Obama’s Arrogant New Strategy
Ignoring Hillary Clinton's presence in the race is an attempt by a marginal front-runner to present himself as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
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According to the New York Times, Barack Obama’s new strategy in the wake of a double-digit defeat in Pennsylvania is to ignore Hillary Clinton’s persistent presence in the race and focus squarely on John McCain. Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was quoted as saying, “There is a sense of urgency about the time we’re losing and a sense of urgency that we not savage each other to the benefit of Senator McCain.” Indeed, Clinton’s name occurred only once in Obama’s concession speech Tuesday night, whereas McCain’s occurred six times. In other words, Obama has begun presenting himself as the presumptive nominee immediately after losing his once famed momentum and also, judging by the cable television networks’ coverage of his latest defeat, the media-blessed heir apparency. McCain and Clinton should be hugging themselves with glee to behold this ill-starred move.
At this point, both Democrats are relying on superdelegates to determine who enters the general election in November. It’s mathematically impossible for Clinton to advance with her current number of pledged superdelegates, 255 to Obama’s 232, and so she’s relying on converting enough to her side and swaying the unpledged ones. Her electability argument just got stronger in the last 72 hours, with liberal pundits worrying that Obama’s chances in the big show are fast becoming slim and none. He lost overwhelmingly among whites, Boomers, women, trade unionists, non-college educated, and Catholic voters in Pennsylvania — a doggedly “blue” state where his notorious “cling” gaffe was said to not even weigh that heavily upon voters’ consciences. And with 20% of registered Democrats still vowing to declare for McCain in the event that their preferred party candidate loses the nomination (a contingency that benefits the GOP either way), Obama seems that saddest of political beasts, a marginal front-runner. John Judis has come out with a minatory piece in The New Republic suggesting that Obama’s numbers are so bad they hint at “the outlines of the old George McGovern coalition that haunted the Democrats during the 70’s and 80’s.” That’s the kind of ding-dong that should proscribe his acting as if the wicked witch were already dead. So why is he?
First, because it’s his least bad option. As Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post reported on the same day as that Times article ran, Obama’s quandary in continuing in the primary mindset is as follows. If he goes negative against Clinton “he risks undermining the premise of his candidacy;” if he refrains, “he underscores Clinton’s argument that he will not be able to beat a ‘Republican attack machine’ sure to greet him this summer.” So he is looking to bypass that minefield entirely by preemptively strafing the Republican attack machine. Clinton only gains politically from Obama’s self-inflicted wounds, never from the ones she tries to inflict herself, which make her look sour and desperate to voters. Obama hopes she will continue to fruitlessly slash away at him and blunt her own temporary edge. If he can convince the electorate that she’s a has-been waging a contest that now exists solely in her own mind, he might precipitate the “bandwagon” effect in which waffling Dems rush to support him for the sake of partisanship.
However, the trouble with this gambit is that pretending he hasn’t got an intramural fight left to win is a defensive posture more redolent of “Anybody But Bush” than “Yes We Can.” Obama’s style has never been to run on the threat that the alternative would be unspeakably worse; the “lesser of two evils” argument is a patented trademark of the Clinton family. Moreover, Clinton is not above scoring points for McCain if it means taking them away from Obama: Recall her “3 a.m.” ad and her comments about who’s ready to be commander-in-chief. Also, and perhaps most important, there is no reason to assume that McCain will sit idly by and suffer Obama’s forthcoming salvos without returning fire, making the long march from here to the Denver convention one in which the naturally non-belligerent junior senator from Illinois is buffeted by two battle-tested bruisers.
But there’s another element at play in Obama’s decision to prematurely adopt the mantle of inevitability: arrogance. He’s done earning the right to be president already. A catastrophic debate performance and not a few pressing questions about the company he keeps are mere “distractions” from the real issues. What hasn’t the vice of presumption cost him? It led him to ignore the molten topic of his gruesome pastor until it was too late (and note how no exit poll follows up its query about Jeremiah Wright with one about Obama’s speech on race; it seems so long ago that the 21st century witnessed its own Gettysburg Address). It led him to downplay his relationship with the domestic terrorist William Ayers to the point of absurdity. And now it’s leading him to do what his still very much relevant rival did less than a year ago: assume that his past accomplishments will carry him right over the finish line. He really must be the candidate of hope to bet on that.
Michael Weiss is the New York Editor of Pajamas Media. His blog is Snarksmith.
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72 Comments
Paul S.:Recently, Rich Lowry correctly equated Obama’s core support base (college students and radical leftists) with another born-to-lose candidate in George McGovern. Mr. Weiss is further correct in highlighting Obama’s supreme arrogance, reminiscent of another failure: Michael Dukakis. I can’t imagine any politician, a presidential candidate no less, doing a Greta Garbo impersonation (the waffle incident) with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Real politicians live to connect with people, to charm, to get their message across, etc. The essence of politics, like management, is being able to work through other people. But in Obama World there is only The One. His arrogance makes more “distractions” a certainty, along with defeat in the general election.
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:25 am ElliotNC:I find it extremely gratifying that 93% of Black Americans are willing to look beyond color and vote for the most qualified candidate.
Now why can’t Whitey get with the program?
