The longer this interminable election goes on, the less it seems to be about anything. One candidate – so we are told – has a campaign filled with the proverbial rats diving off a sinking ship. The other – stuffed to the gills with what some say are illicit dollars – spends the waning days of his campaign blowing millions of those dollars (in the midst of an economic meltdown) on something as bland and meretricious as an infomercial.
Yet that strategy appears to be working so far. For over two years, what Obama has done is to be particularly brilliant at evading saying anything of substance, in other words being brilliant at playing defense so that the world has no real idea of what he actually intends to do.
It’s the candidate as Rorschach Test. You get to project on him what you think he is or what you want him to be.
So far this has proven a highly-successful strategy, but I submit it is in essence anti-democratic and not at all what was intended by our founders. Yet, in this advertising media age, it almost seems inevitable. What we are left with is sniffing the ground ffor the candidate’s true identity and what he we would do in office (not easy to ascertain under any condition). In typically wise articles today Roger Kimball and Cliff May fear the worst. They could be right, of course, although, if Obama is elected, I hope they are not.
But coming back to the Rorschach test analogy, I suspect Obama’s success with this strategy–deliberate or not– relates directly to who he is as a person. At forty-seven, having spent much of his adult life running for office, he is essentially an unformed man, ink splattered on a page. He drifted off on many occasions toward some of the more disreputable characters in our culture (Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc.), but his supporters tell us not to take this seriously. These are simply random ink blots. Never mind that there are a fair number of them. The dyes do what they do. You can’t control them. Well, maybe, maybe not. Time will tell – or it won’t.
But the greatest true believers in this Rorschach test are the mainstream media. For the most part, they have taken it at face value, never bothering to connect the dots, or seriously research missing eras in the candidate’s short history, for fear of disrupting their weltanschauung or threatening their already precarious jobs. Too bad. They might have discovered who Obama really is – something the cadidate might not know himself.
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42 Comments
1. Webrider:About the only redeeming factors in this “discovery effort” of who/what Obama really is, are Sarah Palin’s efforts at stump speeches and the PUMA’s (God bless ‘em for doing what the MSM is either willfully or ignorantly not doing.)
Oct 30, 2008 - 8:52 am 2. hermie:In Illinois, Obama was just as much of a cypher when he ran for US Senate. The MSM was also in the tank for him, most infamously the success in getting his primary challenger, Blair Hull’s divorce records opened for the ‘public’s right to know’, then the divorce and child custody records of Obama’s GOP candidate Jack Ryan.
However, like today, the Tribune and Sun-Times, the two most influential papers in Illinois, ignored Obama’s past associations and his lack of actual accomplishment in the State Senate.
Obama’s lack of legislation, his lack of bipartisanship, his judgement regarding the people he took money and favors from, his associations with terrorist sympathizers and money men, his lies regarding his ties to ACORN, his lies regarding Ayers, his hypocrisy regarding those who are ‘bitter’ about ‘guns and god, his duplicity regarding NAFTA, his two-faced statements regarding the Second Amendment, his desire to change the Constitution by fiat, his massive ego regarding his Greek temple and his multi-million dollar waste on a TV infomercial and ‘party’ in a public park, his lack of understanding about foreign policy except that he will ‘talk’ to Islamic facists but not talk to struggling democracies.
THAT is a man who should be President?
Oct 30, 2008 - 9:49 am 3. John Galt:Here in Illinois, we have little sense of what our junior senator stands for, outside of the usual liberal talking points. I think that there are two reasons for this state of affairs:
1. He is an academic leftist who has to be careful that the public doesn’t realize how far left (and how fascist) that group has gone in the past 30 years. (Those of us with experience teaching in Universities can tell you – be very scared about your freedom of speech).
2. He sees himself as a vessel through which radical economic and social change can take place. He is sort of vague and passive because the blanks will get filled in by his prominent backers and supporters (i.e., mostly radical leftists with some very accomodating liberals for “bipartisan” balance).
IMO, the important questions are whether the media continues to cover for him when he fails as POTUS (e.g., blame his failures on Bush) and just how far left he will go. He is not a person with enough strength of character and conviction to push hard against pressure. He will ride the flow created by the Democratic Congress, their public relations arm, and influential leftists. It will be a long, bumpy ride.
