75,000 at Obama Rally in Portland Yesterday
What could possibly be wrong with 75,000 people attending a political rally?
Admittedly, not much on the surface. And perhaps if the times weren’t so perilous and the candidate who was the beneficiary of that huge crowd wasn’t so problematic, we could really celebrate such an outpouring of support, free from the nagging doubts that plague many of us about Barack Obama and his past associations and present ideological beliefs.
Except my republican soul (note the small “r”) is a little frightened at this mob scene. Politicians should be plebeian in their appeal – being one of us and not standing above us, Caesar-like in their beguilement of the masses. Truman and Eisenhower were plebes; modest in their habits and with no illusions regarding their own failings. There is something to be said for such solid republican values in a presidential candidate and when someone such as a Kennedy or Obama rises above the masses, presenting themselves as perhaps something more than a servant of the people, we are bound to look in askance at such a phenomenon.
Joseph Kennedy told his family at the beginning of JFK’s campaign that they were going to sell the candidate “like soap flakes.” Papa Joe wasn’t just talking about advertising. He was revealing a strategy that for the first time joined the talents of Madison Avenue with the power of Hollywood celebrity to create powerful, irresistible imagery that would elevate Kennedy to hero status and place him on a different plane altogether than any other politician in the country.
It worked beyond expectations. The Kennedy image makers took a sickly, rather bookish 42 year old manchild known for his excesses of the flesh and turned him into a vigorous, glamorous, serious man with a patrician’s attitude of noblesse oblige and a “star quality” unique for its time among politicians.
Of course, this image making worked out quite well until Kennedy was forced to confront Kruschev in Vienna where the peasant -a survivor of a brutal war and numerous murderous purges under Stalin – took the measure of the patrician and found it wanting. The Russian was so certain of his moral ascendancy over Kennedy that he browbeat the younger man, drawing Kennedy into a debate over the superiority of communism over capitalism where the American’s stammering answers to Kruschev’s harangue convinced the Russian that if he placed missiles in Cuba, Kennedy would do nothing in response.
Kennedy spent a considerable amount of time in Hollywood when he was younger and became fascinated with the science of celebrity. What makes one person a movie star and another an extra? As far as JFK could see it wasn’t looks – many extras floating around at Hollywood parties that he and his brothers frequented were as good or better looking than the movie stars of the age. Kennedy decided it was the star’s ability to “project” personality on to the movie screen. He believed that by surrounding himself with movie stars like Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Marylin Monroe, and his brother in law Peter Lawford, he would unlock their secrets and, like a magic talisman, their celebrity would rub off on him.
Obama needs no such lessons in how to be a celebrity. He has learned along the way to project his personality (or the personality he chooses to affect) on to an audience, drawing them in to his arms as a mother draws her children. He uses rhetoric to both soothe and ignite his audience. His words are passionate but the candidate himself remains “cool;” a nice trick that makes him extremely accessible to those listening to him. Where most politicians try and instruct the listener, Obama asks questions that the audience already knows the answers. And that answer is him.
Perhaps that is what gives me the most unease when I listen to Obama. It is not the power of the party or his ideas that he attempts to win his audience to; it is a very personal power to which he seeks to wed his fans to his campaign. The solution to our problems, he tells us, is belief; a belief that he can change the country, that he can heal our wounds, restore our soul, and make our cup runneth over.
Any other politician trying this would fall flat on their face and we’d either laugh at them or identify them immediately for the demagogues they are. But because he never fails to include his “empowerment” mantra with his “belief” shtick, one gets the feeling that by joining his campaign, you are entering a privileged society of believers. I don’t want to call it a religion because it is not. But the atmosphere at many of his speeches certainly approaches that of a revival meeting where one’s belief in the preacher will lead them to paradise.
Reading what many Obama supporters say about it their candidate, it is easy to see that they view him as the classic knight on a white charger where he and only he can rescue us from our own folly. Given all that we don’t know about this man, does that make him dangerous? Perhaps no more so than any other candidate. No one saw Nixon as the white horse type and look what he turned out to be.
But dangerous he is – for his beliefs, not for his personality or the character of this mass movement he has inspired. So when I see 75,000 people screaming his name with the kind of abandon reserved for rock stars or religious figures, I worry more that the candidate won’t be able to live up to the lofty expectations he has engendered in his legions than he would use such a movement for nefarious purposes.
And given his incredible lack of experience and zero track record in getting anything done, I would guess that if he is elected he would generate more disappointment among his followers than any other president in memory.