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:11 am M.E.:Presenting himself as the presumptive Democratic nominee, Obama seems to go beyond what the ancient Greeks called “hybris”, i.e. insolence, impertinence, arrogance. As punishment for the insult that “hybris” means for gods, they send the goddess Ate (the word “ate” means blinding, deception, illusion, punishment, ruin) who leads men into rash and inconsiderate actions which generate calamity and ruin. The perfidy of Ate is infinite and unforeseeable. Who knows, may be this time the jocose goddess wished to appear just in Hillary’s form.
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:30 am BJ:Clearly, the Obama campaign made a tactical error. The sum total of arrogance between his chief strategist, his campaign manager, and his own is hard to look past. And it finally reared its ugly head in the last month.
Their calculated risk in playing the “race” card, and their “presumption” that Clinton has already been labelled unfit to carry the party in November, with Obama being the Anointed One, bought them a free pass to sling mud and yet remain above it all, has backfired.
The phoenix-like rise of Rev. Wright, with numerous appearances in different venues this past week (PBS, NAACP, FOX on Monday) will be the final nail in his political coffin.
Apr 26, 2008 - 10:04 am Bill Bradley:Obama, who lost Pennsylvania, a primary closed to independents, perfectly set up for Clinton by virtue of its aging demographics, by less than double digits, is doing what he needs to do.
He’ll win the nomination and then he has to run against John McCain. Who is already ignoring Hillary and attacking him as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
When was the last time the Republicans attacked Hillary?
Answer.
They don’t bother.
Apr 26, 2008 - 10:47 am cindy:Where were you when Hillary did not acknowledge OB’s victory when she was expected to give concession speeches. She called him on the phone. That was not arrogance!!! WAKE UP AMERICA. DO NOT ALLOW THE PRESS TO FORCE ANY DISGUISED OPINION ON YOU. Please read in between lines and redigest every detail from the beginning of this boring campaign. The campaign that should have been stopped after 11 straight victories of one candidate. It is obvious the loser wants the tide to turn and will do anything in despiration to make this happen. Playing all cards no matter how dirty and divisive it might be. This is disgusting. Some of us are ashamed of the whole dirty procees. He is a muslim—, He is black—, He is not black enough, He is elitist—, False hope, racist, bad association e.t.c. PLEASE Look at the bigger picture and remain informed not insulted. Where is the substance in all these accusations and counter accusations. You can only be scared of someone that is a threat to you. MCCain knows this and that is why the R party is doing everything to change your earlier opinion of BO and allowing HR a free ride. I have not heard that the R party has given any immunity to Hillary that come November all her “baggage” will not be revisited.
Goodluck America.
Cindy- Very independent.
Apr 26, 2008 - 11:31 am Oregon for Obama:Just watched Hillary in Indiana. Notice lady in audience yawning. Must be getting like rest of country. Bored! Bored! Bored!
Apr 26, 2008 - 11:47 am Joseph W:RE: ElliotNC. How do you arrrive at your “gratifying” conclusion that 93% of African Americans are “willing to look beyond color” for the most qualified when they are, in fact, voting for “color”? I’d say it’s the 7% NOT voting for Obama that proves the ability to look BEYOND color.
Apr 26, 2008 - 12:18 pm david p:RE: BillBradley. The Republicans haven’t needed to attack Hillary now because they’ve spent the last 15 YEARS doing so. You probably haven’t seen (or you’ve chosen to ignore) the pleadings for donations by conservative right-wing organizations by invoking Hillary Clinton’s name, especially since she became a Senator. There’s NOTHING new that the GOP can bring up about Hillary that they haven’t already brought up. Of course, you also fail to note the Obamabots’ continual slamming Hillary using those very same right-wing talking points. (Of course, just watch how Ted Kennedy and John Kerry’s endorsements of Obama will play into the GOP playbook. Kennedy, for his traditional role as the Republicans’ personal boogeyman, and Kerry, for HIS vote to authorize the war before he “flip-flopped” and ran against the war.)
What goes on in the mind of most Obama supporters:
Apr 26, 2008 - 12:29 pm Bill Bradley:‘It’s cool cause you know Obama is about change and we need to change things in the USA.’
One thing that won’t change is the behavior of the ‘Typical’ Obama supporter. His demographics usually have a difficult time completing the 3 step processes required to cast a ballot. A boisterous onslaught of verbal support only goes so far, and makes little difference come election day.
Actually, I haven’t missed a thing. My analysis has been on the money for the past year.
Obama rising. McCain the only Republican who can win.
The rest is a lot of ideological rhetoric.
>Joseph W:
RE: ElliotNC. How do you arrrive at your “gratifying” conclusion that 93% of African Americans are “willing to look beyond color” for the most qualified when they are, in fact, voting for “color”? I’d say it’s the 7% NOT voting for Obama that proves the ability to look BEYOND color.
RE: BillBradley. The Republicans haven’t needed to attack Hillary now because they’ve spent the last 15 YEARS doing so. You probably haven’t seen (or you’ve chosen to ignore) the pleadings for donations by conservative right-wing organizations by invoking Hillary Clinton’s name, especially since she became a Senator. There’s NOTHING new that the GOP can bring up about Hillary that they haven’t already brought up. Of course, you also fail to note the Obamabots’ continual slamming Hillary using those very same right-wing talking points. (Of course, just watch how Ted Kennedy and John Kerry’s endorsements of Obama will play into the GOP playbook. Kennedy, for his traditional role as the Republicans’ personal boogeyman, and Kerry, for HIS vote to authorize the war before he “flip-flopped” and ran against the war.)
