Perhaps it was fate this morning when I was scanning the comments to my posts this morning, I chanced on ILoveCapitalism’s piece taking Andrew Sullivan to task for faulting presumptive Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin for her inexperience while regularly attempting to dismiss conservative complaints about Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s similar inexperience.
You see, I had planned a post on how Andrew’s gushing over Obama which follows his four years of bashing George W. Bush has compromised his ability, in the words of this Corner reader, to “be taken seriously as a pundit anymore.”
When I read Andrew’s commentary on Obama’s speech, I was impressed that he acknowledged his bias, but questioned his judgment as I read the conclusion:
I’ve said it before – months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.
Obama is clearly an incredibly intelligent and charismatic man. He wrote a very moving memoir.
But, what makes him so deserving of the googly-eyed accolades of such supporters as Sullivan?
- What has he accomplished besides deliver some really powerful speeches? Has he, in his twelve years in public office, enacted any major reforms, been the driving force behind any bipartisan legislation?
- What has he done to effect this new kind of politics he describes so readily?
- What does “postpartisanship” mean?
- What new ideas has he put forward? Even those praising the speech saw its policy prescriptions as standard liberal fare.
Without being able to identify Obama’s accomplishments or show how the Democratic nominee’s ideas represent a break from the past, we’re left with a gaggle of gushing supporters enthralled with a politician because of the power of his personality and the eloquence of his expression.
***…we’re left with a gaggle of gushing supporters enthralled with a politician because of the power of his personality and the eloquence of his expression.***
And don’t forget, the color of his skin.
Here’s my answer to your title- what justifies the lefts enthusiasm for Obama?
Nothing, when identity politics takes over – substance doesn’t matter.
Dan, good piece, but I would even disagree with your generous, gracious characterization of Obama as “incredibly intelligent”. Take the man away from a prompter and he can’t talk. He’s pretty second-rate, actually.
In the words of Joe Biden, Obama is a clean and articulate black guy.
Where I live (north of San Diego), I see a remarkable number of expensive cars and Toyota Priuses sporting Obama stickers. I don’t think they can tell anyone WHY they support Obama (and there’s no guarantee that they will actually VOTE for the man once behind the curtain).
Since this is a high-income area (well above my pay grade – I shan’t be staying), it can’t be that these people are voting their economic interests. Since they’re rich, Obama can’t be offering them anything they need (materially, at least).
I think Obama offers them a way to assuage the guilt they must feel for being rich. A vote for Obama is pseudo-penance (doesn’t really cost them anything). Like most rich liberals, they can isolate themselves from the consequences of their vote.
GP, I’m sorry to go off topic, but this is just too revolting for GP readers not to be informed of it asap. A leftist blogger is now on the record predicting that the Republicans’ “October surprise” will be a conspiracy to get Palin’s enlisted son Track killed in Iraq in order to lionize his “service to his country.”
http://stephendann.com/2008/08/31/prediction-for-the-the-2008-october-surprise/
It’s the most VILE piece of trash from the Left I have read this year. Of course, the Leftists constantly argue that only poor minorities are sent to the front lines in the WOT, but when a prominent politician’s son or daughter joins the military to defend the ideals of our nation, it is treated like this. Sickening.
Obama is clearly an incredibly intelligent and charismatic man.
I don’t really get that vibe. His only real evident talent seems to be the ability to read a Teleprompter. He doesn’t seem to be capable of generating any original ideas. And his career in politics doesn’t seem to have benefited his constituents much, although he has done well for men like Rezko, Fr. Pfleger, Jeremiah Wright, and for his wife’s hospital… all of whom have had highly lucrative relationships with the government.
Of course, if I had only the Mainstream Media as a source of information on Obama, I would probably have a much higher estimation of his intelligence and capabilities.
Leah, since the GOP just selected a woman with absolutely no foreign policy experience during wartime based on her ability to appeal to evangelicals (ie, identity politics), calling the Democrats on lacking substance is a bit rich. The GOP just spent the past year claiming that 8 years in the IL state legislature and 4 years as a US Senator working on anti-nuke proliferation legislation isn’t enough experience, yet being governor for less time than McCain has been running for President is somehow more/better/damn-it-she’s-Christian-stop-being-sexist. Sigh.
Putting aside the irony of GPW posting this almost to the minute as Andrew posts (from Hilzoy) on something Obama has run over the past year or so (hey, about as long as Palin’s been governor!), let’s linger a bit on the irony of last night’s post: Paglia said that Palin gave a great speech the other day. Wow. Let’s hand her the vice presidency. ROTFL
You see, Obama gave a speech 4 YEARS AGO. He then, you know, campaigned. Wrote a platform, stumped, talked to people, was discussed, and submitted to voters. The people chose him to be their standard bearer. McCain met her twice and wants her to run the country should anything happen to him. Most people don’t lend their car to someone they’ve met twice, and McCain wants to hand OUR COUNTRY (yes, I’m shouting) to a stranger. Judgment? Pff.