Oct 30, 2008 - 10:23 am 4. Jay:“One candidate – so we are told – has a campaign filled with the proverbial rats diving off a sinking ship…”
Chris Hitchens is a pretty important rat, wouldn’t you say? See also William Weld, without whose inclusive Republicanism gay marriage would not be possible today. That you fail to mention Weld shows how truly shallow is your support of that great cause.
“The other – stuffed to the gills with what some say are illicit dollars…”
Which are illicit, exactly? I suppose you’ll soon repeat McCain’s thinly-veiled dog whistle about “Palestinian donors.”
“It’s the candidate as Rorschach Test. You get to project on him what you think he is or what you want him to be.”
Wrong again. The public is swinging leftward because of real anger over the Bush years, just as they swung rightward over anger about the Carter years. It happens, and in contrast to Senator Clinton, who is workaday and uninspiring, they see someone who will deliver at least a small antidote to what’s gone wrong. How foolish to simply assume that all Obama supporters are “projecting.” You really do think people are too stupid to watch debates, read newspapers, and look at voting records, don’t you? It’s funny how, when McCain led in the polls, your tone was different (”Thankfully, the American people seem to feel differently about Obama…”).
“At forty-seven, having spent much of his adult life running for office, he is essentially an unformed man, ink splattered on a page…”
Really? Just off the top of your head, can you tell me McCain’s position on the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or National Service, or why he changed positions on his own pet immigration bill? I bet you can’t, and won’t, do that before the election. There’s only one candidate who’s been clear on matters like IDEA and national service, and it isn’t John McCain. The presidency isn’t just about warmaking and war management. I’m not sure whether McCain wants anyone except Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham in his administration.
“He drifted off on many occasions toward some of the more disreputable characters in our culture (Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc.), but his supporters tell us not to take this seriously.”
McCain drifted off toward Charles Keating, John Hagee, Gordon Liddy and more, which tells us one key thing: by turning him into some sort of transpartisan saint, you have set McCain up to fail. McCain and Obama are not perfect servants. Rather, they are public servants who have shown flashes of their gifts in their careers. That politicians are so flawed shows we should vote for sets of issue positions, and not people.
Here, by the way, is something on Khalidi. His writing is doctrinaire lefty, but evidence does not point toward the man being a terrorist, as you seem to suggest:
“What everyone acknowledges is that Khalidi was an adviser to the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid talks. That delegation – to a person – could not have had any formal affiliation with the PLO. Israel regarded the group as terrorist and its laws banned contact with its members; then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir made NOT being affiliated with the PLO it a condition of Israel’s agreement to participate. The names of the Palestinian team would have been vetted by Israeli intelligence.” (http://tinyurl.com/5rn34v)
My point is this: as you continue to hold Obama to one standard of muckraking, and McCain to none at all, you are polluting the discourse by implying that one candidate-and by extension, his supporters-is mysterious and unpatriotic.
Go ahead, hate me and my comments. Whine that I’m lying about your words, or “projecting” insecurity about my own patriotism. But I love this country too much to be bullied, and if Roger Simon’s America is a place where, to be considered a decent American, I have to spend the better part of the day condemning every citizen not supporting John McCain, count me out.
Oct 30, 2008 - 10:35 am 5. cfbleachers:They gave us a test
To replace the decider
They saw a butterfly
We saw a spider
They gave us a test
And words were the basis
To their black, we said white
To our white, they said racist
They gave us a test
An MMPI
Then they held back the scores
And they didn’t say why
They gave us a test
Oct 30, 2008 - 10:36 am 6. Lightnin' Hopkins:To measure our pride
And we stood in silence
When liberty died
No one is condemning you, Jay, least of all Roger. Take a breath and calm down a little.
My personal opinion – worth squat, by the way – is that Barack Obama is a damn phony. I’m not voting for him. You are free to make a different choice just like all the rest of us “decent Americans.”
Oct 30, 2008 - 11:05 am 7. David Thomson:“No one is condemning you, Jay, least of all Roger.”
The odds are 50/50 that Jay is a poster paid by the Barack Obama campaign. They are deliberately targeting influential blogs like this one. We are being propagandize to the very dangerous point where a democratic society is no longer possible. I still think John McCain is going to win on Election Day. Sadly, my argument is premised on the fact that many white people legitimately fear victimization by an Obama administration. And if the “Messiah” does indeed capture the White House—we will most assuredly be entering an age of dictatorship. Enough of us will be arrested and persecuted to intimidate the others.