Apr 26, 2008 - 12:18 pm
Apr 26, 2008 - 12:56 pm Bill Bradley:Incidentally, this is a totally false statement.
>There’s NOTHING new that the GOP can bring up about Hillary that they haven’t already brought up.
Apr 26, 2008 - 12:57 pm ponderonit:To Joseph W.:
Apr 26, 2008 - 1:18 pm Rick:The republicans can bring up many new scandals about Hillary…and they will-
Just to name a few that I just learned about recently:
a) Hillary’s relationship with Peter Paul
b) Bill and Hillary’s relationship with the Weathermen
c) Bill and Hillary’s request for prayers and blessings from Barack’s pastor during the Monica Lewinsky scandal
d) Hillary was fired, for lying, from her job as an attorney helping with the impeachment trial of Richard Nixon
e) Hillary’s involvement with NAFTA during Bill’s presidency.
f) Hillary’s trip to Bosnia
g) Hillary considers Bill her
“relative” and I guess that’s why she didn’t leave him.
h) Hillary, the hunter, now supports the NRA…or does she?
i)Hillary often misspeaks when she is up late at night…maybe she had to vote on Iraq at 3:00 a.m.
j) Hillary was in a photo with
Bill and Rezko…but she doesn’t know him.
k) Hillary “rejects and denounces” Louis Farrakan…but
her supporter, Gov. Rendell, gave Farrakan an award.
l) etc., etc., etc.,
How do you spell hypocrite?
Hillary will win and Obama the boy wonder can go back to church. What did Obama really offer other than arrogance and disdain for whitey? Futhermore Obama was and is privileged and could care less about run of the mill Americans. Get a grip he isn’t your knight in shining armour.
Apr 26, 2008 - 1:20 pm Al Pratt:Assuming Obama gets the nomination, do you suppose McCain could run an ad with the following line?
Presidential candidates should “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Apr 26, 2008 - 1:28 pm Bill Bradley:McCain v. Obama is going to be a relatively close race — principally because Obama is an exotic, for obvious reasons, and McCain is a unique Republican in a non-Republican year — and it will be exciting to get to it.
Two unique American stories.
Apr 26, 2008 - 1:45 pm bc:It went from being “The election that’s theirs to lose”, to “The election they’re going to lose.”
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:02 pm Californio:Remarkable.
Hardy-har-har. Waiting for the vaunted “right-wing-attack machine?” Like it is even necessary (no need to talk about if it even exists). Remember all that lefy talk about how terrible it is the other side uses FEAR to their advantage? read the posts above. “Those Republicans are gonna..blah blah blah - so that is why my candidate has to burn your ass now - for the good of the party and the ultimate good of the nation…”
Hanging Chads - stolen elections - debasement of democracy - these are WRONG - When the OTHER SIDE does it !!!!!! But we we do it - well - we are just street smart politicians doing what we have to do to stop those evil evil republicans - you know - who you have to be AFRAID of…..
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. The Democrats are not anti-war, they are only anti-war on foreigners - fratracide is their favorite sport. Don’t even get me started on the fat self-indulgent losers calling them selves the “right” in this country. Now if we could only clone Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt………..
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:09 pm Richarrd Blaine:>Joseph W:
Misssed the joke, did you?
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:17 pm Karen:Why doesn’t anyone talk about how college educated people tend to lean towards Obama? You know, people who read and don’t just let the media tell them what to think. Intelligent people.
Obama is intelligent and it would be so nice to have someone intelligent as President for a change.
Also, have any of you seen or met Obama in person? Not only is he a good speaker but he is very personable and very good at answering people’s questions.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:17 pm Karen:Isn’t there some people who died mysteriously that Clinton knows?
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:19 pm Denny, Alaska:Sen. Obama (D-Titanic) is toast. Hope and change, sure: change to *what*?
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:20 pm Letalis Maximus, Esq.:The uncommitted Superdels are going to break for Obama (the activist party base will demand nothing less - and, most importantly, the uncommitted Superdels want a copy of or access to Obama’s internet contributor list). But they will only break for Obama 1) after they suck up as much wining and dining and other graft from both Clinton and Obama as they can for the next couple of months, and 2) when they are able to extract the greatest price from Obama.
There are simply no profiles in courage in those that are left uncommitted (after all, the ones with any guts at all (and/or cheap price tags) have already committed), but they are perfectly willing to ride this short-term gravy train for all it is worth…to them personally. Hillary’s only chance is to win the rest (100%) of the Dem primaries and that is almost impossible. Obama is the one raising the big money and that is most important “vote” of all.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:20 pm Letalis Maximus, Esq.:Bill Bradley:
With all due respect, McCain v. Obama might indeed be close. But only, I think, if McCain screws up badly. My view is that if McCain plays his cards very well, he could take 48-49 states over Obama.
