Obama: Standard-Issue Politician with Better Presentation
When we read some pieces by some Democrats and Democrat-wannabes extolling the virtues of their man Obama, they delight in defining him as some new kind of politician who transcends traditional politics. Yet, the more I watch him, the more he seems like your average everyday run-of-the-mill politician with a stronger presence and greater rhetorical gifts.
Just watching him try to bob and weave in the Ohio debate earlier this week when he was asked if he accepted the support of Louis Farrakhan reminded me not of some idealistic visionary out to change politics, taking on those voices of hate and division, but as the sidestepping Texas governor of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas:
Ooh, I love to dance the little sidestep
Now they see me, now they don’t
I’ve come and gone
And ooh, I love to sweep around a wide step
Cut a little swath
And lead the people on!
Senator Obama could have answered the question directly, starting with the simple word, “No,” making clear he refused the support of an anti-Semitic demagogue like Farrakhan, but instead, even after repeated followup questions, he never said he rejected that hatemonger’s support. Guess he feared such forthrightness might cost him a vote or two.
As Byron York put it in his review of the debate, “It’s a common technique for a politician who doesn’t want to say something to say that he has said it before without actually saying what he says he said.”
Common technique for a politician? And Obama’s supporters have been trying to convince me that he’s something different!
As the Texas primary approaches, Senator Barack Obama has been perfecting an old political trick parodied in a song by the Texas Governor in a hit musical. Claiming he’s got great ideas, without being specific about important issues — or even answering tough questions. He’s just dancing a little sidestep and leading the people on.
It’s amazing that some very intelligent people have seen his clever repackaging of old political tricks as some new kind of politics.