So far, from this admittedly small sample — and a bigger one called the primaries and caucuses to-date — there seems to be some real concern about Obama and/or his support system that is driving people to Hillary Clinton. Or at least keeping them in her camp, despite a tsunami of endorsements and activism for The Transformative One.
All the buzz is with Barack — including virtually the entire media spectrum (all the way down to Rush Limbaugh) and a new generation of voters — and yet HRC maintains a modest lead.
Well, Hillary has Ann Coulter, though I think it’s pretty obvious that Coulter (along with the other rightwing McCain “detractors”) is gaming the system to push McCain deeper to the right and to give him air cover with moderates in the general election, so they won’t notice how hardcore conservative he really is.
I truly believe that Obama could be a fine candidate and president, but as of now I am gratified that his campaign of vacant groupspeak about “hope” and “change” is coming up a little short.
IMHO, he’d be a much better candidate, and one I’d avidly support (FYI, I’m voting for any Dem in Nov., so let’s not go there) if this air of perfection were washed away, if every misstep were not blindly explained away. If he’d stop running on rightwing talking points, and if his supporters weren’t ginning up the ol’ Clinton hate and generational disrespect.
Point out Hillary’s mistakes all you want, and please do, but don’t pretend that there isn’t an aura that projects Obama as the New Jesus, whereas Hillary has had to take her lumps.
He fuels this devotion with pleasing happy talk that washes away something else: the crimes of the Bush years. Because it’s so charmingly chill to promise a pony-filled future of non-partisanship, when we damn well know that across the aisle is nothing but sharks.
As a new Hillary supporter (now that Edwards is out of the race), I freely accept her mistakes as mistakes (though there is a difference between voting for the AUMF and being a madman like Bush who will abuse the power and lie to all concerned to justify it), and I don’t think she’s done a good job of putting it in perspective (either as an apology or an explanation).
And finally, there’s the matter of Spielberg: Hillary supporter and, perhaps not coincidentally, someone who knows that sharks, like today’s Republicans, are soulless killing machines. I would have said “godless,” but the GOP ran a few lights racing to the USPTO and grabbed the rights to the “God” brand, like cybersquatters snarfing up sermononthemount.com.
Spielberg’s career began with a series of better-than-could-be-imagined gems. From his memorable made-for-TV turns like “LA 2017” through Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it seemed he could do no wrong.
Famous last words, eh? He flopped miserably with 1941, and then picked himself up and rattled off a couple of more masterpieces. But gradually, one surmises, “could do no wrong” catches up to an artist. It always does, doesn’t it?
Who in his massive circle of talented collaborators would tell him that, say, the endings of A.I. and Minority Report were pieces of shit?
How could they? He’s Steven Fucking Spielberg!
For Barack Obama to be the best Candidate Obama and President Obama he can be, someone needs to tell him when his political framing is a piece of shit.
The American public is sick to death of the Republican brand.
There is no goddamn reason for us to run as if Karl Rove and Drudge rule our world.
It seems that as this campaign rolls on, Hillary has been figuring this out. And let us note that it is she who coined the term “vast rightwing conspiracy.” Even if she has deeply disappointed a lot of us by her rightwing-enabling positions, she gives little indication that she plans to give away the progressive store if and when she gets back to 1600 PA Ave. The perfect progressive? Not even close. She’s pushing mandated healthcare, when single-payer would be far saner. She’s compromised. Wish she weren’t, but she is.
But Obama keeps signaling that he’s well past compromising. He wants us to forget that there is a vast conspiracy of sharks. And I, for one, will not forget that. Because the first drop of blood in the water, and the Reagan Revolutionaries will be on our asses faster than you can say 1994 election.
Because if you didn’t like what happened to Bill Clinton’s mandate, a mandate won by a charismatic, post-partisan candidate, you’re not going to like it much when it happens to charismatic, post-partisan Barack Obama.
So, why not tweak Obama a little? Tell him he needs a bigger boat. And, sorry, we’re not talking about a love boat. We need a boat that’s ready for shark-infested waters.
Front page
Unifying Truth
I like the way you’re thinking, vastleft. Neither Clinton nor Obama is perfect and neither would be harmed by moving in the direction of perfection.