3:52 pm
Rick,
I started reading your blog about a year ago, and have followed you regularly since then. I don’t remember how I found you, but I was immediately attracted by what I considered to be your “independent” views. They appealed to me because of my own independent views – i.e. no affiliation with any political party, never voting along party lines, trying to keep an open mind, etc. I am also a History major and student of history, and I appreciated your knowledge in this area. Of course I was leery of the name “Rightwing Nuthouse”, but as I came to read your posts I found them to generally be fair minded. In fact, there was a period (when you started to tire of Bush’s foreign policies) that you began to “stray” dangerously far from many of your cohorts’ writings, and you took some serious heat for it in Republican circles. And then you would understandably write something to come back “into the fold”. I’m sure it can be very lonely when you’re calling your blog Rightwing Nuthouse and moving toward the center on some of the set in stone Republican party line positions…..
Unfortunately – as this presidential campaign has unfolded – your “independent” views have completely disappeared, and this will be the last time that I post on or read your blog. (I’m sure that you won’t lose any sleep over it) I found it amusing that you wrote: “my republican soul (note the small “r”)”. I guess you still want to hold onto some of your “independent” readers, but – like me – I suspect many of them will leaving.
As the campaign has gone farther along, you have totally and completely sunk back into mainstream republican propaganda. Let’s not kid ourselves here; when you start using words like “dangerous” and potentially comparing Obama to Nixon, there’s no “small R” anywhere in your Republican soul. If I wanted to read that crap, I can just scan realclearpolitics.com for all of the posts by Karl Rove, Charles Krauthammer, John Hinderaker, etc. – all intelligent people, but eerily similar to the women I’ve seen interviewed from Warren Jeff’s FLDS group in Texas. I’d call it “one-speak”.
But I’m sure that Captain Ed and the rest of your buddies have welcomed you back with open arms. It’s too bad, because you can really do a lot better…..
At some point soon, however, you will have to come to terms with the fact that – whether you approve or not – Barak Obama will be the next President of the United States. It’s not going to be close, and the 75,000 in Portland is only the beginning……
Anyway – I wish you and your wife well in your new home, and continued success with your writing.
What a piece of simpering, crap. I don’t like McCain any more than Obama. But if you don’t think a man – an Ameriocan politician trying to develop a mass movement based not on policies but on his cult of personal leadership isn’t dangerous, you’re a dunce. Couple that with what any reasonably aware person can see his far left ideological leanings and unbelievable naivte on just about any foreign policy question facing the country and yes, I will call him dangerous from now until the cows come home.
I write what I want, when I want, about anything and everything that catches my fancy. What you see is what you get. There is no artiface here – no pandering to the right and certainly not the left. I don’t write for links or for audience. And I certainly don’t write for self centered, navel gazing pooh-bahs like you who arrogantly places themselves above the rest of us “party men” due to your “independent mind.”
What a crock of shit. I consider you captured by the pleasant atmospherics of the Obama candidacy because anyone with half a mind much less an independent one would never vote for the guy in a million years. No experience, no track record of accomplishing anything – anything – that he has promised, and ideas on foriegn policy that are bat-shit dangerous and childishly naive.
Announcing to the world that you are not going to read my blog anymore is pretty childish come to think of it. Maybe you could of, you know, just done it because the result is the same – no one cares.
ed.
btw – it isn’t that you’re not reading my blog anymore that I went off on you. It’s the condenscending and moronic way you went about it. You want to accuse me of lacking “independence” (what ever that means) is the same thing as saying I’m a liar, that I write dishonestly and that I don’t allow my true beliefs and feelings to come out.
Wrong on all counts. So go away and to make sure you don’t come back, I’m banning your IP.
5:20 pm
Seeing that crowd of lemmings made me think of a few quotes from H.L Mencken
Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.
5:45 pm
“Wrong on all counts. So go away and to make sure you don’t come back, I’m banning your IP.”
Such needless vitriol and vengeful acts. While I like your writing, Rick, that is completely uncalled for. Because he criticized you and said that you were a Republican, you ban his IP address…? Seems a little harsh.
I am only helping him keep his promise not to read my blog anymore. Isn’t that the act of a Christian gentleman?
ed.
6:44 pm
“Wrong on all counts. So go away and to make sure you don’t come back, I’m banning your IP.”
Gee, I was going to say something about your Obama post but, on second thought, better not.
8:24 pm
And if Obama had few supporters, you’d slam him for that too.
This is a bizarre column, Rick. Many of your Obama columns are bizarre. I understand that you dislike him, but you seem to not understand how other people can like him. You write about him like he’s the Pied Piper, with a brainwashing spell over all his cultists, and if only these kids would wake up they’d see how worthless this noncandidate Obama obviously is.
