Christopher Hitchens on the rise of Obamania

mirror.co.uk ^ | July 26, 2008 | Christopher Hitchens

[Free ThinkerNY]

Napoleon Bonaparte’s test for generalship was a very simple one. Of a man recommended by others for gallantry or fortitude or strategic genius he would inquire only: “But is he lucky?” By this standard, Senator Barack Obama is already the greatest political leader of his generation. From a starting-point in the state Senate in Illinois only a few years ago, he now bestrides the narrow world like a colossus and is already beginning to exhaust the superlatives of the political commentary class.

He has a few charismatic tactics that I suppose will soon begin to wear thin. When greeted by hosts who are heads of state, he places his hand firmly on their backs or their arms, as if to propel them forward, and this means that the resulting photograph makes him look more like the host (and the senior) than the guest (and the junior). That’s clever, and also shrewd in body-language terms. But it’s the luck that makes one whistle. Who would have thought that the dour Shi’ite machine politician, Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq, would time his own proposals on American troop withdrawal as if specifically to undermine his old defender John McCain, and simultaneously to elevate the anti-war candidate?

After that, Obama was able to arrive on European soil with a fair wind of statesmanship behind him, and to act as if the “surge” (which has made talk of withdrawal politically possible) was as much his idea as anyone else’s. The great Aneurin Bevan had an expression for this kind of political agility: he called it “wearing the medals of your defeats”. Obama wears them well, and with style.

[Popman]

Obama has certainly been floating on a cloud of vague approval that exceeds any buzz for any candidate in four decades, but the “sting” part has yet to be proven.

Why can't Hitchens get beyond his huge ego and actually expose Obama for the fraud he is?

...........His bitter and vitriol hatred of the right, especially Christians

[Chuzzlewit]

1 year ago your remarks would have p*ssed me off. But that was before McCain got into gear. Turns out the gear is low gear. what a tremendous disappointment he has turned out to be in terms of a candidate representing the Republicans.

the only reason he gets no coverage is because he doesn’t demand it... in terms of the favorable coverage Obama gets from the MSM, all we get from McCain is a shoulder-shrug and: “it is what it is”... He worries so much about manners, that he doesn’t realize that politics is war. What happened to his mojo? let’s hope he finds it. While it’s not too late, it soon shall be.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Yep. Obama is a Marxist “solution” foisted by a Marxist MSM — all ememies of our Republic.

[4integrity]

I noticed his ‘arm grasp’ of Sarkozy.....and...think he placed his hand on Merkel’s back but...maybe wishful thinking on my part..but, looked like she backed away a bit. Obama is so slick and full of himself. Hopefully, many more Americans will catch on to this and his socialist positions.

[Jeff Head]

I do not believe we have to rely on the MSM or, necessarily, on McCain. We have the power ourselves, and the tools to get it done.

Look, as you imply, Obama's ardent followers (including the MSM) are not swayed by logic, reason, or truth, and regardless of his positions, his gaffes, his past, or his associations, he is an idol and they the idolaters. His campaign media-blitz has been designed and engineered to evoke just such mindless hero worship without considering specific positions.

Nothing you can say or do will convince these people otherwise...


Because I am the one they and I have been waiting for...and I am lovin' it.

Those wild-eyed people represent the millions of Americans raised in the government day-care and indoctrination centers we call public schools who did not have, or would not listen to, parents and others who tried to counterweight the propaganda they heard at school...who have been raised on 60 second sound bite time spans and know no better.

You have other tens of millions on the dole who will vote for him regardless of position because he promises to keep pilfering the public largess for them.

Still othes of millions will vote for him simply because he is black, not caring to hear or look at his actual positions.

Other millions will vote for him because they know exactly who he is and what he represents and agree with his anti-American positions.

The first three are all what is termed, useful idiots, a term coined by Lennin for the dupes he got to support him.