Clinton’s role as the War President’s enabler and co-dependent hangs like a pall in the air. She would be doing a service to herself, the Democratic Party, this country, and the world, if she could find a way to re-evaluate her positions, explain and apologize as necessary (because the people who are paying with their lives, limbs, savings, and futures deserve an explanation and an apology), and ratchet up her critique of the war and the policies and decisions that led to it.
Obama needs to recognize that there must be something wrong with his health-care plan if so many people are rejecting him on that basis. If he is serious about unifying party and the country, he needs to figure out how he painted himself into this corner (where he finds himself arguing with one of the few people who can point to a solid record of being right about economics and politics: Paul Krugman) and work his way out.
Both candidates have been hurt by their partisans. I don’t expect them to control every aspect of behavior out on the fringes of their campaigns, but I do hope they’ll take a close look at their advisers. Obama is getting bad economic advice, and Clinton is getting bad foreign-policy advice. They need to fix that.
What I’m getting around to is the construction of a relatively bulletproof Democratic platform. When your allies (and not the sharks who are herding you toward some shallow inlet) are disagreeing with you, it’s a form of friendly advice. Accept it or reject it, but do so with seriousness and courtesy. If the Democrats can paint our problems as they are and propose practical, defensible responses, you have the core of a Unity
Campaign: truth and honesty versus bullshit and secrecy. I can vote for that, and it might peel off some Republicans, too.
Thank you, hypnot!
I feel this matters when this kind of response comes over the intertubes:
“Obama is the savior of America. Don’t be so fast to crucify him.”
Well said VL. (I’m a
Well said VL. (I’m a fellow former Edwards, now Hillary supporter.)
Seconded -- well said
Also an Edwards supporter (though I would not say former… I think current Edwards independent would be a better description) who goes to Hillary. The Obama movement has moved beyond annoying to unreflective and fawning… at best, like twelve year old girls waiting at the stage door for their fave Backstreet Boy. I read about people chanting “USA! USA!” at Obama rallies, and that is the biggest turnoff I can imagine, as well as the biggest red flag. That kind of belligent nationalism is the LAST thing we need, and the exact type of discourse that masks our very real problems.
With Obama, I genuinely don’t know what I will be getting. I don’t know how he will cooperate with republicans, or what that will mean for legislation and Supreme Court. I’ve only started posting these thoughts, and now that I’ve started, they’re flooding out as I realize how much the Obama Movememt creeps me out. Apparently, I’m a cynic, a racist, lover of dynasties, DLC, pro-war, anti-puppy and rainbow-hater, but I canNOT drink the kool-aid. I’ve even tried with the speeches, but the preening calculated stage written carefully crafted phrases seem hollow and insincere. I picture the guy getting his latest script and rehearsing in front of the mirror, saying to himself, “look at you, MLK, you amazing guy you!”
That is what it is. It’s hardly decisive to have personal discord with a candidate. That’s not the problem. The problem is that the cult of personality, the “don’t bother me, I don’t want to have to DEAL with the problems, I just want to feel gooooood again!” approach is eliminating the issues. I’ve seen OFC just link to his issue page, like that solves it. “You just don’t WANT to hear,” they say, linking to some damn issue page on the internet that ANY candidate would throw up there, and I’m the unwashed and unconverted by refusing to see the light. Listen, you can link to the guy’s website all you want, it doesn’t improve his health care plan.
Sorry, I didn’t realize I was going to go off like that. I just started typing, and I realized how angry I am. I feel like we’re being sold a handful of magic beans from a slick phony while the country’s economy goes down the tubes and I am scared I won’t have health care in 3 months.
I'm gonna get a pony!!!!!!!!
I’m gonna name my pony Transformational!!!!!!
Tomorrow Uncle Andy’s gonna bring by a shovel and we’re gonna look for “Transformers” LOL!!!!!
I’m s-o-o-o-o-o-o happy!!!!!!!!
NOTE It’s been a while since I let loose like that. I feel so much better. Thank you, Psygnosis, for giving me this opportunity.
[Reach me that bucket, wouldja hon?]
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Psygnosis -- well said, back at you
At what point are we going to be allowed to break Godwin’s Law when talking about this?
(And yes, those are my good friends from Slate’s Gabfest, from earlier in the episode that earned a wag of the Vast Left finger).