Well, sorry, the time for that to have happened was before Iowa. Americans have GAINED confidence in Obama the more they’ve seen him, because to many of them he has the values and positions they identify with.
Honestly, your take on him reminds me of the classic tale of a New York media maven who was shocked that Reagan won in 1980: “How could he win? Nobody I know voted for him!”
Nearly all Americans are against the Iraq War, and Obama is the only candidate that speaks to them. He’s against the sort of legacy-brat politics that have kept the same two families running our country for nearly 30 years. He doesn’t sound like the same old disproven discredited Bush/McCain/Kristol malarkey from 2003. His stances are firmly mainstream, normal, moderate, majority-American positions on the Iraq War, the minimum wage, abortion, global warming, national security, immigration…. you name it, there’s a poll that shows most Americans agree with him on it.
Try this: Think of how much you, Rick Moran, dislike George W. Bush and John McCain.
Now realize that most Americans dislike George W. Bush and John McCain much much more than you do.
So, again, where’s the mystery?
8:40 pm
Well, Rick, I think that the people in a country can have a vast yearning for something. If that happens, they may fall head over heels in love with a candidate based solely on charisma and a cult of personality. Say the right things – in just the right way – and they’re GONE. (drumbeat…beat…beat) Lucy in the Skyyyyy with Diaaaaaamonds….
If the people are ready for it, is it any surprise that there will be a politician that rises to meet the needs? Maybe we shouldn’t only be cursing the politician.
Perhaps we should take a good look at our entire system and way of life, and figure out why so damn many people are so damn VULNERABLE to a soft-soap-selling savior figure. Where did we all go wrong?
8:51 pm
“Gee, I was going to say something about your Obama post but, on second thought, better not.”
Me too. A bit harsh, maybe? Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you tear someone a new assh*le, but I don’t always agree with you either. If I deserve to be ripped, give it to me with both barrels, but I’d hate to be banned for it.
Of course, I’d never call you a liar either.
9:18 pm
Rick, never underestimate the power of a great public transportation network. Portland is a great city in that regard.
9:31 pm
Methinks that all the condescending, self-righteous,patronizing, self-aggrandizing “critics” who take issue with what the blogger opines and question his independence are quite free to maintain their own websites or go back to vile echo chambers such as DU, KOs, Huff, et al.
Nice to see someone is not quite as tolerant of clueless trolls here as they are on fine sites such as patterico and malkin. Someone needs to reveal that crybaby Obama the messiah wears no clothes. The libs and Barry Hussein have brass balls to criticize Republicans for calling dear first lady wannabe MO on her hate america rants while they themselves sling mud at Hillary, McCain and their spouses. The various idiot media types and BHO’s entralled obamatards continue to partake of the Kool-aid and are reminding me more and more of the fawning worshippers of Adolf Hitler.
I look forward to more insight posts on the Chicago sports teams and TV series “24”. May Rightwingnuthouse live long and prosper.
9:43 pm
It is rather puzzling to see Rick accused of basically selling out to the Evil Neocons of Bushco. Rick hasn’t been much of a Bush fan lately… but let Rick raise some fundamental questions about Lord High Obama and his cult, trying to win election to the highest, most powerful office in the world? Well, that just proves Rick gets a 1099 from Halliburton, as far as some Obabblers can see.
Sheesh, I think Jazz Shaw’s comment that I heard elsewhere is absolutely, literally right about Obamabots. Barry could toss puppies into a wood chipper on stage and the crowd would find a way to cheer the act.
10:05 pm
tetvet68 is the kind of person who scares the living shit out of me – he does not look like a Obama hyper partisan – rather a soft headed “independent” who cannot make any valid point as to why Obama is the best candidate for President. Heck, he does not even try ! Being an Obama groupie is one thing – but being an Obama enabler is probably far more worse.
He cannot refute Obama’s inexperience or naivete – all he can do is to go with the “Fuck it, Barack Obama is your next President, so just deal with it” line. That prayer about asking God to give us the strength to know and deal with those things that cannot be changed is what comes to my mind.
Hopefully tetvet68 does keep his word and does not come back again. Rick, i can sense your frustration dealing with people like him. I have done that myself with normally very sane and intelligent people who have become Obamaniacs this election cycle. In fact our conversations got so heated, we decided to stop talking about Obama alltogether ! You can never convince his supporters with reason or logic. They have fallen for him and thats how they are going to be.
THANK GOD FOR PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMITS !
10:17 pm
“...given his incredible lack of experience and zero track record in getting anything done, I would guess that if he is elected he would generate more disappointment among his followers than any other president in memory.”