That’s what I think, anyway.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:23 pm Californio:P.S. The weathermen were bourgeoisie psuedo terrorists who kept it safe by mostly killing the very working class people they purported to seek the emancipation of. [which is why gun control is soooo important - cannot let the proles get uppity.] So you see, waterboarding by such “well-meaning” groups would be ok - indeed we can laud them later for doing “something” to help bring about “change.” [It was a difficult time, long ago.] Ouch - kinda lets the air out of that rhetorical balloon when certain people argue about moral outrage today, doesn’t it??? [ and yes - waterboarding is different - those people lived. But reports indicate they were foreign - so their suffering is more relevant and authenitic.]
heh, ha ha.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:25 pm SFC:Actually, I’ll bet if you broke down “college educated” you’d find all the liberal arts majors with economically worthless (and often times highly dubious) degrees supporting Obama. Those that study engineering, sciences or many of the business disciplines probably have preferences that are far more evenly distributed.
College educated just doesn’t mean what it used to….
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:33 pm Dave King:Karen: I am college educated and I dont lean for Obama. He is an empty suit. All talk and no substance, at least none that wouldn’t do really bad things to our country. Of course I remember the sixties, seventies and eighties which the current crop of college goers definitely do not.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:41 pm matt:Election fraud in Michigan and Florida…voters disenfranchised…..Chicago machine politician vs. the ultimate machine politician…..pandering, slandering, gerrymandering….a delegate selection process right out of the Balkans….
And in the Red Corner, a gen u wine war hero and maverick and patriot in the old sense of the words. Not necessarily partisan in many ways, which could be scary….would be more comfortable if I knew who he would choose as advisers…..we need more smart, no BS old school white guys in starched shirts, horn rimmed glasses, and skinny ties with no agendas to help put this country back on the right track.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:41 pm Increase Mather:Karen: Barry O is this year’s fashion among the New York Times and latte set.
Barry has a very thin resume. Just what do the giant intellects filling our universities see in him?
His pastor?
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:43 pm Bill Bradley:Well, that is the wishful thinking on the Right. And far be it for me to interfere with the emissions thereof.
I deal with pros on both sides of the aisle.
It ain’t likely to happen.
>Letalis Maximus, Esq.:
Bill Bradley:
With all due respect, McCain v. Obama might indeed be close. But only, I think, if McCain screws up badly. My view is that if McCain plays his cards very well, he could take 48-49 states over Obama.
That’s what I think, anyway.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:23 pm
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:46 pm mouell:Al Pratt:
Al Pratt said:
Assuming Obama gets the nomination, do you suppose McCain could run an ad with the following line?
Presidential candidates should “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Me: Not without being branded a racsist..
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:51 pm Bill Bradley:My recollection of the nitwit Weather Underground is that, for all their posing and incompetent bombings, they killed a grand total of 3, (THREE) people. All of them in the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in their late stage. Which would be 1971. All by gunshot, two by use of illegal M-16 assault rifles. And had they been at all competent with their weapons, they would have killed all five of the people they were up against.
But like most ideological extremists, they weren’t very good. So they killed two police officers and a security guard.
The bombings were totally inept, and mostly dangerous to themselves.
A thoroughly hystrionic and idiotic crew, as was the case with most folks who chose the extremes in the 1960s and 1970s.
Unlike Hillary Clinton, who worked for the chairman of the Black Panther Party, Obama was in grade school at the time.
This is all very exciting, but I know people on the far right and the far left. People who I regard as right-wing nuts and people who I regard as left-wing nuts.
What I think, polite as I am, is what I think.
And in the end, John McCain, for all the fun he may be having at this particular moment — and he is a great hero, who I was happy to support in 2000 as a member of Veterans for McCain — will have to defeat Obama’s ideas and demeanor in the present day.
>Californio:
P.S. The weathermen were bourgeoisie psuedo terrorists who kept it safe by mostly killing the very working class people they purported to seek the emancipation of. [which is why gun control is soooo important - cannot let the proles get uppity.] So you see, waterboarding by such “well-meaning” groups would be ok - indeed we can laud them later for doing “something” to help bring about “change.” [It was a difficult time, long ago.] Ouch - kinda lets the air out of that rhetorical balloon when certain people argue about moral outrage today, doesn’t it??? [ and yes - waterboarding is different - those people lived. But reports indicate they were foreign - so their suffering is more relevant and authenitic.]
heh, ha ha.
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:25 pm
Apr 26, 2008 - 2:56 pm Tom W.:“Why doesn’t anyone talk about how college educated people tend to lean towards Obama? You know, people who read and don’t just let the media tell them what to think. Intelligent people.”
Omigod, that’s like, y’know, such a rad point! Kewl! The, like, intelligent people who read and stuff? They lean towards, like, Obama ’cause he’s promising, like, hope and change and stuff.
You go, girl!
Apr 26, 2008 - 3:08 pm Just Musing:Hillary and Bill’s Unexamined Baggage. Look for the smoking gun video on YouTube.