Someone should make an pony playset
Okay, more importantly -- the GOP are backing Obama
because he’s somebody they can work with.
Think about that a minute.
Then think about this: if the very first black man to win his way to the White House is somebody the Republicans anticipate being able to work with — somebody they feel they understand, somebody from their culture — should there be a major dissatisfaction with the outcome of Obama’s Presidency, the GOP will be armed with outrage over how “racist” Democrats are for GENERATIONS.
Are they that subtle?
I dunno; I mean, they’ll be all “see what happens when you let a woman run things” if Hillary should win, too.
So, honestly — unless we can put up somebody they can’t demonize an entire race or gender by when they manage to delay, obstruct, and otherwise sabotage everything the next Dem President tries — I almost don’t know what we can do that will bring the nation justice.
Which has nothing to do with why I still plan to vote for Edwards in the Primary.
On the issue of the war, Edwards wins. Over McCain. Over Romney. Over Huckabee. Over Clinton. Over Obama.
On the issue of healthcare, Edwards wins. Over the field.
On the issue of restoring the Constitution, Edwards wins; no other candidate has even discussed it.
On the issue of Social Security, Edwards wins — although to her credit Hillary too sees that there is no crisis. The “crisis” is a manufactured GOP talking point.
On the issue of economic justice, Edwards wins hands down and going away — Obama barely mentions it, Hillary scarcely does that much, and the GOP just want poor people to go die (which is also how Pelosi sounded on NPR on my way home today, damn it).
On the issue of torture, Edwards wins.
So if you want to talk about issues, it’s Edwards.
If you want to be a “fan”, it’s Obama.
If you want to spit in the GOP’s eye MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, even successfully ensuring they don’t just wipe their faces and go on ruling, it’s Hillary.
And yet.
If I can not have my choice, if I will not be allowed to vote for JRE … I can vote for HRC. I can work for her. I can see taking pride in doing that.
With Obama … not so much. He’s too much like an extension of W. He’s an accommodationist at the very least, and more than likely his notion of “unity” will translate as “capitulation” (as has happened before).
I realize I’ll be pilloried for this, but “let’s elect a black man !” doesn’t fit Barack Obama the same way it would fit Jesse Jackson (Jr. or Sr.) or the way it would fit, e.g., John Conyers Jr.
Barack Obama has an advantage over such serving, and experienced, and respected, black solons as Conyers or Adam Clayton Powell Jr. or Carol Moseley Braun or Eleanor Holmes Norton, just as examples.
We’ve all seen and heard all about it right from the mouths of CNN and Faux Noise: articulate is one word they use. Oh, yes, the racism is subtler than it was when Bull Connor turned loose the firehoses and attack dogs; but it’s still there, and if Obama wins, he will have to flat pull miracles out of his hat from Election night through the end of his term in order not to be labeled a failure — and a signal example of the expectable failure of a black man to be a suitable President, such that his failure is used to hammer home the “rightful” occupancy of the White House, hereinafter unendingly, by whites. He will be on as short a leash, no pun intended, as Hillary, if not a shorter one.
The world will be anticipating any imperfection with monstrous glee.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Not "The World" exactly
More just our world, here in our country.
Everywhere else in the world there is a feverish enthusiasm for Anybody Not A Republican, they have had it all around with the idiotic policies and provincial crudeness starting with Reagan. Bush approval is down well below 20% and in some countries he’s in single digits. While there is greater hope for Hillary, as someone seen as more experienced and a known quantity (and riding Bill’s coattails, he’s a hero in much of Europe and Japan) it really is more a disgust for and rejection of the entire Republican Party.
There’s also a realistic sense of how screwed up things are and how difficult it is going to be for the US to set them right, so there will IMHO be considerable patience for the struggle. Whatever failures there may be under Hillary or Obama, neither race nor gender will be a part of the criticism or blame except for here at home, where as Sarah says it will be the club used to beat on both women and people of color forever.
I love my country, but sometimes I wish there were just a few more sophisticates.
Obama Pony Action Figure
Yee Haw! Unity!
oh, gawd. that's a awful as Dukakis on a tank
with the military helmet. blech. where’s Trigger, O? that’s all you need, that and the long leather coat that Swings.
Remember this gem?
Gawdamighty, he looks like Jimmy Trivette, undercover!!!!
