What’s depressing, to a person like me, is that Obama has mastered the trick of coming off as perfectly moderate — even when your career and thought have been very different. Listening to Obama last night, you would have taken him to be a Sam Nunn, David Boren type. No ACORN, no Ayers, no Wright, no community-organizin’ radicalism, no nothing. He certainly knows what it takes to appeal to people in a general election. Then, once he’s in — if he gets in — he will govern as far to the left as possible.
Frightening!
Professional crackpot Mona Charen concurs: "Still, the McCain campaign has not yet done is most important job: showing the world what a true leftist Obama really is." Of course, Charen thinks that Obama enjoys tearing infants from young mothers' wombs, presumably with his bare teeth, so you'd have to wonder what she wouldn't believe about the Democratic nominee. In her defense, she cites a ridiculous Commentary article that charges, among many similarly fascinating claims, that Obama is a wild-eyed extremist because he disagrees with the Bush administration, once called Karl Rove "cynical," and believes that the Iraq war is the disastrous consequence of ideological fanaticism. Also rehearsed are the incredibly tedious Wright and Ayers smears and trivia.
There's a lot to snark about here, as the notion that Obama is a radical leftist is absurd on its face. But a more substantial observation might be that it probably has not occured to cretins like Nordlinger and Charen that one of the reasons Obama came off so well in the debate last night according to the polls is that Obama is not, in fact, an Obamafascist Commie Gangsta Gay Elitist Gangbanger Muslim Abortionist. There's just no way anyone, much less the really very mainstream Obama, could ever look in reality like the hysterically emailed and blogged-about wingnut version of him. All he needed for a win was to refrain from disclosing his plan to hand off the White House keys to Bin Laden next March.
I doubt they can notice this, though. First, they're insane. Second, this is their industry: there's pots of money and soft, cushy gigs involved in spinning horseshit fables about how Democrats are "socialists." They learned that in the Clinton administration. Third, I myself plan to be pushing Obama further to the left if he wins, and the same goes for the House and Senate leadership. Apart from the kookiness and the cupidity, their political goal is to try to intimidate the Dems from actually doing anything allegedly "leftist" but actually rational -- stuff like sensibly regulating the markets, ending the war, stopping torture, dismantling the surveillance state, and establishing a national healthcare system that doesn't suck ass, as opposed to the one we currently have.
None of this is crazy, or commie, or even especially radical, but I'm afraid that we're going to have to actually convince the Democratic party of that after the election. First things first, though, and that's the election.
The clip above is from Slap Shot, for Mr. Newman, and is completely unrelated to the post. Reggie Dunlop was, he said, his favorite role.
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Aloha, Thers!
Thers!
I want a prez to govern from the left. That is why I was supporting Kucinich.
Yeah, whatever, guys.
Maybe because, unlike McCrazyStupid or dubya, he actually is perfectly moderate?
Hey CT, you see my tutorial on slideshows over at the beach house?
good evening thers. how are you? thank you for the post tonight.
blogpimping in the first 10 comments?
Desperado time in Camp McCane.
Also, as an actual socialist, the idea that Obama is one of us or even a remote fellow traveler is rather akin to the idea that George W. Bush is a sane, sensible, and intelligent man.
Isn’t that the core problem with Obama?
Dang, Thers! NRO needs to put down the Kool Aid…
Good thing the polls say otherwise…! ;-)
Evening all.
Well, it is for me. 8-)
Brb…! ;-)
This is for eCAHN @ 10.
If you’re to the political right of Vlad Tepes, Obama will look like a radical leftist.
nope. educatin!
Remember, these folks thought Clinton was a commie too…
True. And that is the moderate wing of the modern Republican Party.
Hye yall Thers. Any A to my 10?
So what they’re saying is that they think Obama is a Democratic version of Bush.
Obama has mastered the trick of coming off as perfectly moderate
Because he isn’t a right wing zealot like McNutjob?
Hi eCAHN, left a reply for you downstairs. Nothing especially revelatory.
still rude to the writer of the post in my opinion
Oh, I know. They probably also would think Nixon and Ford were commies. Obama’s policies are considerably closer to theirs than to any actual socialist. The problem is that the entire Republican Party has moved to the right of Attila the Hun.
Um, so you are a mindreader? Posting responses before comments appear?
My apologies to Thers and Suzanne.
NRO is the submerged fascist ghetto beneath the Kool-Aid Sea.
You give her way too much credit, Thers!
Hey Suz!
Nope. Just too fast with the reply (before the page loads fully).
Shallow is as shallow does. Thanks for the A. We shall see!
At the moment he’s probably as far left as can actually win an election. It’s going to take a lot of time and effort to change that.
?
True, given the competition, I would have to rate her efforts as rather amateurish, at best. Now Krauthammer, there’s a truly professional crackpot.
With Palin bringing the Bircher element to McCain’s Flying (Lipsticked) Pig Circus, perhaps the time is ripe to remove the Commie strawman from storage.
