Posted on 06/25/2008 9:16:37 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Hon. Barack Obama hasn't yet reached Clintonesque levels of slickness, but this presidential campaign is still young and a whole summer of broken promises and general disenchantment with the Saint of Hyde Park has begun to set in.
For all its smooth, Internetted aspects, the Obama campaign begins to develop overtones of George McGovern's crack-up in the summer of 1972. Sen. McGovern was the beneficiary that year of the Democrats' newly rigged nominating system, which remains much the same. This year it allowed Barack Obama to cinch his party's nomination even as his rival was sweeping the popular vote in the big states.
George McGovern required only a few torrid weeks back in '72 to go from shining hope to utter incompetent. And now Barack Obama, the Different Kind of Presidential Candidate, has begun his metamorphosis into the same old kind of presidential candidate by backing away from his earlier promise to accept public financing.
Naturally, he claims it wasn't a promise at all but just a possibility, depending on whether John McCain would agree to accept public financing, too, which Sen. McCain did, and on various other escape clauses. We all know the drill by now: When caught in an obvious contradiction, obfuscate.
Another embarrassment: It seems that one of the political mavens Sen. Obama had scouting for a running mate enjoyed some fishy ties to Countrywide Credit, a key player in the subprime collapse.
But who didn't? By now both Kent Conrad and Chris Dodd, those two ethical paragons of the U.S. Senate, turn out to have gotten sweetheart deals from the kind of lenders the Democrats' class warriors usually tend to denounce. (John Edwards, D-Hypocrisy, is no longer in this presidential campaign but his spirit goes marching, or at least slinking, on.)
Naturally the country's New Hope waved off his veep-hunting scandal, explaining that he couldn't be expected to investigate his advisers' real estate deals. Of course not, especially since he didn't even investigate his own with Tony Rezko, that fellow pillar of the Daley machine in Chicago. Well, we can't say we weren't warned. Sen. Obama told us he was the candidate of Audacity.
It's all enough to remind some of us that poor George McGovern had problems finding a running mate, too. Back in the confusing year 1972, the McGovern-Eagleton ticket didn't even last till Election Day. Missouri's Tom Eagleton had to be dropped for lack of candor about some electric shock treatments he'd once received. Sen. Obama hasn't even made his vice-presidential pick yet and his veep problems have begun. When a trusted adviser who was going to vet his choice for vice president isn't adequately vetted himself, that says something less than assuring about what an Obama administration would be like.
Oh, tell it not at the Lyric Opera, publish it not in the Sun-Times, but how the mighty of Hyde Park have fallen. Some of us can remember when that leafy neighborhood wasn't a wholly protected subsidiary of the University of Chicago - the kind of effectively gated community and game preserve for Progressive Thinkers that it's become - but the home of giants like The Hon. and honorable Paul Douglas.
A forgotten figure who doesn't deserve to be, Sen. Douglas was a fighting Marine, true liberal and unwavering voice in the U.S. Senate for justice at home and freedom abroad, a fit companion for Scoop Jackson of cherished memory. In short, he was a more robust version of today's Lonely Joe Lieberman, that voice in the Democratic wilderness.
Sen. Obama's reversal when it comes to accepting public financing for his campaign was announced in the true spirit of our new Bobo - i.e., Bourgeois Bohemian - elite. (Thank you, David Brooks, for coining that now inescapable term when it comes to diagnosing the soft underside of the country's upper crust.) Sen. Obama explained that (a) he wasn't actually breaking his word, (b) it was really all John McCain's fault and, besides, (c) it's the system of public financing that's broken. As if it hadn't been just as broken when he made his pledge.
Skipping past these inconvenient truths, the senator from Upscale, Ill., now has issued a self-righteous statement taking the high ground while he himself opts for the low. Perfect. Perfect, self-serving hypocrisy. I can just see the look on old Paul Douglas' rugged face if he'd been asked to swallow a line that slick.
Some of us can hardly wait for St. Barack's next sly descent to the nether regions of politics, which of course will be described as but the next phase in his Holy Ascension.
If this is change and hope in American presidential politics, what, pray tell, would be steady disillusion? The country may find out soon enough. The long, slow McGovern summer of B. Obama could be just beginning.
Getting the information out about the candidate worked with Kerry, and it will work with Obama if the same kind of people can get out all the negatives about Obama, his wife, his associates, his history, etc.
This article puts a lot of emphasis on Obama’s flip flop on opting out of public financing. I imagine that the vast majority of Americans care as much about that as they do about about the differences between Japanese pop stars. Actually I care much more about the latter, because the girls are usually really cute. This is a waste of effort to try to play up against him when there are myriad bombshells about him already out there to work with and surely more to come.
I do expect Obama to self destruct, but not before the election.
He has too much money and too much support from the media.
“Having been in charge for 4+ years with a TOTAL triumvirate dominance in government and not a damn thing to speak of for it save ‘we’re still in IRAQ’ (while not calling out the MSM for lying about the war)......”
I think you’ve pointed the major causes of the party’s turn of fortunes. And, most Republicans don’t want to admit how badly the long presence in Iraq has hurt Bush and the party. The cost of that effort will be far more than lives and dollars, no matter what the benefits might prove to be.
I also think when Bush made his, “I’ve got political capital now and I aim to spend it,” remark that that was when things started down hill. The entire, two term pander to Hispanics strategy has been disastrous. Recent arrivals and the poor in general are natural Democrats, but he and Rove pretended they could buy their votes with amnesty. All they accomplished was to offend and demoralize the party’s base and many others with their arrogance.