Oct 30, 2008 - 11:21 am 8. jeremiah:“… many white people legitimately fear victimization by an Obama administration. [...] we will most assuredly be entering an age of dictatorship. Enough of us will be arrested and persecuted [...]”
The odds are 50-50 that David Thomson is poster paid by a white supremacist group.
There… I can be as silly as David.
Oct 30, 2008 - 11:39 am 9. David Thomson:“There… I can be as silly as David.”
There is a sharp difference between the two of us: I use my real name! It is very interesting to note that rarely, if ever, do Obama supporters reveal their true identities. Also, where is the evidence indicating that I might be a “poster paid by a white supremacist group”?
Oct 30, 2008 - 11:51 am 10. David Thomson:The most recent book by William C. Ayers , Bernardine Dohrn is Race Course Against White Supremacy. The late Susan Sontag described white people as a cancer on the Earth. Barack Obama attended the racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s church for about two decades. An Obama presidency will most assuredly be a “get whitey” administration. We are witnessing a takeover of America organized by black racists and their guilt tripped white allies. The only clear winner will be the despicable David Duke and other radical right-wing ideologues.
Oct 30, 2008 - 11:59 am 11. tim maguire:Here, as in so many other places, I hold the media largely responsible. Sure, Obama has a lot of vicious people rooting for him who are willing to disrupt any discussion unlikely to end favorably for him, but the real problem is the “gotcha” mentality of the media which prevents a candidate from saying anything intelligent or substantive because any nuanced complicated thought can be picked apart, Dowdified, and used to make the candidate look stupid, evil, or both.
A responsible press interested in getting the story right would do wonders for the level of public discourse and I think many of these other problems would then resolve themselves.
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:07 pm 12. David Thomson:I do not want to monopolize the discussion thread. However, I found this story on the Power Line Blog just a few moments ago. It is very frightening—and a warning to the United States if Barack Obama becomes our next president:
“Diana West reports on the harrowing case of Bart Debie, who has just begun serving a one-year prison sentence for “racism,” in what Diana describes as “fascistic little Belgium.” If her account of Debie’s case is accurate, then her characterization of Belgium is not far wide of the mark.
Debie was a senior police officer in Antwerp in 2003 when, according to Diana’s account, he and several other officers responded to a report of drunk and disorderly conduct. They were attacked by five Turkish men wielding a baseball bat and a knife (two witnesses testified in court that this attack occurred). After helping to subdue and arrest the attackers, Debie was called away to supervise a SWAT team elsewhere in Antwerp, and his men returned to the station with the Turkish prisoners. The prisoners later claimed they had been beaten and subjected to racism while at the station.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/10/021925.php
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:10 pm 13. Mark Poling:“Chris Hitchens is a pretty important rat, wouldn’t you say?”
Jay, Christopher Hitchens is a frickin’ Trotskyite! On every issue but the Iraq War, Hitchens is about as far from being a “conservative” as you can get.
Of course he loves the idea of Obama (and probably believes that Iraq is a done deal, so what the heck).
Now other Republicans jumping on the
gravy trainObama bandwagon constitute a better point.As to illicit donors, follow this thought experiment in how to donate millions to Obama.
Your list of unsavory associates to John McCain would be more impressive if any of those people actually represented a consistent ideology. The problem with Obama’s unsavory associates is that they are representative of a consistent, militantly anti-American strain of thought. Namely that it is Mayflower America who is responsible for all the wrongs of the world. (My ancestors came over after various famines, anti-royalist revolutions, and justices-of-the-peace made an ocean crossing in steerage in the 19th century look like a good idea. But hey, I share the lack of pigmentation as those 17th century freaks.)
Speaking of projection….
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:13 pm 14. Gaffe Prices:This one really steams my carrotts. First we were bludgeoned by Jimmie Carters “born again” credentials.
Now we can be baptized in the waters of ubamas holy rhetoric, and be cleansed of the sin of being white.
With plenty of hypnotized suckers lined up for absolution.
Everything about Ubamas is the worst of European legacy, where hundreds of millions are slaughtered in the name of Atheist Regimes, only to be remembered as one of Stalins “statistics”.
Mentored by national socialists, ubamas could not be more europeon. “Black Liberation Theology” is only a hybrid of it, and a pointless distraction.
The issue is not that blacks are voting for him because he is black, but that white people are voting for him because he is black. All to be absolved of something none of them participated in, and many of whose ancestors died fighting for the Union.