I could tell his inner leftism, because I have a secret leftist decoder ring.
For instance, did you know that he wasn’t really calling Senator McCain by his first name? He was calling him TOILET.
Nah, over at NRO outing commies (and liberal fascists) is standard fare every day.
Oh well, that’s the standard left patter. I prefer to judge people (sheople?) by what they acutually say.
Oh, I see. Thanks Suzanne. Though I am rather hard to be disrespectful to, as I have no self-esteem.
What the hell are you talking about?
“Oh, no! Commie Nazis!”
–Ranier Wolfcastle
I apologize for sending CT over to my blog during the first few minutes of your thread.
Obama is clearly a very moderate “centrist,” even though the actual political center (defined by what most Americans respond in the polling data) is considerably to the left of him. Despite the absurd statements of rightwingers and media pundits, the country is in fact overwhelmingly center-left.
By “professional” I just mean that she actually gets PAID to write what she does. The pots of cash that are available to wingnut hacks — it really is astounding. Hell of a racket.
“Now, that’s what I call breakneck speed.”
-Marge Simpson
Nice tutorial, Tex!
So you say Obama is as far “left” as he can be to win the general. I say that he is really to the right of the polls, according to what Obama sez and what the polls say. Is that too complicated for you?
I think the irony that the only way the drivel produced by these rabid free marketers can get an airing is through wingnut welfare is totally lost on them.
Personally, I don’t mind, as I kind of got my “start” by blogwhoring in the Eschaton threads, and it is late on Sat night anyhow.
I hear ya.
In Elmore’s travel for Monday Night Football…. he is finding these wacky things are bleeding to the general public….. last weekend he spent a lot talking to one guy because he believed that Obama was arrogant and got all he has by affirmative action including access to Harvard…… Elmore was near to banging his head trying to make the guy understand that NO ONE gets into Harvard using affirmative action…….
So we would like to have a discussion on how to talk to these people and frame it right…..
An acquaintance who is a NYC lawyer for unions avers that polls are wrong. When I counter that Rs have tried to trounce labor movement in oh so many ways, he recounters: Americans are much more conservative than you are willing to admit.
Offered as evidence, not my opinion.
What the hell do you mean by “to the right of the polls”?
If someone further left could become party leader, then let them do it.
lol It is radical to be a community organizer.
So, by “rabid free marketers” you’re not suggesting they are rabies free, are you? In addition to their fomenting, they do quite a lot of foaming.
It’s a free world.
(As they used to say.)
CT was always free to go then as now.
I guess I need to bone up on my
Commenters’ Ethics and Standards.
Got a copy, Suzanne?
*raising a glass*
To Paul Newman!
*ding*
Love the clip, Thers.
Boehner pulls another boner…
A bunch of Commies…! ;-)
thers, i found a video for your post
First, NRO comes for the Commies and you don’t say a word.
Then the come for Unitarians and you don’t say a word.
Next they get the Soccer Moms and you don’t say a word.
After that they take away the Blue Dog Dems and you don’t say a word.
They follow up with the readers of Mother Jones and you don’t say a word.
Then finally they come for you and no one is left to speak for you.
And all that is left in NRO.
Dennis gave it his best shot, hope springs eternal. BTW, did you know he’s a Level 5 Vegan?
I’m still waiting for my check from George Soros.
To Paul Newman!
heh - I loved the Hanson brothers…
What does level 5 mean?
Part 4 of the Palin/Couric interview on SNL /s
excellent.
But that’s a different Q. The polls say that O is to the right of 70% (Iraq war, economY). Do you aver that someone to the left of O cannot be elected?
Time to start singing “Oh Canada…” ;-)
It wouldn’t matter how many hours you spent studying, copying, simplifying etc. info for people like you describe. Their minds are made up. Maybe with people like this is best to just cut the discussion and hope they don’t bother to vote.
It means he’s killed more kobolds than I have.
Can’t wait!
Fey is da’bomb at this
Or “Guantanamera.”
Oh God…
This post was inspired by True Life. My wife was registering voters in Scranton today, and someone asked her if she was “working for Obama.” She said yes, and he said “hope you like living in a Communist dictarorship!”
It is a reference to a line from an episode of the Simpsons in which a character says, “I’m a Level 5 Vegan, I won’t eat anything that casts a shadow.”
It’s kind of hard to ridicule the ridiculous. But they manage.
I gather that would be worse somehow than a fascist dictatorship?
I do. Because to get elected president you need to get through the party machinery and through the media grinder. These currently enforce a certain ideological orthodoxy.
That’s pretty obvious.
This stuff writes itself.
Amazing, the stacked irony in this campaign.
Guess that cuts out most vegetables, grains and nuts. I suppose algae is still acceptable.
excellent.
thanks - caught the end. priceless.
And then his head exploded.
HA! She was working with a college student, and the kid shot back “beats living in a fascist dictatorship.”