Case Number: BC304174
PETER F PAUL VS WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
Filing Date: 10/14/2003
Case Type: Fraud (no contract) (General Jurisdiction)
Status: Pending
Future Hearings
05/13/2008 at 08:37 am in department 47 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
OSC RE: CONTEMPT
08/08/2008 at 08:31 am in department 47 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Further Status Conference
Documents Filed | Proceeding Information
Parties
CLINTON HILLARY RODHAM - Defendant/Respondent
CLINTON WILLIAM JEFFERSON - Defendant/Respondent
D. COLETTE WILSON ATTORNEY AT LAW - Attorney for Plaintiff/Petitioner
DOYEN MICHAEL R. - Attorney for Defendant/Respondent
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON FOR U.S. SENATE - Defendant/Respondent
KREEP GARY G. - Former Attorney for Pltf/Petn
LEVIN JAMES - Defendant/Respondent
MACHTINGER LEONARD A. - Attorney for Defendant/Respondent
NORMAN JAN B. - Associated Counsel
NORRIS STERLING E. ESQ. - Attorney for Plaintiff/Petitioner
PAUL PETER F. - Plaintiff/Petitioner
ROSEN DAVID - Defendant/Respondent
SMITH GARY - Defendant/Respondent
TONKEN AARON - Defendant/Respondent
WILLAMS & CONNOLLY - Attorney for Defendant/Respondent
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:37 pm AST:At the outset, I wondered if the Dems would repeat their blunders of 1968 and 1972. It looks like it’s headed that way, but when I consider that the Reps have nominated John McCain who just isn’t very bright, I think we may spare them yet again. I don’t think that McCain will repeat the Watergate fiasco, but he seems fully capable of making deals with the Dems in appointing SCOTUS justices who will end up like so many Republican appointees of the past, liberals in sheep’s clothes. His faith in Al Gore and Global Warming is just stunning.
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:42 pm Terrye:Surely Karen is kidding.
Oh yeah, Obama is appealing to college professors, kids and blacks. Just like Kerry.
I am beginning to wonder if Obama will make it. For a long time there I would have agreed with Bill, but here of late I have seen some chinks in the armor of the Illinois Prince.
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:48 pm Paul M Hupf:I should like to comment on photos curently appearing in the press and on the Internet. In it Mr Obama appears as if he were engaged in a basketball scrimmage. The candidate’s face, and the tee shirt he is wearing, are prominent. The tee shirt features the letters U S M C The photos appear to have been posed so that the candidate’s face and the letters USMC are clearly identifiable. The letters USMC belong to only one organization in the world, the United States Marine Corps. Marines earn the right to display those letters, USMC, and emblems of the Corps on their person only after grueling training and demonstrated patriotism. How dare the candidate? How dare the candidate who will not display the flag on his person or stand at attention when the national anthem is played?
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:48 pm PD Quig:Past accomplishments? Obama? What, pray tell, would those be? Talk about someone who has zero laurels upon which to rest. The guy is a walking cypher, a talking down comforter. He has all the gravitas of a milk-through-the nose laughing jag in high school chemistry class.
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:54 pm Believer:To correct the record on the Weather Underground:
One bomb they were making exploded in their own Greenwich Village townhouse, killing three members. One being Ayers’ girlfriend.
The bomb was meant for an Officers’ Dance at Fort Dix where it would have killed civilians as well as military.
They were involved in some robbery attempt that did cause the death(s) of some, that is true, I’m pretty sure. Mostly they set off bombs.
They were successful in freeing Leary from prison also.
Apr 26, 2008 - 4:59 pm John the Libertarian:Karen said: Why doesn’t anyone talk about how college educated people tend to lean towards Obama? You know, people who read and don’t just let the media tell them what to think. Intelligent people.
You mean indoctrinated people. No one is really free-thinking until their 30s.
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:01 pm Ken Pierce:Karen,
>
Why doesn’t anyone talk about how college educated people tend to lean towards Obama? You know, people who read and don’t just let the media tell them what to think. Intelligent people.
Obama is intelligent and it would be so nice to have someone intelligent as President for a change.
>
I don’t want to be rude, but perhaps my experience here — albeit limited and anecdotal — is relevant.
I grew up in southeastern Oklahoma among fundamentalist Baptists, Church of Christ partisans, and Pentecostals — the very essence of redneck fundamentalism that I somehow suspect you consider to be far beneath your level of educated eminence. Then I went to Princeton as a classics major and graduated cum laude.
I can tell you, with absolute confidence, that I saw at least as much intellectual all-we-like-sheep syndrome among the Princeton undergraduates as I saw among the redneck fundamentalists. Personally I tended to prefer the rednecks. They were narrow-minded, but so were the self-impressed Princeton crew…they just chose different things to be narrow-minded about. And at least when hanging out with the narrow-minded rednecks I didn’t have to listen to them natter on and on incessantly about how open-minded they were.
Wisdom is a very different thing from intelligence, and it is not possible to acquire wisdom without humility. If you have intelligence but you don’t have humility, then your intelligence just makes it easier for you to come up with rationalizations for why you’re right about everything and the people who disagree with you are morons, rather than persons who might have something to teach you. But an American liberal-arts education, while it certain challenges students who are Republicans, doesn’t encourage liberal undergraduates to develop humility; instead it flatters the preening self-conceit that comes naturally to adolescents, especially adolescents who got accepted to prestigious schools. There are many sub-cultures in America that indulge in mindless group-think, but none take a backset to the liberal-arts Left, and the liberal-arts Left’s self-congratulation on its own intelligence adds a special piquant flair all its own.
And I say this, by the way, as a Libertarian who holds the Republican Party and the political Religious Right in contempt, and who absolutely agrees with what seems to be your estimate of the Shrub’s I.Q.