Ubamas is a race hustler, and only promises to revive more of the race hustling we’ve seen by Sharpton, and Jackson. None of this is new. Except the Ubamassiah angle, from Axelrod.
What gets me is that no objection is raised when the quote, Religious Left, unquote, intrudes, yet again into faith, belief, or theology.
The left caterwails with righteous indignation at the very suggestion, or mention of church intrusion into government. “Separation of Church and State”- “its in the constitution”. No it isn’t. Its coined in a letter Jefferson wrote about the very opposite. The intrusion of government into faith, belief, and theology.
The Left is a crack-pot pagan religion. With infant sacrifice as their sacrament. The horror of it all reached me during the “Bush is Hitler” phase, that established the false precedent that national socialism originates from one source. Now people are having the rude awakening that its all happening now. When its been happening all along. The horror and the maddness. Thanks Jimmy
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:30 pm 15. Annabel:Roger Simon’s support of gay marriage is “shallow” because he didn’t mention William Weld in this particular completely unrelated post?! Jay, you are a raving nutcase. Roger is a public figure who has taken a very public, consistent stand in favor of gay marriage since it entered the public discourse. You on the other hand are a cowardly anonymous loon.
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:37 pm 16. Mike_K:I think your analogy of Obama as Rorschach test is a good one. The other problem is that there is a religious aspect to the true believers among his followers. If McCain wins, as I think is increasingly possible, there is going to be hell to pay with the deluded Obamabots. It will make 2000 look friendly. How do you deal with disappointed would-be fascists ? It may be a difficult couple of years. That’s not enough to be willing to tolerate an Obama presidency if I don’t have to, but it’s something to consider in making plans.
My sister lives in Chicago and, win or lose, she plans to be as far away from that celebration downtown as possible. She says Daley is scared that a riot could nix Chicago’s bid for the Olympics. But, of course, he can’t say no to The One.
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:51 pm 17. A. N. Pierson:Annabel, I noticed that strange comment about Weld as well. Simon supports gay marriage but does not mention William Weld, therefore Simon is weak in his support of gay marriage. Does this Jay suffer from a cognitive disorder?
Oct 30, 2008 - 12:58 pm 18. David Thomson:Nothing will likely happen to the black criminals associated with ACORN. They are now above the law because of the color of their skin. It will be tacitly deemed that the victims of white oppression have a right to seek revenge against the evil American system. The same holds true regarding the black bureaucrat in Ohio who violated the privacy rights of Joe the plumber. At the very most, a very small price will be paid. Our society is becoming very racially polarized. And the largely impotent Ku Klux Klan had little to do with it. On the contrary, this has mostly occurred because of the efforts of white radicals who graduated from our “best” universities.
Oct 30, 2008 - 1:01 pm 19. Lightnin' Hopkins:David, while it is true that Obama would make a horrendous president, one who would surely institute numerous radical policies, highly divisive and damaging, even – I can’t jump on the “get whitey” administration bandwagon. Preemptively declaring him some sort of dictator-in-waiting smacks a little too much of the hysterical left’s paranoia about President Bush. If I’m wrong about that, I’ll be the first one to apologize to you when we both arrive at the concentration camp.
Besides, no one does apocalyptic hyperventialtion as well as the “progressives.” Like, for instance, this blasted fool:
http://tinyurl.com/5rd9mh
Oct 30, 2008 - 1:26 pm 20. Jay Marrands:An excellent analogy.
The only part I would argue with is your paragraph describing Obama “essentially an unformed man, ink splattered on a page.”
I used to view Obama as just a convenient tool, serving others on the Left. Now I know he is as anarchistic as the most radical among them. In other words, he is quite formed.
Oct 30, 2008 - 1:34 pm 21. ricpic:I really don’t see what the mystery is about what Obama will do if elected. As a committed marxist he will expropriate the expropriators, big time. Only when the carcass is stripped bare will he institute a New Economic Policy, a la Lenin.
Think I’m blowing smoke? If elected with a filibuster proof senate, a distinct likelihood, there’ll be no stopping Comrade Barak.
Watch and learn, to your sorrow.
Oct 30, 2008 - 2:05 pm 22. Annabel:Actually, according to the polling numbers today, it’s not a distinct likelihood that the Democrats will win enough seats for a filibuster-proof Senate. They need 60 for that. Right now it’s looking like they’ll end up one or two short. Of course, that can easily change, but at this moment, it’s not quite as gloomy as your prediction, Ricpic.