Sometimes the youth of America make my heart swell with patriotic pride.
Must be one of those “swing voters” I keep hearing about.
In recent decades Democrats have been better at governing in two situations: when things are bad and when they’re good.
In decent times: Clinton took a slow economy and gave us very good times and a balanced budget.
In bad times: FDR took a depression and fixed things so well we’ve kept those laws until recently, when Republicans repealed them and gave us another crisis (said to be) as bad as the Great Depression.
When was the last time a Republican governed well? It’s hard to recall really. Some say George H. W. Bush wasn’t too bad, but that’s not saying much. He also ran up our federal government debt several trillion dollars. Some say Reagan wasn’t too bad, but he allowed the S&L crisis and various other scandals AND ran up the federal government debt a trillion dollars. He also began a long effort by Republicans to destroy unions, the minimum wage, the Education department and various other programs.
The only problems we saw with the Clinton administration was that he DIDN’T govern far enough to the Left. He let NAFTA go through and the Gramm trickery in the Banking Modernization Act and he pushed some poor folk off welfare. If he’d been further to the Left we might not have gotten those mistakes.
Republicans have a lot to do to prove they’re really capable of being trustworthy with a real majority in Congress or with the Presidency.
We can’t trust John McCain to roll the dice with Social Security and the economy.
That bastard never pays up…
Tina Fey doing Palin on SNL! Wow!
Equally importantly, you need to get funding, which is controlled by the wealthy, whose political positions are often rather more to the right than the rest of us (since they benefit from the system as it is).
Oh, now I understand you. You say polls are shit. Each to his own.
Snarking at Suz makes you an ass.
Those are mostly the folks that won’t vote for a black man, but don’t have the guts to say so.
SNL & TDS will have to rethink once Palin is outa here.
Comedy gold she is.
I disagree in part. I think there are many in the public who don’t understand they their political leaders have betrayed them and their principles. They preached “small government” and “fiscal responsibility” for decades and now their leaders have led us to Trillions in debt.
I think the fiscal responsibility of the Clinton years has to convince some of them that ANY Democrat can be trusted more than these Bush-McCain politicians.
We can’t trust McCain, but there are responsible Democrats we have to trust.
hopefully they will have it up on C&L tomorrow.
Priceless indeed!
Maybe it is progress (albeit minor) if they are ashamed enough of their true feelings to attempt to keep them hidden.
Bite me.
Name one in leadership.
No actually this guy wasn’t one of the 28%’ers….. very progressive on the whole but the MSM & Faux and wingnut radio had bleed through……..
Elmore talked to a die heard McCain supporter at the Phoenix Airport Friday and got the guy to thinking in a different paradigm… … His frame discussing how Obama runs his campaign, organized, runs like clockwork, in the black and then brings up when he was a community organizer….. starting with 3 employees and budget of $35K and in three years grew it to 140 employees and a budget of $400K of a wildly successful program…….. Then what Elmore says….. BushCo has run this country into the ground….. can’t manage themselves out of a paperbag……. then drops this…. I want Obama to run this country like he has run everything else……. Elmore said you could see the wheels turning …..
Hence, public financing of campaigns, and, the media being forced to give up free time/space for candidates… Glorified PSA’s…! That’d go a long ways…!
Ted Kennedy?
Well, what I described is the moderate wing of the Republican Party here in Montana. The others are to the right of Dr. Mengele.
Right. The entire structure is tilted heavily rightwards. Which isn’t at all surprising.
***let’s all take a deep breath and calm down for a minute***
starting over - nice thread ya got here thers. would be a shame if something where to uh happen to it
Ph yeah, and what has Ted
I met a young man in the 1980s who worked at the Army Corps of Engineers one summer while attending Harvard. He said it was an easy school once you got in. But then, he could also solve a Rubik’s cube behind his back in less than 30 seconds.
I’m guessing Obama impressed some people with his performance at Columbia Univ. and that got him into Harvard.
Uh-oh, all this sniping over lil ole me…? 8-(
SNL doing a debate skit….
OOppss, some button got pressed to soon. Meant to say, what has Ted Kennedy actuallly accomplished, other than empty rhetoric? He’s the leader of what?
Obama’s vote on FISA and his activities re nuclear power hardly qualify him as a flaming liberal. He’s no progressive and no liberal, but he’s sane and intelligent and so is Biden, which leaves them as Team A. The opposition isn’t even in the same alphabet.
Hee hee. No worries.
Of course he’s a Marxist, the little green man told me so…And one of my favorites, too.
;>)
Maple Leaves all around!
What’s up?
Not to invoke the ‘royalty’ status to anyone, Teddy is one very Liberal dude in a Senate full of DINO’s and Gooper radicals.
fuck
Wheels wobbled a bit. I will miss just knowing that Paul Newman was alive. He was a wonderful actor and a great human being. No typical Hollywood type. RIP
Assuming facts not in evidence.
And even if they were, not enuf to garner my vote. Yal