Against this it is left to us to educate, arouse, and amass the tens of millions of Americans, of all races and creeds, who understand and hold fast to the foundational principles our constitutional republic rests upon...many of them the bitter, rural Americans clinging to their guns and religion that Obama so arrogantly spoke of.

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, CHANGE YOU CAN COUNT ON, BUT DON'T WANT

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

[britt reed]

I will be blunt. Obama is the Road Runner. Conservatives, Republicans, realists, etc., are Wile E. Coyote. While our side becomes flabbergasted at each turn in search of his Achille's, it stands here before us.

He is black, more specifically, he is running as a black man. Would Oprah have endorsed him with such vigor if he were white, Asian or Hispanic? I'll bet the rent on this one; no. A big, fat, hanging over home plate NO.

He has inoculated himself from comment by painting those who would "attack" him as racists. He is manipulating liberal, white guilt. You get the point.

Let's go back to Oprah for a moment. She lost a great deal of her audience as a result of her credibility loss because she sat above politics. That is the way to beat Obama.

Americans aren't racists but they certainly don't put up with unfairness. What is more unfair than Affirmative Action. It certainly wasn't his or his wife's intelligent that put them in Princeton or Harvard. You get the picture.

Hit him hard on Affirmative Action. Suffer the slings and arrows of being labeled a racist. Make the word lose it's power.

[freema]

I noticed it, as well and I’d love to see some video of the vainglorious BO trying it on a military man. The only video of him with them that I have seen, no one would break bread with him.

As far as the luck is concerned, I think he’s hit the nail on the head. ‘Cause it sure ain’t skill.

[britt reed]

...

Americans aren't racists but they certainly don't put up with unfairness. What is more unfair than Affirmative Action. It certainly wasn't his or his wife's intelligent that put them in Princeton or Harvard. You get the picture.

...

intelligence

Sorry about that!

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

That convergence with al-Maliki was not luck. The Iraqi is Muslim, he wants to see someone named Obama, with so many Muslim relatives, running America.
It isn’t perfect for him but it will make the next Muslim leader easier to take seriously, nominate and elect POTUS.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

That is to say, for Muslims everywhere, the election of Obama breaks a ceiling that only a year ago was bullet-proof, bomb-proof, light-impermeable glass.

[BluH2o]

When greeted by hosts who are heads of state, he places his hand firmly on their backs or their arms, as if to propel them forward, and this means that the resulting photograph makes him look more like the host (and the senior) than the guest (and the junior). That’s clever, and also shrewd in body-language terms.

That stood out very clearly in the news items I watched ... sort of like he was tutored on how to appear presidential on his flight over. However, I noticed French President Sarkozy outmaneuvered BO and didn't allow him the opportunity to look presidential at his expense ...

[Zman516]

That is exactly why the MSM selected and ramrodded McCain through the primaries. They knew he’d be the weakest nominee for the Republicans.

[Reagan Man]

All three parts of “Rudy McRomney” were equally weak.

[Cacique]

btt

[cruise_missile]

[Hardastarboard]

I still contend that Bill Clinton is the luckiest SOB ever to enter politics. Had it not been for Ross Perot and a terrible campaign by Poppy Bush, he would have eventually gone to jail as the corrupt governor of Arkansas. Unfortunately, he was elected President and presided over the remnants of the Reagan economic boom, giving shelter to Democrats for several more decades that their economic policies have merit and won’t destroy America’s wealth.

[Rosemont]

I’m not sure if the Liberal media ever really liked McCain. They just made McPain feel important and used him as a battle axe against the despised GWB on judges, CFR, and “torture”. McCain was only too happy to oblige. I wonder if he finally knows he was being used all along.

[Churchillspirit]

Don't know how you can call someone who has endured what Sen. McCain has endured an empty suit

You may not agree with his stand on the most Conservative issues, but the man is worthy of respect.

[caveat emptor]

What would Patton say? (WWPS?)

[jan in Colorado]

“But is he lucky?”

It's not luck, it's manipulation and propaganda.