Lack of experience? Didn’t you guys all rally behind a former president’s son who never succeeded in any business venture he’s ever embarked on? Didn’t you republicans elect a Commander in cheif who shirked his oppurtunity to serve by joining the natioanl guard during Vietnam? Didn’t that same president send thousands into battle after whimping out himself? Isn’t that same president the biggest dissapointment in U.S. History? Sorry, Mr. Moran but no president will ever be able to match the pure dissapointment that your party gave us.
Let me tell you what Obama is going to do and why those 75,000 people gathered to help him do it. Its not so much what he’s going to do, it’s what he’s going to un-do.
First – kick every republican out of the adminsistration. The EPA global warming deniers and big oil and coal enablers. He will clean out the Justice Department – a right wing attack machine. He will tell the big robber-baron elitist rapers and pillagers to get in line and start helping america instead of looting it. The Haliburtons and Blackwaters that pillage our coffers while young men and women spill blood will have to move to Dubai instead of just sheltering thier money there.
America is rallying behind Obama not because of what he can do but because of what we want un-done. The party – your party is over, Mr. Moran. How dare you attack Barack Obama after what your white-man good ole boy thugs did to this place. What can you compare him to? Your president never accomplished a single, solitary thing except spill the blood of other people’s sons with a bungled war. Not one single improvement. Not one single landmark legislation. You have no right to knock anybody.
Oh yeah – thanks republicans for leaving America in a ditch. I hope your dishonest, selfish heroes and cronies saved their loot in a safe place.
For such a good writer, you really are dissolusioned, dishonest or both. My thought of what drives republicans? Hate and Apathy and selfishness – try that name for your party because right now, your party is mud.
“If we were dog food, they’d take us off the shelves..”
Didn’t one of your own say that?
10:28 pm
There have been times when I have not agreed with Rick and he will be the first to tell you that. But for you kids who don’t remember other times, I will tell you that he is dead on with this entry.
Perhaps you could tune into the History Channel (I call it the Hitler Channel due to their programing) and watch some films from 1938 Germany. Now I know all you “independents” will have your Hanes in a wad over the Nazi reference, but there is no mistaking the same frienzy in the Obama crowds as there were when Hitler spoke to the great unwashed masses. Fortunately for his readers, Rick is too polite to point this similarity out.
The fainting women, the men shouting to the tops of their lungs, holding up their children in the remote case that their leader just might smile on their child. Their leader telling them that their nation is in dire straits but he, and only he, can lead them out of the darkness. Better jobs, better roads, restoration of world respect and a prosperity never known before. Children will all be educated and in return, will donate time to the betterment of their nation. The leader’s logo being held up by adoring citizens who were being given hope that they, once again, would belong to the greatest nation on earth.
If you think I was talking about the atmosphere in 1936-38 Germany, you would be wrong. I was talking about the children who are fawning over the Pied Piper of Chicago.
How many times have you asked yourself “what the hell is wrong with those kids” when they were screaming over the flaver of the year; Sinatra, Elvis, the Beetles? But can see no problem with throngs of humanity doing the same over a politican. We asked, when the concentration camps were discovered “How could this happen?” We asked when the Jonestown suicides were found, “How could this happen?” I read that all fiction is based in real events. Is Obama our 21st century Pied Piper?
“Hope” and “change” are nothing, except for what each individual deems it to be. It is the hope and change, not that we as a nation seek, but what you, as a American citizen, perceives it to be. There is the beauty of Obama. He does’t tell you anything but sets the tone that you believe he represents what you want him to.
Marketing is everything, as Rick pointed out with John Kennedy, and with great marketing, you can convince people that pies made from cow manure is a benefit to all humanity. The Beetles knew this, Kennedy knew this, and every bad acting Hollywood type knows this. Doris Day had a horrible personal life but she was everyone’s “girl next door” and represented the best of American womanhood of the time. Obama is a marketing miracle that only comes along once in a generation. He is the Camels and Lucky Strikes of our day.
Is he dangerous? Yes, but not for the reason that you think I will say. Because he cannot be all that he represents as every person who supports him view him as something different. White Americans who support Obama will, as great black American writers have said, will feel absolved of the sin of slavery if Obama is elected. (read Shelby Steele) Black Americans who support Obama believe that all vestiges of discrimination will suddenly disappear and the playing field will finally be leveled in January, 2009. Both will be severly disappointed.
One other thing I would like to point out about Senator Obama. Like all marketing miracles, he is a myth. But a myth that seems to have no qualms lying to the masses when it is political expendient. Claiming to be a product of the protests of Selma, when he was born four years earlier, and his father a product of the generosity of the Kennedy’s when his father came to the U.S. prior to the “education air life” of the Kennedy’s was just the beginning. You see, you cannot really tell the public what the produce truely is, or they won’t buy it.