So now that I’m as out as you can get (yes, I still love Walker — why do you think I drive the *particular* truck I do?), where was that photo made?
Colorado?
Wyoming?
California?
Idaho?
Santa Fe?
Because, seriously, if that’s in Texas, some damn body is futzing with us.
Oh, and here’s a photo of the Trivette in question:
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
Faux Cowboy Photo Taken in TX
Presidential candidate Barack Obama tips a cowboy hat given to him by a volunteer after a rally in Austin, TX, on Feb. 23, 2007.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattwright/…
Obama truly epitomizes all hat and no cattle when it comes to “change you can believe in.”
Figures. Crap. It's a "George Strait" Stetson, too.
Four inch crown and five inch brim, cattleman crease and painted-steel vents. I bet that’s even a hand-braided horsehair band.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
What does that signify, Sarah?
I don’t know anything about hats of any kind. Yankees don’t wear hats. They prefer to lose 25% of their body heat through their heads in the winter; it’s a sign of toughness.
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Style over substance, again.
Much like Aunt Sally’s “state pair” of spectacles in “Tom Sawyer” — “she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well” — it’s a symbol, Lambert. A hat like that will cost between $200 and $700, depending on the grade of felt.
Even W doesn’t wear a hat like that on the ranch; I’ve seen the straw hats he wears clearing brush and going riding in his Ford SuperDuty. They’re a commoner “cattleman’s hat.”
For an Illinois Senator to affect — and I use that word purposely — such headgear as this (and by the way, Strait’s a pretty fair hand on a horse, with or without rope or guitar, as well as the owner of a real, working ranch) suggests to me that once again it’s all about appearances, rather than results, with Obama.
Far as the “toughness” goes … Yankees wear caps, and I think you all invented the “watch cap” or “toboggan,” the head-sock with or without a ski mask that’s beloved of enlisted folks and pen riders the world over.
The proper use of a hat like the one pictured is not to prevent heat loss through the head; it’s to provide shade, and a modicum of coolness, and keep the weather at bay ’round your field of vision.
That particular hat would be a style statement worn anytime between mid-March and mid-November, west of I-35 and north of Jim Hogg County; in Wyoming or Colorado or Oklahoma, of course, they’re not so particular. But in Texas wearing a winter hat in summertime marks you as a tenderfoot or a politician.
You decide which is less flattering, lambert.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for “style,” not service — she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.
Oh, snap!
You know, all hat and no cattle reminds me of somebody… Wait, it’ll come to me.
That’s worth a post, you know. I’m sure 99.9999% of the blogosphere is about as well versed in the semiotics of the cowboy (“cowboy”?) hat as I am…
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Oh for chrissakes, it was HANDED to him.
Sez so right there in the quote:
The analysis is impressive, Sarah, and fascinating to learn about [I have a big cobweb-filled pit where normal people put any sense of fashion] but the Senator is not “affecting” anything whatever. Some fan gives him a hat and he puts it on. I don’t even LIKE cowboy hats and i think he looks kinda good in it.
/OFB
prophylactic…waitaminit, I don’t need one, I’m stickin’ up for the guy. Heh. :)
Well, if you believe these things are spontaneous....
…
Anyhow, somebody had to hand it to him. You don’t expect him to crown himself, like Napoleon, do you?
No matter how hard I try…
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
Sigh. Maybe my humorometer needs a tuneup
I just thought the time spent analyzing a stupid hat (sorry Sarah) might be devoted to something worthwhile, like drink.
Besides, if the date on the quote is accurate it was a freakin’ year ago, well before O-Mania geared up and he was about as obscure as the only black person in the US Senate could be.
Never mind me then. I will get the sensor units looked at asamba.
Who said I wasn't drinking?
Fair enough on the year. But, dammit, I don’t know anything about hats. Semiotics counts…
[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
xan, I never said he didn't look good in it.
He looks … like a rock star …
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
cackling black bastards in earth-toned cowboy hats
windsurfing on oceans of cheesesteaks and crying rivers of nu-ku-lur daisies, as my silent majority tanks by, with ill-fitting headgear and still-capped ’scopes, rocking by the fireside and taking off yet another hand-knit sweater as we lecture you about fear and biofuels…now watch this drive.
i’m sorry, i was dozing. what’s the issue here?