Think about it people. You’ve claimed for years now, “Oh, Obama gave a speech once and you want him to be President,” ignoring all else that he did before and has done since then. Then, you went and did precisely what you accused the Democrats of doing in what might be the greatest naked act of identity politics in American history. You truly have become all that you claim to despise. Kudos.
have to agree with Obama’s loquaciousness off promter, though I’m not so sure he is totally stupid. Just ignorant. He is quite smart, but has decided he knows all that is needed, and refuses to learn more.
On why the left idolizes this person. . . simple. . . just as the BLT version of Marxism drew Obama to “God”, he is everything a leftist wants. He is playing the Marx Identity Politics with relish, and spews all the talking points the left wants to hear. His Bona Fides are a given as he is a creature of the Chicago Democratic Machine. Substance need not apply.
P.S.
A rare quality in a “Super Genius” is any common sense.
The Absent Minded Professor stereotype works because it is so true. Genius and near genius people tend to have some issues that come across as stupidity at times. I am thankful that mine are laziness, and insecurity, and my common sense seems intact (though sometimes I wonder)
Hey, Torrent Prime, no one said Obama wasn’t qualified to be vice-president.
And frankly, I’d choose a solid woman with good values and common sense to run the country over a left-wing sockpuppet with ties to unrepentant marxist terrorists and sleazy slumlords any day.
Also, when you put The Obamassiah and Sarah Palin’s accomplishments side-by-side, things don’t look so great for The One.
I would even disagree with your generous, gracious characterization of Obama as “incredibly intelligentâ€. Take the man away from a prompter and he can’t talk. He’s pretty second-rate, actually.I second that. Watch his thought process in action at any of his town meetings and it becomes clear his intellect is anything but incredible.
On a break… OK TP, I’ll bite. WHAT has Obama done before or since then?
Please don’t say, “He ran for President and some voters voted for him.” Applying for medical school is not medical experience. Running for Sheriff is not police experience. Running for President is self-promotion; not Presidential experience.
Palin has the most executive experience of the bunch. 20 months as Governor of a major State (borders Russia, produces 20% of U.S. energy) is more than any of them. She adds that experience to McCain’s. Neither Obama nor Biden has done squat.
Palin has negotiated one significant international deal, which admittedly isn’t much; while Biden, in all his 3x years, has *NO* formal diplomatic experience. Thin as her resume is, he manages to get beat by her!
And to continue the thought on Obama: He’s failed to call meetings of his own Senate sub-committees, much less to produce any significant laws or policy initiatives from them. Not showing up for work is not Presidential experience. (Unless you’re a liberal Democrat, I suppose.)
TP, V the K basically gave you part of my response. Here’s the rest of if. The Dems change the rules – being the most powerful person in the world is no longer about qualifications – it’s about identity politics.
Of course they expect the Republicans to tow the old line, going with the serious contenders.
Had McCain gone with a Romney or a Pawlenty, we’d still be talking about Denver and the speech in the Temple.
Problem for you guys is the Repubs outsmarted you, they realize that the game has change, so they change along with it.
Here’s what I don’t get, you all have decided that Black trumps all. So now that the VP choice on the Republican is a talented young woman, they are pulling out all the ugly stereotypes women have been fighting forever. And all you can do is suddenly scream experience – it was irrelevant with OBH. Guess what Margaret Thatcher didn’t have much foreign experience before she took over Great Britain. You may not think so, but I think she did a hell of a job.
Since Palin is only running for VP, I’m sure she’ll learn a lot on the job as well. Meanwhile, I notice how everyone on your side is wishing McCain an early death – how kind of you.
VtK, while you’re dodging every other comment I made, ponder this: Karl Rove said Palin wasn’t qualified to be vice. While speaking of Kaine as a possibility for Obama’s #2:
Richmond’s population is 200,123. Wasilla’s is about, what? 8 – 9,000? And doesn’t have a garbage service? Yet Palin’s “executive experience” there and while fighting off the Russian threat (thanks, Fox News, again, for writing the Daily Show for us) clearly outweigh Obama’s experience?