So kudo’s to Rick for this entry.
10:42 pm
These events remind me of Grateful Dead fans from 30 years ago, “it’s not the music, it’s the total transcendance.” Ben and Jerry did come up with “Cherry Garcia,” it should be interesting to see what they come up with for a Sen. Obama flavor.
Fraught with possibilities.
12:00 am
It is a bit presumptious at this point in the campaign for tetvet68 to declare Mr. Obama the victor in the Presidential election. Currently the polls seem to indicate a close race. While I would agree it probably more likely than not that Mr. Obama will win the election and it may well be a blow out win, it is to early to pick a winner at this point.
5:17 am
Check out http://www.newyorksun.com/editorials/beyond-obamas-beauty
7:56 am
Ah, comparing the Obamanicacs to a Nazi rally…what a interesting and yet utterly meaningless comparison! Quite sure you can just google “large political rallies of history” and come up with a whole crop of politicians who inspire people. A large mix of Liberals, Moderates, Conservatives and Fascists of all stripes who have Obama’s ability to inspire the masses.
But lets kill the comparison, shall we? Let’s see, which minority group is Obama planning on going after once he is in power? Who is he planning on torturing? Will all other political parties be banned? I could go on, but you get my point. Why not compare Rick to Communists because they are both Atheist? Like comparing Obama to Nazis, this comparison is total BS; holding no truth other than a superficial similarity or two.
All this gnashing of teeth is blinding us to the real strengths and weaknesses of the person being scrutinized. If you want me to vote against Obama, decrying a mass popular rally 3000 miles away from me is not meaningful. Why can’t you make your readers enthusiastic about the other candidate? Oh right, you and many other (small r) republicans dislike him also! What does this really say about the Republican party other than that they are out of new ideas? To be sure the Democrats are also lacking in this regard, but I expected that.
Obviously, this is all about Obama, but isn’t it really about Bush? Without 8 years of this turd named George, Barack wouldn’t be here. Methinks Tim in post number 12 has the harsh truth well stated.
Lighten up Rick, I’m sure in 8-12 years from now, some Conservative superstar will emerge and start drawing huge crowds; then you can defend him from Nazi comparisons by Left-wingers. And the cycle continues…
8:05 am
Another corrupt Republican (Vito) I not seeking reelection because…well he’s a Republican- so he’s having an affair – at least not with a boy- and he’s corrupt.
Are there going to be any Republicans left?
Will Obama ruin Retire 06’s retirement?
Listen, when God gives the world an enema, he will shove the tube right here up Ricky Moron’s ass.
8:06 am
I doubt that anyone on the face of the Earth could disappoint me more that Bush. Once a Conservative, I am now an Independent. Why? because I think the invasion of Iraq is a disaster. Because while corporations got richer, me and all my family and friends are struggling. Because the dollar is worth nothing. Our jobs ( once owned by a GOP doner) were literally shipped to Vietnam. There’s your free tade will save everyone.
Because the US tortures people.
Because the towns I live between are in disrepair and when I asked one city manager when they were going to fix the connector bridge he said- and I kid you not- “wait for another administration.”
Go ahead and elect Obama and I doubt seriously he would do a worse job that GWB.
I will hand it to you for showing the 75000 people at his rally. Imagine the news is McCain gathered that many people.
8:09 am
“White Americans who support Obama will, as great black American writers have said, will feel absolved of the sin of slavery if Obama is elected. (read Shelby Steele) Black Americans who support Obama believe that all vestiges of discrimination will suddenly disappear and the playing field will finally be leveled in January, 2009. Both will be severly disappointed.”
I hear this a lot. I just don’t get it. I don’t see where anyone is writing or even saying that Obama will restore the univeral balance, bring down choirs of angels, sort out the world or generally perform miracles. Neither he nor his supporters expect him to as far as I can see.
In fact, the only places I see these claims are in the mouths of his opponents.
What I see are a lot of people who are extremely fed up with the politics and general crappiness of things who see three options for leader, 1) Bush again, 2) Clinton again or 3) Something else. Since we know where Clinton goes and we know where Bush goes, they are plumping with some relish for something else, and who can blame them?
So maybe he turns out to be a miserable failure. The point is that Obama supporters are desperate to try somthing different and, to be honest, they weren’t expecting the chance to be allowed to.
9:08 am
Tim in #12 basically hit it exactly on the head, except for one detail: I don’t believe Rick is “dishonest,” as I said I haven’t been able to figure out what it is about “people like Obama” that strikes him as a foreign language, but I would not call him a liar for it.
