Wright is right

[pyesetz]

Old joke: what's the difference between Pat Robertson (or John Hagee or Rush Limbaugh) and the Hindenburg?  One's a flaming Nazi gasbag; the other was a zeppelin.  Oh, the humanity.

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Wright is right

The latest poll (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-04-obama_N.htm) shows that 'one in four Americans who are following the controversy say their "best guess" is that Obama agrees with Wright's views, even though the senator has said repeatedly he finds them offensive and wrong'.

[pyesetz]

Yeah, but one in four Americans still thinks Bush is doing a good job.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

...which is the same number currently that support Obama, or which support Clinton. ;p

So which candidate am I supposed to support, and why, now that Obama does NOT think that 9/11 was America's chickens coming home to roost? :-P

[pyesetz]

At this point, Obama is the only remaining non-apeshit candidate.  To the extent that what America really needs now is another Roosevelt, he's it.  It seems that what many Americans *want* now is another Wilson, but that just ain't happening during this cycle.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

To the extent that what America really needs now is another Roosevelt, he's it.

You mean how he split the vote with Taft in 1912 and let Wilson win? I guess I don't understand your metaphor, or maybe I do. Give me the Obama of 2002 or the Obama of 2004 any day, but I don't see the point in having the Obama of 2008 who has at last retroactively debunked the mythos that he's ever been some kind of liberal.

One thing for sure - he isn't getting a plushie named after him! ;-)

[pyesetz]

No no, Franklin Roosevelt.  The guy who responded to the Great Depression by trying anything his "brain trust" could think of (today we remember only the programs that actually worked).

Obama hasn't changed much.  He's always been a DLC-style Democrat (the DLC twice put him on their list and he angrily demanded that they remove him, but politically he belongs in that camp).  A DLCer is what Americans call a "liberal" and Canadians call a "conservative".  The "Blue Dogs" (sort of like 'red Tories') are another camp of Democrats, much more conservative than the DLCers.

Obama is perhaps slightly more liberal than Clinton, perhaps even more liberal than Harper.  The big difference is that Obama is a realist while Clinton/McCain think you can make your own reality by just repeating a Fascist lie often enough.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of Obama supporters are labouring under the false impression that the statements in the "rhetoric" section in the following link are actually true. I think they really WERE true about him once, and he wouldn't have had so many supporters back then if they weren't. But Obama has found it politically expedient to retroactively "debunk" them without really making those supporters aware of it. Just another type of "make your own reality", if you want to call it that.

http://www.barackobama.com/factcheck/2007/12/11/fact_check_no_news_in_obamas_c.php

If he had stuck to those earlier values it would have been more than enough for me to change my mind about who is best for the job.

[pyesetz]

Are there specific items in the "rhetoric" section for which there is outside evidence that Obama actually held the positions ascribed to him before he "debunked" them?  Is he "making" reality or "restoring" it?  I don't think one can tell just from this text; external evidence is needed.

Do you think there were large numbers of supporters for whom Obama's stance on the death penalty was the kicker that got them to sign up?  My impression was that in the early days of the campaign it was his personal charm/charisma/handsomeness that attracted people.  His policies are attractive because they are nuanced (though still too conservative for my taste) and lack the wingnuttiness of McCain or the triangulational rootlessness of Clinton.

Canadian voters are not in Obama's target market.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Discussion rather moot, given my latest post, wouldn't you say?

I would still like to know the answers to the questions you are asking here though. Though please don't take it the wrong way that I don't think your answers here are enough.