Cheers,
KP
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:14 pm Believer:I think it’s good to remember Dohrn and Ayers are unrepentant. Even today. And they were taken seriously as a group that wanted to overthrow our government. They were (and perhaps still are) this sick:
Dohrn was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. She lauded the Manson murders and thought it was wonderful the way they sat down and ate right there with the dead beside them, and then stuck a fork in the belly of one.
Ayers encouraged the killing of one’s own parents.
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:29 pm Dan Koffler:Sorry, but the argument that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is viable is simply innumerate. Obama is currently ahead by 150-160 elected delegates, depending on the count. He’ll net more elected delegates out of North Carolina than Clinton netted out of Pennsylvania because the Democratic party stacks its delegates in districts favorable to Obama, especially in traditionally Republican states. The rest of the states are a push; even under very favorable assumptions for Hillary Clinton, she could possibly net 20-30 elected delegates (though that’s unlikely), meaning that after all the primaries and caucuses are finished, the margin will be at least in the neighborhood of 130, probably more. Which would mean, to get the nomination, Clinton would have to get the support of about 80 percent of the remaining undeclared superdelegates.
Insisting that 2+2=5 is not change we can believe in.
But let’s hear more about Obama’s relationships with terrorists.
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:53 pm edna:People of the USA is so hypocrical. If the catholics of pennsylvania, were educated, the would not sit in the pews of the pedophilia priests. Yet, you peole try to blame Obama for someelse’s action, talking about being a hypocrit, you catholics are the worre. Of course it’s okay for the priests to Molest your little children, you agree with this and continue to go to mass…How Sick..
Apr 26, 2008 - 5:58 pm Mary Ok:Ponderonit, you wrote:
“Hillary was fired, for lying, from her job as an attorney helping with the impeachment trial of Richard Nixon”
Is this actually a fact? I doubt it. I thought her employement ended because Nixon resigned - and actually the fact that she was selected for the job in the first place says plenty. Many congressmen (like Andrew Young)that she met during her service were concerned that she chose to follow Bill Clinton (whom they had not met) to Arkansas. Hillary Clinton was identified early as a talented person and her undergraduate valedictorian commencement speech - where she discarded her prepared speech to respond to Sen Edward Brooke’s speech is still pointed to as a key event in understanding Hillary Clinton.
Just Musing, By the way, its easy and cheap to file a lawsuti, Happens every day, as I have been told by insurance claims personnel.
Apr 26, 2008 - 6:21 pm abu al-fin:Barak may very well select Jeremiah Wright as his vice presidential running mate. That would make for a fascinating VP debate, assuming that John McCain selects someone intelligent as his VP candidate, to balance his own ditziness.
Wright cursing the US in response to every question from Charlie Gibson, and the more intelligent repo VP candidate trying to keep from laughing on camera. Let it be so!
Apr 26, 2008 - 6:24 pm mrsi:edna, tarring with a rather broad brush, aren’t we?
Let’s toss out a 2,000 year old institution because of a few very nasty priests. That makes sense.
Apr 26, 2008 - 6:27 pm Workman3344:I blame the idiot media that think it is a gas to keep Hillary thinking she has a snow balls chance in hell. It makes good feed and that’s what goes for “news” these days. I also think if Hillary thinks she is vetted she is crazy. What they have done for money and power will destroy her. As for substance in Obama, I know the media isn’t giving it out but you could look it up. How in the hell can people compare a person who failed the Washington Bar Exam deemed a liar by over half the people to a person who not only passed the Bar was set to make the money Hillary covets but instead chose to devote his life to making this world a better place. If you choose to hate Obama because of a small connection to a man who is now a college professor donating his time to the community then by that measure you MUST hate Hillary for the sale of Bill’s pardon of two of the same group who were convicted. Do not throw stones Hillary when your house is fragile, the thinnest glass known! I assure you all of the dispicable acts of Hillary will come out and that would be the end of our chance to stop this war!
Apr 26, 2008 - 6:35 pm GW Crawford:Re: Why doesn’t anyone talk about how college educated people tend to lean towards Obama? You know, people who read and don’t just let the media tell them what to think. Intelligent people.
Obama is intelligent and it would be so nice to have someone intelligent as President for a change.
Also, have any of you seen or met Obama in person? Not only is he a good speaker but he is very personable and very good at answering people’s questions.
Like all those university students who are marxist in leaning
University education does not mean smart, especially in the light of revelations on professor political leanings (33-1 D-R)
Also, “it would be so nice to have someone intelligent as President for a change.”
Does intelligent now mean ‘promising change with no actual thoght as to what to change or what repercussions of the change’?
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:00 pm Believer:Every man who has ever become president is intelligent. Nixon was probably one of the smartest US presidents in the 20th century. That worked so well.
Your democrat bias of ‘we are the smarty party’ is showing.
Mary OK:
Yes, I just learned this. Hillary was fired because of her unethical conduct during the hearings. She was attempting to keep Nixon from counsel. She lied to her supervisor, I believe. Could not be recommended for any more positions of “public trust” because of her unethical conduct.