Obama is our best chance of erasing the Bush Abomination and its systemic damage and dishonor upon our country. Everyone ever appointed to any position by Bush must be purged. Executive orders that enshrined torture and environmental neglect must be overturned. No-bid contracts to mercenaries, gang-raping thugs, and assorted apocalypse-nut plunderers (“What do you get if you turn Blackwater brown? Hezbollah”) must all be revoked.
And how did all that stuff come about in the first place?
Why, because of the crazy, gullible, lemming-like personality cult around the dauphin George W. Bush, a pampered shirker of a manchild who last-named his way through life but was forgiven for his failings at every turn because he said “Jesus” loud enough. Some 20% of Americans still actually LIKE Bush. THAT is the crazy, dangerous, would-vote-for-Hitler psychotic mob to complain about. Just one thousand of those people—hell, just FIFTY of those people—are more horrifying in their very existence than any number of Obama supporters at any number of rallies.
9:22 am
Tim #11:
Beautifully written! I couldn’t have said it any better….
Rick Moran:
“Man On A White Horse”, and your response to tetvet68 – a Vietnam veteran who fought for America so that little pricks like you have the freedom to write what you want – clearly identifies who you really are; a pathetic, right wing fear mongering propagandist.
-and you write for “The American Thinker”???
you may be an American, but you’re no thinker.
I’ve permantly deleted you from my blogroll.
Only mindless drones like you believe serving in the military immunizes someone from criticism. I will not sit idly by while someone questions my integrity which is exactly what Tetvet did.
And how childish is it for both of you to announce your disassociation from my site. Like a little 5 year old boy announcing “I am running away forever.” Why not just do it and let it go at that? That would be the adult way to go about it – too much a temptation to play teenage girl drama queen I guess.
ed.
9:37 am
Wanda, how brilliant of you to be able to know if I am retired, or not, from my moniker. Bet you keep that crystal ball all shiny. But then you accepted an excuse for poor local services from some political hack claiming it was the administration’s fault. Do you even know who is responsible for the expenditures in your locality? Who pays for the police, fire department, roads, bridges, etc? Check your crystal ball and see if you can find the answer.
Surabaya, I see the comparison was totally lost on you. Why am I not surprised? I also pointed out the phenomemon that was Jim Jones, as well. It is not my fault you cannot disguish between policy and style. Throughout the ages, great orators have held sway with the common folk. In most cases, it has proved to be disasterous. That was my point that seems to elude you.
Drong: what you see at Obama rallies are thousands of people hearing what they WANT to hear. Obama has mastered the art of telling people what they, personally, want to hear while he really says nothing. That, in it’s finest form, is marketing.
What is Obama going to change? Will he have control over Congress, who holds the purse strings? Will he have control over corporations? While he may want to put caps on the salaries of CEOs, is that really his place as POTUS? Do you want the government to tell you how much you can earn?
You say the Obama supporters want something different. Yes, and that something is different to each and every person that listens to him. To one, it is job security. To another, it is access to cheap higher education. To another, it is a greater welfare check. That is the beauty of the Obama myth; he is all things while he is really nothing.
10:24 am
no matter what Obama is a danger to the USA.
10:48 am
First Nazi rallies, now Jim Jones…so foolish of me not to see the similarities with Obama! Of course the comparison was totally lost on me, perhaps I should upgrade my basic cable and watch the History Channel! Seriously retire05, you are going to have to try harder.
11:50 am
“What is Obama going to change? Will he have control over Congress, who holds the purse strings? Will he have control over corporations? While he may want to put caps on the salaries of CEOs, is that really his place as POTUS? Do you want the government to tell you how much you can earn?”
With any luck, at a bare minimum, he will ditch this absurd War on Terror motif, return some semblance of reality to foreign policy, may not rush eagerly and with little understanding into wars and revoke torture as offical policy.
I doubt tht he can or will do anything about CEO pay (how could he and why would he?), and he will have control over corporations in the sense that regualtions can be enforced. He will probably have a friendly Congress.
And no, unless I work for the government it cannot tell me how much I earn, and it won’t, will it?
“You say the Obama supporters want something different. Yes, and that something is different to each and every person that listens to him. To one, it is job security. To another, it is access to cheap higher education. To another, it is a greater welfare check. That is the beauty of the Obama myth; he is all things while he is really nothing.”
Or, of course, you could look at his policies. He does have some you know. Have you looked?
7:23 pm
Dangerous? John Kerry couldn’t win because he was wooden and didn’t have enough personality to excite the party to come out and vote for him even if he had a strong platform. Reagan had NOTHING but personality going for him. Here we have a strong candidate who also has the personality to make people want to vote, and you call it dangerous? I’m thinking if he were white, he’d be your hero.
