prematurely bursting the Obama bubble will regret being responsible for President Hellary.
Powerful rhetoric?
His blatherings are about as powerful as those uttered by his pinheaded DemocRAT opponent.
They're both loud (she's shrill) and and their so-called speeches are sophomoric.
He's an empty marxist suit, she's an empty marxist pants suit.
I’ve read of his ideas for gun control and new taxes and they are downright draconian. That alone should be enough to scare the bejeebus out of voters.
It is not racism when blacks vote for Obama because he is black only and that is the only reason for the vote.
So we have a choice, Bubba or Bubble?..............
“repudiating racism”
I look around me, I take note of the demographics in advertising and editorial photos and I see a multi-racial United States of America. I am especially aware of the large numbers of people I meet/see who are of indefinable mixed race. Almost all of these folks are educated, accomplished and confident within themselves. They range from middle class to upper class, economically. Perhaps it is my age, but they all seem beautiful, as well.
America is so far from the 1940s/1950s, when I was a child, that I don’t know how anyone except a real racist could think we haven’t also gone way past the realities of the nineteenth century. Obama is the recipient of a non-racist USA, not the harbinger.
If Obama is taken down by Hillary, a lot of blacks might possibly realize that Democrats are not their friends. There will be hard feelings, and I think this will lead to a weaker Democrat party.
If Obama gets the nomination, then McCain will face him, and no matter what McCain says or does, the media will tell everyone that the Republicans are racist bigots who don't want a black man to be president. I think this will lead to a weaker Republican party.
McCain might beat Obama, but the GOP may pay a price. I'd much rather Hillary beat Obama.
I'm so sick of that phrase. It's staring to sound like "bloviating", not "soaring rhetoric".
The voters are the ones to blame, not the parties.
But according to too many people here he’s not as bad as Rudy McRomneyRINO given how badly those three were and continue to be trashed around here.
Don’t be afraid to reach across the aisle and lead your fellow Democrats towards the Conservative light at the end of the tunnel...
Thats my goal too...
I have a dream that one day Conservative Democrats and Conservative Republicans will unite to form the Moral and ethical majority that this country really needs...
not the fake change that Far Left Liberal Socialists like Obama want to force down our throats.
I used to think the same but not anymore. Anecdotally, I’ve talked to a bunch of my kids’ college-age friends who are either going to vote for Ron Paul or for Obama. The gullible liberal ones are all excited and pumped up by the empty rhetoric - they have no clue what he wants to accomplish as President but more importantly, THEY DON’T CARE !!!
The attitude of all the kids is anybody but someone who’s a fossil of Washington, and that includes Clinton. McCain is not of any interest to any of these kids and they will never vote for him.
“the huge and deceptive gap between his captivating oratory and his actual views.”
A gap called the Grand Canyon.....
Wow! Now HOW can this be? I thought caliph obama was going to roll over mckenendy in the general! Who woulda thunk this? Please, the youth vote will dry up as soon as the primaries are over and the few adults left in the rat party will start to get that ugly smell of defeat in their nostrils even before the rat convention. Anyone, including Levin and Limbaugh et al who think America will vote for caliph obama a Black Muslim socialist with no idea of what he is talking about is very wrong. Those who hate mckennedy can fool themselves into believing America is stupid enough to elect him are just as wrong.
Vacuous notions always burst. B. Hussein Obama has been a bubble since he began his campaign.
McCain isn’t pure, but he is way way way to the right of either of his two general election opponents.
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