Another factor is W’s painful inability to effectively articulate and convince the country of the need for many of his policy initiatives. A president who can’t take advantage of the bully pulpit already has one or even two strikes against him in such a contentious political environment.
“Corruption, war, and high gas prices.”
And, ironically, the high gas prices might have presented Republicans with their best weapon for turning their fortunes around. At least if McCain will get his rear end off his shoulders and take full advantage of the opportunity to present dramatic policy differences on increasing domestic energy production (and not futuristic electric cars as a main talking point).
Then, Cheney, Laura, and Condoleeza, were wasted. Any of the three could have been given more exposure to articulate what he wanted to do. Couple that with a muzzle-up of affirmative action's number one recruit, Colin Powell, and you'd have had an effective message. It just breaks my heart to have seen all that potential wasted. What really frosts my ass is that I've heard one-on-one, W is fantastic....
How so?
LS, you are right that polls havent moved. But polls lag.
The leading question is:
- What is the election about? What is the decision here?
Obama wants a referendum on Bush and on Iraq. “No 3rd term for Bush”. If th election is a Bush referendum, Obama wins.
But it leaves a big and huge glaring gaping hole: What about ... OBAMA.
No a single “hope” and ‘change’ voter can honestly tout Obama’s experience - he has none. They reach when justifying his friends and associations, his history of leftwing activism, his bad judgement. And the capaign that makes him out to be centrist, that’s just a rerun of Carter ‘76, its vague BS, and the trick there is getting Obama nailed down enough to go “Aha! He’s just a liberal reselling the same-old same-old”.
And now we see his flipflips emerge and his broken promises. Obama is a real, flesh and blood politician. Get him off that pedestal and suddnely he is less appealing. Get him into specifics and he’s got a lousy agenda that is wrong where McCain is right - energy/drilling, taxes, judges, Iraq, GWOT, etc.
Obama is leftwing, McCain is centrist.
He is inexperienced, McCain has grappled with serious issues for years.
He has no leadership record, McCain has worked and accomplished things.
If the election is about Obama and he question “Who is best fit to lead the country?” .... Obama loses.
In many respects, this is an EASIER election for us, were it not for the toxic weak economy and high ‘off-track’ numbers.
The difference is leadership, which Obama overcomes much with rhetoric, but watch in debates if he can keep it up. He’s not great off teleprompter because he’s really a leftist and its hard to not slip into leftwing rhetoric (viz his “clinging to God” statement in SanFran).
This is still uphill battle for McCain and he must do things to win, but the raw material for a McCain win is there, he has to use it:
- positive reform message
- go after Obama hammer and tong
- make it a referendum on leadership and accomplishments and the future, not the past (ie Bush)
McCain needs to say: “Leadership is making change happen”
and talk about his record of reform vs Obama’s empty suit.
see also this on how he can change the game:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/06/what-republican-candidates-need-to-do.html
http://no-bama.blogspot.com/ - NObama, stop the Hype and Chains candidate
History shows that the only polls that are accurate are taken nine, four, and two months before an election. Next up is July.
Swift Bloggers for Truth reporting for duty!
http://no-bama.blogspot.com/ - NObama, stop the Hype and Chains candidate
I agree it is still possible for McCain to win, but he’s fighting two battles simultaneously, one against Obama and the left, and the other against his own party because deep down he despises conservatives. The latter will kill him, not because their sheer numbers by staying home will tilt the election, but because they ARE the ‘ground game,’ and Obama will have one, and McCain won’t.
Unless McQueeg gets possessed by the spirit of Ronaldus Magnus soon, Obama wins comfortably in November. The trend is for a party switch after 8 years, and there’s so much Bush hatred out there that Juan has to combat. Coupled with a slowing economy and high gas prices, this year could be an across-the-board bloodbath for the GOP.
I see that the sky is still falling.
The dilema this country faces is highlighted in the attitudes published by Henny Penny. These partisans are perfectly willing to support a liberal as long as it defeats a Democrat. Perfectly willing to elect a liberal for fear of the alternative.
These cowards care not about principle, or core values. The simply care about winning in the most expedient manner which does not expose them to danger or criticism. We saw them support the Austrian in California and we saw them support Giuliani at a national level until the hammer fell. Now they're back hyping McCain.
I agree that the ground game is important. I am motivated to make sure the left and liberals lose this election, and there are a lot of Republican activists motivated to do the same.
I see a huge difference between Mccain and Obama.
I disagree that 80% ACU conservative and a guy with Phil Gramm as his economic wingman despises conservatives. McCain is a center-right politician and that beats a left-liberal in my book.
I am seeing more Republican energy now than in 2006, FWIW.
If we are better than 2006 we are at least trending right.
http://no-bama.blogspot.com/ - NObama, stop the Hype and Chains candidate
We have to make the high gas prices and that the demoCrats refusal to take the ban on drilling off our main subject
Factor in what I believe Obama will choose for Veep—not a woman, not another DC insider or even a Dem hack—but a military man with solid military creds. That will quickly throw McCain’s POW card into the shade.
Her rants are wild eyed but the pupils don’t match the lighting.
from a month ago.
Obama aide a former Clinton hatchet man
WorldNetDaily.com | 6/26/08 | Jack Cashill
Posted on 06/26/2008 2:38:31 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036623/posts
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