I am so ashamed that there are so many people in America still who are racist—overtly and covertly, consciously and unconsciously. Hillary Clinton is in this race because Obama is black. That is really her arguement—I can win because I am white and it is safer to vote for a white woman than a black man.
Hillary had my vote in the beginning. I wanted a woman president and thought she was the one to achieve that dream. My son made me watch Obama speak, and I read his positions and both his books. This is not a man to be feared. This is a man who represents the American Dream that I thought was a fable. I have never been a joiner, but I joined a local Obama group and then the local Democratic party and found many, many people who had given up hope for politics who were inspired to come out not just to elect Obama but also to help the party elect other Democrats. They have been disenchaned like I have with the politics of destruction and the need our politicians have to “fight for us” against “them” instead of work for us—all of us. His message is positive. HC is negative. John McCain is negative.
We fear the unknown. Find out more about him. Dig deeper.
What a great way to bring people to your side; call them racists.
You prove nothing to me of your tolerance by voting for a black man. What you prove is your total ignorance and inability to see through the biggest empty suit who ever ran for president.
ed.
8:26 pm
Retire05 is the reason we are losing in every primary.
Republicans are talking point memo repeating asshats.
Uneducated uniformed dolts who believe that invading Iraq actually accomplished something.
President Obama will save us from the Retire 05s
btw
go ahead and retire
8:57 pm
IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH AND FACTCHECK - Free Concert by Popular Band Preceded Obama’s Big Rally
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/robert-knight/2008/05/20/free-concert-popular-band-preceded-obama-s-big-rally
9:01 pm
Surabaya Stew,
If you don’t understand the difference between policy and rhetoric, then perhaps you should do more than watch the History Channel. Perhaps a course in sociology would serve you better.
Drong,
end the war on terror? Yeah, if Obama is elected, then all the jolly jihadists who would not give a moment’s thought to sliting your throat or blowing up the building you work in if they got the chance, are all going to lay down their arms, change their attitudes about killing infidels (I assume you are also an infidel in their eyes), return to their home and adopt a new attitude. Why, because they know that he will talk them to death.
We had fools like you in 1938. Hitler was not a problem. Just sent someone to talk to him and he would give up trying to invade all of Europe.
I have looked at Obama’s policies and I consider them dangerous. And while you are at it, perhaps you can tell me what his policy is on border control on our own borders? Or what he intends to do to prevent the invasion of illegal immigrants, some Muslim, into our nation? Maybe he can start collecting all those Muslim prayer rugs our Border Patrol are finding in the Arizona desert? Then he can give them to his friend, Rashid Khalidi. You do know who Rashid Khalidi is, don’t you?
And then, while you are searching the internet for Rashid Khalidi, you can google what Obama said about the salaries of CEOs and if you think that even arrogance such as Obama’s would never allow his to say what you earn, you are a bigger fool than you present yourself to be.
12:14 am
A lot of those people at the “rally” were really there for a free rock concert. Not to say there aren’t lots of koolaid drinkers who rush out to see/hear Obama (ie.worship hopechange), but a whole bunch of the bozos in this particular crowd were there to see/hear The Decembrists.
2:06 am
“end the war on terror? Yeah, if Obama is elected, then all the jolly jihadists who would not give a moment’s thought to sliting your throat or blowing up the building you work in if they got the chance, are all going to lay down their arms, change their attitudes about killing infidels (I assume you are also an infidel in their eyes), return to their home and adopt a new attitude. Why, because they know that he will talk them to death.”
Yes, that is exactly what I said, if your emove the word “Motif” from what I wrote.
Of course, if you do include that, then it is clear that I am talking about approach rather than instant solutions.
“We had fools like you in 1938. Hitler was not a problem. Just sent someone to talk to him and he would give up trying to invade all of Europe.”
Yes, Osama Bin Laden and the terrifying Iranian war machine are going to invade Europe any moment. With their vast armies, capable air forces, naval forces and striking new military theory.
(some people think that the advance guard are already there, building theirt mosques and biding their time, but I’ll assume that you aren’t that dim.)
Why is it always the 1930s for you guys?
Oh, and on CEO pay,
“Obama’s bill, the Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act, would restore a measure accountability and restraint to a system that has spun out of control in recent years. The bill would not limit executives’ compensation, but rather would ensure that companies disclose and justify the salary and benefit packages offered to executives by give shareholders a nonbinding vote on a company’s executive compensation plan.”