Oct 30, 2008 - 2:23 pm 23. tim maguire:David, I think that last one is a post too far. You won’t get many takers for the that level of racial politics.
ric, the one thing that will rein in Obama is the desire to be admired. However much he may want to support certain causes, he won’t be a martyr to them. Like Clinton, his legacy will be more important than any particular policy preference. In my opinion, of course.
Oct 30, 2008 - 3:36 pm 24. Chaz:The only thing that reined Clinton in was a Republican Congress. I remember full well the Clinton Years. Two years of undivided government was more than enough.
Oct 30, 2008 - 4:40 pm 25. John Moore:Obama is taking advantage of a strategy the Democratic Party entered into starting in 2004: make every day a bad news day. Naturlich, the main stream media was happy to go along.
Four years later, what do we have? Society’s institutions have terrible favorability ratings. Not a surprise – after all the negativism.
The dems and the MSM have been engaging in crude conditioning… make you feel bad every time you get the news, and you will hate everyone in power (of course, this has hurt the MSM too, but they don’t care).
Now up pops a guy about whom we know little. The media of course continues giving us bad news every day, but not about the new guy.
Is it a surprise that people are voting for Obama? Have you ever asked an Obamabot (not one who is naturally political) why they are voting for him? You either get an angry response – they don’t want to hear any argument, or you get pure mush.
Oct 30, 2008 - 5:27 pm 26. Anita Hope:Jay,
Oct 30, 2008 - 5:37 pm 27. Alan Kellogg:It is not John McCain that is viewed as a transpartisant saint, and you feel that we should vote not on the servants, but the issues, they have both shown “flashes” of their gifts in careers, open your eyes and face the fact’s, one gave us years of service almost loosing his life for this country, the other has been a “flash in the Political game” by- passing to serve even one term and using the title of Sen. as a means of better recognition. He is a well trained user of the people and system to achieve for his family and this includes all his teachers connected to the Ayers family anti American educators.
As for being bullied by Roger L. Simon, as far as I have read, he has viewed his opinions, and more often than not, stated these are his opinons, and has allowed people like yourself and others to state their’s. Isn’t that what bloging is all about, but it gives us all the right to disagree, at least as long as we have that freedom. Also, like no one on this subject, on this site, does not know who William Weld is, give us and Roger a brake, slow down, he has always stated with strong conviction his feelings on same sex marriage as a positive one. If you love this country as you have an “EQUAL RIGHT” to, give you fellow citizens that same “EQUAL RIGHT”.
When we speak of the candidates it is not the candidates we speak of, but our expectations of them, our desires, our fears. We look at the men, listen to their words, then ascribe to them our failings and strengths. The desire to aid, the fear of being held unfair. A dream of security, a deep and abiding hatred of the rough and hard. Our critique and our praise speaks more of us than it ever could of either man.
What we see in a man outweighs the truth of the man, and yet who a man is can weigh our impressions. Some see things admirable in one, and things reprehensible in the other. Yet when assessed honestly one is more worthy of approval, the other more worthy of condemnation. One, for all his flaws, is motivated to do his best for his country. The other, for all his virtues, is motivated to attempt anew the application of a failed ideology; ignoring the lessons of the past because those lessons disagree with his heart.
Once again it is the ideologue, Barack Obama, who rejects past instruction in order to prove socialist ideations. Prove them in the modern sense, where the testing shows the proposal to be correct, to be workable. Socialism can’t be wrong, because it never got a fair test. Socialism never got a fair test because the nature of Man worked against it. If only Man could be made anew, made more perfect, then socialism would succeed.
But Man is an imperfect beast, dwelling in an imperfect world. A world, furthermore, that can never be made perfect. Not by Man, not by oh so fallible humans. For nothing imperfect can be made perfect by the imperfect in an imperfect universe. Socialism to work requires perfection. Perfection cannot be attained. And so socialism is doomed to failure, a failure ordained by its need for perfection.
McCain and Obama are shadows we impart meaning to. Obama more so than McCain, for it is Obama we ascribe such impossible hopes. Obama is the dream of human perfectability. Obama is the goal of socialist man. Obama is the walking dream that blinds souls to the flaws we must deal with every day.
Barack Hussein Obama is not the answer to our dreams, not the solution we seek. Barack Hussein Obama is not the one who shall lead us out of this morass of greed and ignorance. It is us, only us.