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:15 pm all american:It no wonder Obama ignored Hillary after the election. He can’t take loosing to a woman. So he acks like a baby. If you take away his African American votes he wouldn’t have anything. And That shows how loyal the African Americaans are. They use to say Clinton was thier black President. And admited he done more for them then any president ever did. Now they can’t trash the Clintons enough. This is how they say thanks. But it dosn’t matter as the people are getting wise to Obama and his rhetoric
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:27 pm Anonymous:> Change to *what*?
Here’s the Blueprint of Change for the literally challenged.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
When you’re at the South Pole, any direction is North.
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:41 pm Michael:When you have GWB as president, any change is an improvement.
> Change to *what*?
Here’s the Blueprint of Change for the literally challenged.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
When you’re at the South Pole, any direction is North.
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:42 pm John:When you have GWB as president, any change is an improvement.
Well,,, I went to college, a rather good one in fact, and I’m married to a college professor. Neither of us have a liberal arts degree and neither of us would consider a vote for OB. As stated up thread, Obama is simply an empty shirt. A presidential candidate must be someone of substance, McCain is that man, Obama is not. IMHO, the 97% black vote was truly racist in nature.
Apr 26, 2008 - 7:46 pm ednaisanidiot:@edna and the Catholic rant.
Jeez Barry-o supporters can only survive on false equivalences.
The official doctrine of the Catholic Church does not include paedophilia. The official doctrine of Wright’s church is unreptant heretical ethnocentrism and hatred of white people. Do you understand the difference? Catholic laity were outraged and demanded change. Congregants of Wright’s church (i.e. Obama) stood in the aisles and applauded his bigotry. Do you understand the difference?
Apr 26, 2008 - 9:02 pm Assistant Village Idiot:Believer - close, but not exact. Hillary was not given a recommendation by her Watergate boss for the reasons you note. This is significant because he has refused only two others in his entire career. He cited her lack of ethics.
KP - nice letter, but Bush has an IQ of 126, 1.5SD above average, and about 97th percentile. A little above the Ivy League average (The estimate was reached by correlating his OCS exam and SAT’s with the S-B - a pretty standard practice).
Apr 26, 2008 - 9:08 pm Javelin:Well GW Crawford
Apr 26, 2008 - 11:38 pm Believer:If the Republicans didnt pander to every crackpot red baiter and Elmer Gantry clone with their hick schtick and did their best to be reverse snobs, they might be able to win some smart vote.
Assistant V.I.:
Dude, you know your stuff.
Hereafter, I defer to your idiocy.
Apr 26, 2008 - 11:54 pm Empire Autopilot:“Sending the MSM down the river”
Judging by the comments and spin here you’ve done exactly that! Your moron readership is now busy spinning lies exactly like Fox News.
Obama is the nominee.
Obama is the best candidate.
Obama is our next President.
Deal with it people. Oh, and get yourselves educated. Stupidity is ridiculous in this day and age. You have the internet, USE IT.
Apr 27, 2008 - 3:46 am Letalis Maximus, Esq.:Bill Bradley:
And those “pros on both sides of the aisle” have never been wrong, have they?
Bottom line: Nobody knows nuthin and its a long way to November.
Apr 27, 2008 - 7:33 am Justin:Empire Autopilot:
“Sending the MSM down the river”
Judging by the comments and spin here you’ve done exactly that! Your moron readership is now busy spinning lies exactly like Fox News.
Obama is the nominee.
Obama is the best candidate.
Obama is our next President.
Deal with it people. Oh, and get yourselves educated. Stupidity is ridiculous in this day and age. You have the internet, USE IT.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Yeah! Don’t you dare question what the left has put forward as the facts. Think for yourselves and agree only with whatever the left tells you.
Incidentally, Empire Autopilot is full of $%^&. Obama has the best chance of becoming the nominee, but he is an empty shirt without accomplishment and a fair number of shady associates that are flat out racist, and one of his friends is an unrepentant terrorist.
McCain, on the other hand, has proven that he has an integrity way above the norm, and is bipartisan. Better candidate? People know nothing about Obama because he has come out of nowhere (nowhere being a racist church for the past 20 years) and hasn’t done anything. McCain is experienced and he has shown what sort of man he is. A good one. Obama, the one we see on television, is a figment spun from his own native Charisma in part, but mostly he is a concoction of the media and democrat propaganda machine. His mask is also falling by the way. The more the people learn about him, and sort of person he really is when the cameras are off, the less they will like him.
McCain is the better candidate. And he is simply a better man than Obama. Deal with it.
Oh, and as for education, I am working on my degree in Chemical Engineering. My Chemistry teacher is also voting McCain. This week is finals week so wish me luck.
And as for stupidity… go look in a mirror. You are worshiping a freaking delusion that the media created. Or more accurately, a man who is almost certainly a racist, has terrorist friends, and who looks down on the common man about as much as you do.
Apr 27, 2008 - 9:25 am doppelganglander:Karen, no wonder you prefer Snobama. You seem to share his assumption that less educated people are too stupid to know what’s good for them. They can’t possibly have common sense or the ability to size up a person’s character.
SFC, I’m an English major making a very good living and actually using my degree. Please don’t lump all of us liberal arts majors together!
Apr 27, 2008 - 2:50 pm Believer:Obama’s finally accepting the interview with Chris Wallace is telling.
After Pennsylvania, he knew he had work to do. Wearing the USMC T-shirt the other day wasn’t going to do it.