Yes, you are right. He is going to get government to limit CEO pay. Provided the government is the majority shareholder in the company in question. Otherwise it comes down to the people who, theoretically, own the company. Damnable communist! Next he’ll be instituting a national maximum wage of $12 an hour! and passing ownership of the means of production to the proleteriat!
“And while you are at it, perhaps you can tell me what his policy is on border control on our own borders? Or what he intends to do to prevent the invasion of illegal immigrants, some Muslim, into our nation?”
OK, you tell me what the Republican candidate’s plan is, and we’ll talk.
Ahh, Shamnesty.
8:07 am
Wow, I hate to admit it, but Rick must be doing something “right”, no pun intended.
He’s thoroughly pissed me off, for attacking President Bush and his stance against the Iraq War.
Now, he’s pissed of the Lunatic Moonbats, because he dares to criticize the second coming of the Obamessiah!
Wow, good job Rick, you’ve pissed everyone off!
That said, GREAT post on the “Obmessiah”, you’re absolutely correct, of course.
Also, just so you know, the ONLY reason he attracted that many people up there in OR, is because they gave a FREE music concert of a very popular local “Indie” band, and 95% of that crowd showed up to see the band!
Check out Hugh Hewitt, he has the whole story; of course, you won’t see the MSM admitting that!
8:40 am
Drongo, do you drink your Koolaid in a Big Gulp container?
I hate to tell you this, but stock holders vote on their representatives, just like you do. Those representatives, who if they want to stay in office, vote on the salaries and compensation packages of the CEO’s, UNLIKE UNIONS, where members do not vote on the salary and compensation packages of the Union presidents and officers. So Obama thinks he has the right to change that system? Why stop there? Why not determine what doctors can make or plumbers (have you hired a plumber lately)? How about movie stars? Where is Obama’s plan for them? It has been reported that Tom Hanks will earn as much as $42 MILLION for his next movie, the sequel to The Divinci Code. That is ONE movie. How does Obama justify that? Or is it because Hollywood basically supports the left side of the aisle, they are untouchable? Does Hanks salary not drive up the cost of a movie ticket to low income families? How about sports stars? Seen any baseball player who is really worth what they earn?
And asking me where the Republican answer to the border chaos is is not an answer, it is a dodge. Something that the left is great at. All you told me with that response is that you have no answer to Obama’s solution on the border so you say “you first, Republicans” and think that is an answer. Typical of the left wing.
8:59 am
Somebody can’t tell the difference between a statement and being sarcastic…no need to name names! Now is the time for my favorite Scott Adams quote:
Dance, monkey, dance!
9:08 am
#27 Kristi-
Being black, other than being a black separatist and wanting reparations and more affirmative action has nothing to do with why some of us loathe the prospects of barry hussein and his harridan wife near the white house. You sound like someone who might have just as easily been a paultard or in the same state of mind as the local Code Pinks in my neighborhood. Luap Nor even has the questionable backers in his array of fans. My congressman bobby wexler shares many of same views as Obambi and has more experience. If he were the moonbat candidate, you’d tell us we were antisemitic. Methinks white guilt plays some role in you and your ilk’s mindset, along with a healthy dose of blame america for the world’s ills. I bet you even think the UN does a great job and agrees we should pay taxes for that corrupt, child-raping institution.
Your crybaby Obama, like the goracle, wants US to sacrifice. His evil better half tells us how they struggled to pay off their loans, even though making millions and living in a fine mansion. Sure seems like the same old everyone is equal except the leaders are more equal and deserve special dispensations and perks. I’m sure the media will built up loads of sympathy for the dems at the convention with big tributes to that American family of Royalty. Btw, obama can manipulate executive salaries and oil company profits by merely getting a rubber stamp lib congress to ok confiscatory taxes. Charlie Rangel is already itching to do so. The Great Black Hope! Change!, my asp.
4:04 pm
Let’s begin with the FIRST fundamental dishonesty – that 75,000 person crowd who were there – NOT TO SEE OBAMA but because he was preceded by a FREE rock concert.
Secondly, George W. Bush was not a failure at most of the businesses he ran and he was a damned good governor of Texas. He actually knew something about the realities of the world when he was ELECTED and no amount of this endless loop of jingoistic chanting of untruths about our President is going to undo the fact that (a) he was elected fair and square, (b) he isn’t dumb, (c) Al Gore is a moronic, demented opportunist and globe warming is the biggest crock of merde to hit this planet is several decades, and (d) Barack Obama could easily destroy this Republic with his stupidity, naivete and arrogance.
So go ahead and unload on me kids. I’ve been on this Planet and paying attention for 65 years. I’m an Independent and damned smart besides and I am sick to death of the whiney infantile morons of the left.