Oct 30, 2008 - 5:48 pm 28. Gaffe Prices:I’ll say it again, since its now OnTopic, Voting against Prop 8 is a vote for polygamy. Once that barn door is open, polygamists will exploit it, and we have the courts to thank, or to blame for opening it, when they should be staying they white europeon socialist agitprop behinds out of the will of the peoples, business.
Oct 30, 2008 - 5:49 pm 29. Hurricane:I personally don’t see what’s so “unformed” about Obama. There is plenty of back history about his government service, his community service, and his upbringing. That you may not like what he says because you feel the need for details; grow up, there hasn’t been a politician, Republican or Democrat, who has ever fully enumerrated any of their policies before going into office. And those who do have consistantly went back on their promises (Remember, “Read my lips, no new taxes!!”?).
That is the nature of American Politics; and quite frankly I’d rather have a canidate who doesn’t have a clearly defined minutia detailed policy because that makes him inflexible when something comes up unexpectedly. It’s much more responsible as a leader to have a general idea of where they stand but leave themselves open to changing it when the circumstances call for.
You don’t know where Obama stands? What does “Spread the Wealth” mean? Obama’s philosophy is rather simple; he wants to invest in developing average American’s econimic and producing power again. Education, infrastructure, health care, these are the things that will help regular Americans move up in the economic strata and increase the size of the middle class and give them more wealth and more opportunity to advance. And that is where the REAL power of America lies in. That is the “Real America” that Palin goes on about; it’s not a physical location; or a social ideology; but a demographic of people that span so many different races, creeds, and backgrounds as to make America UNIQUE in that it’s not a heterogeneous society.
How do you this? Spending money. Plain and simple. Where will this money come from? It’s not going to come from the average taxpayer; you can’t draw water from a empty well. He is following the money, and right now, more than anytime in American history since the end of the Great Depression, that money lies in the upper class. The wealthy 10% of the country who have been given a free ride with subsidies and tax breaks and de-regulation. That is what “spread the wealth” means. It’s not socialism; its pragmatism.
And what is wrong with that? Do you mean to tell me; after decades of us regular Americans buying these goods and services and allowing this group to become wealthy beyond any imagination, that in time of dire need we cannot or should not tap into that wealth for the good of the nation? That we as a people cannot demand more accountability from corporations and economic interest groups and expect them to support and help out this nation which allowed them to get so wealthy and powerful to begin with? Is it “un-American” to ask our government to spend money fixing roads and building schools and helping people get health care instead of spending money on weapons and war? The money that comes out of our paychecks?
The bottom line is this; you may disagree with Obama’s rhetoric or the Dem’s position on certain issues. But try and bring some CONCRETE counter-arguements as to why you don’t agree. Don’t cop out to stupid ad-hominum attacks about “who is Obama really?”
That is what the Repubicans are doing to try and win the election. They are not attacking the policy of Obama or the Dems; they are attacking his character. Cause quite frankly they have nothing else to fall back on.
This is nothing new in politics; and it’s certainly not new in American politics. But I for one am getting tired of the same old bag of trick being thrown out again and again.
And that is one definite stand that Obama has that I completely respect and support. He could have easily swung back at Mccain; the Keating 5 scandal; the conflicting reports about his actions as a POW; his marital history. But he chose not to; even when given an openeing to do so during a debate. You don’t read reports of Democratic robo-calls about Mccain being at deaths door; or Palin’s failed philosophy of abstinence-only sex education; or referring to Mccain as an “old, bought off white guy.”
Oct 30, 2008 - 8:46 pm 30. Barry Dauphin:He could have easily swung back at Mccain; the Keating 5 scandal; the conflicting reports about his actions as a POW; his marital history. But he chose not to; even when given an openeing to do so during a debate. You don’t read reports of Democratic robo-calls about Mccain being at deaths door; or Palin’s failed philosophy of abstinence-only sex education; or referring to Mccain as an “old, bought off white guy.”
No he just let his minions do that for him as you are doing. Sorry, hurricane, but blowhards aren’t impressive. If you don’t know what McCain has proposed, don’t foist your ignorance onto the rest of us with your ad hominem attacks. We could confiscate the fortunes of all wealthy people and it wouldn’t have the effect you think it would. No, the vast middle class pays smaller dollar amounts in taxes but there’s lots of us and it adds up. And the Obama campaign in the form of Biden keeps defining rich down. First it was 250,000, then 200,000, then 150,000 (family income). For you to cruise onto this blog and say what you said is quite ignorant of what has been talked about here. So, cruise on by and take your pseudonym elsewhere if it is so distasteful here, unless you are getting paid to drop in on blogs like this one. Then ‘fess up to that.