I watched his performance, and heard nothing new. But I wasn’t surprised. He’s going to have to come up with alot more to convince me he can lead this nation. Since he doesn’t tell us anything about himself, we have every right to consider who his associates have been. If he won’t be forthcoming, we have to find clues elsewhere. We’re nuts to elect an unknown.
And if he doesn’t in clear - and unambiguous - language tell us precisely what he objects to with regard to Wright’s (or any other radical’s) comments or actions, then I have every right to think he agrees with Wright, Farrakhan, Ayers, Dohrn or any other radical, America-hating loon he tolerates. (He did the two-step again in this interview.)
I don’t think that’s too much to ask of someone who wants to be President of the United States of America. In a time of war.
Come to think of it. It’s too late. I wouldn’t believe a word out of his mouth at this point. He’s lied too many other times. I’ll give him this much: I don’t think he’d like telling that big a doozie, but if he cleared it with his radical buddies, he’d do it.
And by the way, I figured Wallace would disappoint. He wanted this interview too much, and I’m sure hopes to get another.
I won’t be watching.
Apr 27, 2008 - 6:44 pm LogicalSC:I have news for Karen and Empire Autopilot which they will clearly learn when they mature.
Degrees in ethic and gender studies do not qualify as “educated”. Neither does the ability to quote Noam Chomsky or screaming at conservative speakers at the university union.
I have both a BS and a BA with majors in finance, economics and management along with a minor in History, but I have learned ten times as much since leaving university than I ever learned in sitting in a classroom listening to a TA drone on a subject about which they knew little more than I.
An truly educated person would never let Obama’s silly speeches blind them to his actions for the past twenty years. Does Obama have any associate anywhere in his past which isn’t on the far left of America? His entire core of life is surrounded by people who are disgusted by the American system, from his communist mother and grandfather to this marxist “pastor”, from his shady political godfather in Rezko to his friendship with a person who attacked his fellow Americans. Heck, even his wife has a ton of trouble hiding her hate for this country and its people.
If the truth was to told, his long-time group of supporters would have discarded our Constitution and our republic in the 60’s and 70’s for the disaster which was Soviet communism. Don’t believe me, just ask Wright or Ayers.
Apr 27, 2008 - 7:30 pm Believer:Just a bit ago, I heard of the growing violence in South Chicago. This is the community both Wright and Obama have been “tending” for years now. Obviously, they haven’t been successful.
I’ve been saying, for weeks now - in a variety of ways - that the real needs of any individual are not material ones, but spiritual.
A man can have the finest of educations, the best job or worldly possessions and still be the unhappiest of souls. But this is what Obama offers to heal his people. It’s not enough.
The Wright church does not teach the Christian gospel. If you heard Pope Benedict when he was here, were his words not strikingly different from Wright’s?
Did one man’s words repel you, while you wanted to embrace the other’s?
The seeds of anger and hatred have been scattered all over Obama’s community. And they are reaping what they’ve sown. I first saw it in the video of the incredibly young black child spewing his hatred of, and intention to kill, Bush.
I can only hope and pray some of them can be saved.
My father’s early life was such that one might say he shared more with Blacks than perhaps Wright or Obama. He was born into poverty. In the south. But with his Baptist upbringing, he was not poor in spirit.
His home had a dirt floor with no plumbing or electricity. He picked cotton in the fields as a child, asking only that he be allowed to go to school a few hours a day. His family was targeted by the KKK, and experienced the cross set aflame by them.
He was told he should continue his schooling, and did graduate from Occidental College. But the school that always held such a tender place in his heart was one that is now called Berea College in Kentucky. He finished high school there. It was founded for the poorest of Appalachian children. Black and white.
It was a man of faith who realized his dream in 1855 to build a school for the two races to be schooled together. I do hope that even today it’s still true to its Christian founding and encourages strong moral values.
Mr. Obama wants to improve our educational system. His church needs a better message. Perhaps he should look to Kentucky and this humble little one as the prototype for the Hope and Change his community needs.
Apr 27, 2008 - 8:32 pm Believer:Re: The Chicago Violence
If Obama gets the nomination, I think it’s only right we tell him to go clean up the mess in his own backyard (and I don’t mean Rezko’s)…
Before we allow him anywhere near the rest of the country.
Prove it to us, Obama, that you can lead. Your words ain’t doin’ it.
You and that pastor of yours have created a nightmare.
Apr 27, 2008 - 9:52 pm The Wizard:Hillary should be ignored! She is attempting to be a spoiler and is in total denial with regards to her electability. She can’t win, but rather than have Obama win, she would rather destroy the Democratic Party. Why, because if McCain wins, she has a shot (she believes) in 2012; if Obama wins, Hillary’s presidential aspriations are done. Seems most logical to me!!
Apr 28, 2008 - 10:10 am Kiseta50:Can somebody tell me, I am new at this, what would the outcome be if John Mckain got sick or slipped on a banana peal, who would run on our side(I mean Republican)????
Apr 28, 2008 - 2:42 pm Kiseta50:Can somebody tell me (I am new at this) what would the outcome be, if Hoh McCain got sick or slipped on a banana peel, who would run on our side ( I mean Republican)???
Apr 28, 2008 - 2:55 pm James Howard:How about Bob Dole???
Apr 30, 2008 - 11:48 am