Oct 30, 2008 - 9:23 pm 31. Gaffe Prices:Don’t cry Jay,
Ubamas going back to a gummit salary in the Senate, and he can run for president again and again when he’s all grown up.
Jay, expectations will eat your lunch. Its in the program. Get with it.
Oct 30, 2008 - 10:48 pm 32. Michael Smith:Hurricane summarized Obama’s plans thusly:
How do you this? Spending money. Plain and simple…..money fixing roads and building schools and helping people get health care ….
Hurricane, over the last 7 years the Bush administration has increased government spending — on non-defense items, mind you — by over 1 trillion dollars per year. 1 TRIILION dollars per year. So where are all the benefits you claim will flow from increased spending?
Education spending is up 89.3%, transportation spending is up 51.9% and health care expenditures are up 89.2%. Go here to see for yourself: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
And this is just spending by the Federal government. State expenditures are way up as well.
And you come bouncing in here declaring, as if it were some radically new idea, that the answer to our problems is to SPEND MORE?
Then you go on to make this preposterous claim:
The wealthy 10% of the country who have been given a free ride with subsidies and tax breaks and de-regulation.
What “free ride”? The top 10% of the wage earners are currently paying over 85% of the income taxes collected by the Federal government.
And the notion that there has been any sort of “de-regulation” benefiting the top 10% — or anyone else — is utterly preposterous. From 1994 to 2007, over 51,000 new regulations were added to the Code of Federal Regulations. 48,000 of those were added during 1995 – 2006, when Republicans controlled Congress.
The Code of Federal Regulations occupies 25 FEET of shelf space in the library of Congress. On ABC’s 20/20, John Stossel took just 1 of the 50 volumes of this code, and taped its pages end-to-end. They stretched the complete length of a football field and then half way back again. The notion that the Republicans have deregulated anything is completely and utterly false, unfortunately. It’s like so much else that Obama and the Democrats are spreading — it’s an out and out lie.
And you have the gall to ask what’s wrong with Obama “following the money”? What’s wrong with me following you home to steal you blind? It’s theft, plain and simple. It’s the promise to loot those who still have something to loot for purposes of buying the votes of those who stand to benefit from such looting. Only someone with the mentality of a cannibal can see nothing wrong with remaining alive by eating their fellow man.
In short Hurricane, you are functioning as a “useful idiot” for Obama — someone who has uncritically and without thinking swallowed all of his lies and distortions so you can regurgitate them on cue. Obama has made of a fool of you. And I suspect it wasn’t difficult to do.
Oct 31, 2008 - 5:06 am 33. Alan Kellogg:Hurricane (Oct 30, 2008 – 8:46 pm)
How do you know only the government can develop the average American’s economy? How do you know the average American isn’t capable of developing his own economy?
Oct 31, 2008 - 6:46 am 34. xj:And there it is: the leftist notion that everything that happens, happens by, with and because of a dispensation from the almighty state. The leftist attitude towards productive business is like the relations of a medieval monarch towards his court Jews: “I’ll let you get rich as long as I’m getting richer, but the minute I come up short I’ll seize every florin you own and watch you die in the gutter.”
Hurricane, nobody allowed these corporations and individuals to get rich, except in the sense that the school bully allows a kid to keep his lunch money from time to time. They got rich because they found something that the public valued and delivered in great quantities. Or are you seriously trying to tell us that the popularity of, say, the i-Pod is the result of some kind of government program?
Finally, with regard to your stale talking point about the Bush administration allegedly spending all its tax receipts on the war in Iraq: for your edification, please look at the actual data here.
Oct 31, 2008 - 7:43 am 35. Webrider:Hurricane, read this and have someone ready to wipe up the mess when your head explodes. NOTHING in this post is refutable, it’s all the truth, and sadly, only a partial compilation of Obama’s duplicity and outright dishonesty about virtually everything he talks about.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2120699/posts
Oct 31, 2008 - 8:56 am 36. Jungus:Hurricane,
Oct 31, 2008 - 9:08 am 37. Anita Hope:Giving lower strata Americans more healthcare and other perks will not “raise them up”. What it will do is give them access to more resources for free so that they will no longer have to work for it.
At the same time those that already work for those resources will now have to work harder to get the same access that is freely given to others.
This is an incentive to both groups to work less so that they can collect on thier free entitlements.
This AM “CNN” called the Socialist cannidate for Pres. “Mr. Moore” to refute the stories that Sen. Obama has a socialist agenda, which he did, saying that
Oct 31, 2008 - 9:14 am 38. Captain Hate:the Sen. was in no way considered a socialist in any aspect. CNN must be seeing evidence to the contrary taking hold and it more than likely can be layedat the door of the LA Times and that captured tape. The majority of middle class business owners have used most of their skills towards being just that, small business owners giving jobs to future business owners. They have followed business practices of the successful leaders in the corporate world to reach their goals, we have always refered to it as “learning”, becoming educated to the needs of the public and working to increase their ability to help others to achieve the same, but the “work ethics” is the driving force. Free hand outs is not what makes a strong invirornment to live in. Even the illegals coming in want work whether it is picking in the fields or any small job. Sen. Obamas’ plans would make a society of people larger and weaker to support and care for medically. He would lead this country into the type that ” HURRICANE” comes from, a country of sheep followers that cannot visually reason what is more than apparent to the thinking mind, it is called “Mind Control” and weakens ones strength to want to achieve.It happened in Germany and Russia among other European countries. America must never fall victim to loosing our freedom of choice and self success.
But I love this country too much to be bullied, and if Roger Simon’s America is a place where, to be considered a decent American, I have to spend the better part of the day condemning every citizen not supporting John McCain, count me out.
This is a joke, right? I’ll give Jay the benefit of the doubt and believe that some dorky pre-adolescent relative jumped on his computer and typed this with his name already entered.
Oct 31, 2008 - 9:19 am 39. April:The Republican campaign has tried to do in this election what they have done for the last 20 years–divide the country into two parts: they say if you are not for them, then you are anti-American. Barack Obama has been subject to vicious lies and underhanded tacticts that have nothing to do with his race and everything to do with the conservative extremists that use God as their excuse for suppressing our liberties.
Some comments on here refer to Obama as wanting to be dictator. To paraphrase Bush, everything would be easier if this country WERE a dictatorship…but only if HE were the dictator. That is what the Republican party has brought this country to by misconstruing the constitution and giving no-bid contracts to the party elitists that take our money and run–leaving us holding the bill.
This election is not about race or even idealogies. It’s about class. The middle class is tired of working hard all their lives only to be told that we need to give more money to corporations so we can benefit from a “trickle down” economic philosophy that ultimately only benefits the peak of the heirarchal apex–the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer.
Open your eyes, conservatives. Open your eyes, liberals. This election is the most significant election in modern times. Don’t let smear campaigns and hate speech, lies and rhetoric, sway you.
Obama gives us hope and the possibility of unity. A commentator on FoxNews a few days ago actually condemnded Obama for his talk of uniting the country–as if it were a bad thing that conversatives and liberals would unite. Can you imagine if we did, though? If we could set our differences aside and actually work together instead of fighting amongst ourselves, we could be a great country once again, instead of being the laughing stock of the world, as we have become.
Oct 31, 2008 - 1:10 pm 40. jack:republicans should campaign on the merits of thier stand on issues not this anti-obama rhetoric! infact we are promoting his campaign because these personality attacks are only driving the independents to his camp. so much for a strategy!!!!
Oct 31, 2008 - 1:45 pm 41. Annabel:April, it would be a great thing if our country was less polarized and more united. The problem is you’re expecting bipartisanship from the wrong candidate. Barack Obama has never been a uniter of conservatives and liberals. He talks a good game, but his record proves otherwise. He’s never taken on his own party, never crossed party lines except for things that were already popular with both sides. It’s John McCain who has the bipartisan record, sponsoring important legislation with Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, etc. He’s the one who’s angered his own party over and over, refusing to be a slave to partisanship.
Oct 31, 2008 - 3:27 pm 42. Richard:Christopher Hitchens? I think you forget that Hitchens is a Marxist, I believe of the Trotsky variety. He isn’t exactly some powerhouse of the conservative movement; he just happens to think the War on Terror is a good policy on average. By no means is he some sort of conservative.
Nov 2, 2008 - 9:10 pm