What you’re all missing is not whether or not Obama or the Democrats are contradicting what they’ve been saying for they past year. It’s that you’re contradicting yourselves. You are the ones who claimed experience in wartime was paramount, you are the ones who claimed allegiance to a skin color and identity politics was driving Obama’s nomination, you are the one who claimed that judgment was key: and then when a woman is chosen simply to pander, when Hillary is named as an inspiration in a GOP speech, when experience no longer matters, when on-the-job training is now listed as a plus, when evangelical life stories matter more than policies or records or platforms, when the fate and future of our country is placed in the hands of a total stranger: you all cheer a “risky” decision. Again: you contradicted everything you claimed to stand for. All the left (and people like me, and the American Conservative, and others) are doing, simply, are calling you on it.
torrent – yes, it’s true that Palin doesn’t have the professional resume that, say, Biden has (not that Biden’s 35 years in the Senate is all that much to talk about).
No objective observer can say that Obama has much of a resume. Come to think of it, Hillary Clinton’s resume is fairly thin (although I think she’s more qualified for the Oval Office than is Barry).
But I still like her and may be warming a little to McCain.
Engineer that I am, here’s how I see it:
McCain + Palin > Obama + Biden
McCain & Palin also possess political philosophies far more in line with mine (not in lock step, mind you). I also think McCain will appoint better people to his administration and better judges. I think McCain’s foreign policy will be more realistic. I have to vote for the better of the two based on my judgement. That’s what we do in elections.
No, we don’t have a Reagan, Kennedy (John F), Eisenhower, or Truman on the ballot so we have to deal with what we have. Hubert Humphrey is probably the best candidate that the Dems have put up in my lifetime (and that was 40 years ago).
The Democrat Party has allowed itself to be taken over by the Kos Kids, George Soros, the teachers’ unions, and socialists. That’s why better candidates for the Democrat nomination are nowhere to be seen. Sorry.
Leah, I was hoping one of you would be silly enough to pull the Thatcher card. A decade or so in parliament, years as Secretary of Education? Years as, I don’t know, leader of the party? I realize this all pales in comparison, experience-wise, to leaving a town of 9k people 20 million in debt (more Bush fiscal conservatism, I assume?), but please, try again. I want to hear more about her executive experience.
And last: thinking about Palin’s ability to handle the job if the president dies in office is recognizing that it’s basically what the VP is *for*. It’s not mean; it’s what adults are supposed to do: think about contingencies.
Robert: I appreciate your candor. I think a few years ago, I was where you are.
However, after looking at where the GOP has left the country and reading books like Imposter with conservative economic authors, military books like Fiasco, and even leftie books like The Great Derangement, I simply can’t trust the current as-assembled GOP to govern. I’m still conservative-ish, libertarian-ish. But I agree with the Obamacons that a liberal, expensive-a$$ 4 or 8 years is a small price to pay to stop the Bush/McCain foreign policy that doesn’t make sense even internally, let alone historically.
And when it comes to judgment, again. Think about decisions you make in your life. Who to write down as next of kin. Who to place your children with should you die. Whom to assign, I don’t know, the greatest country on earth in the event of your death. Palin said in 2005 (7?) that she wasn’t paying attention to Iraq (and that she wanted an exit strategy), she said 2 months ago she doesn’t know what the VP does, and McCain met her twice. And should something happen to him, she gets the nuclear football.
I’m not trying to convince you all (necessarily) that she’s not ready. I’m trying to show you that McCain’s judgment can’t be trusted.
TalkingPoint, the real ridiculousness of your position is your desire to put an even less qualified person on Air Force 1 than the Republicans want to put on Air Force 2.
Plus the fact that torrentprime thinks that running a campaign somehow is better than running an entire state.
The reason torrentprime is beside himself is simple; in a year where the Democrat Party’s primary whine is about “Republican corruption”, Palin has fought that and won — and Obama has bathed in and fully supports the even more-corrupt Chicago machine politics. The fact that she’s a woman is a nice touch, but it’s probably the least of the things she has going for her — unlike Obama, where his skin color is pretty much everything he has to offer.
I love it. I dont know if this was part of McCain’s reasoning or just happy happenstance, but for the next 60 Days, Democrats are going to be trying to prove that their presidential nominee is more qualified than our vice-presidential nominee.
Fucking brilliant!
And the only conclusion anyone without spittle drooling from their lips as they talk can come to is that no, he isn’t.
LOL @ torrentprime: “Obama gave a speech, but hes been campaigning since then, and meeting people!” Meanwhile, Palin has only been running a state, balancing a state budget, negotiating oil contracts, routing out corruption, and everyone knows governors don’t talk to people.
This election is over. Obama just came out of his Nurmeburg rally, er, convention, and at best Rassmussen has him with a 3 point lead, while Zogby has him trailing McCain/Palin by 3.
The “perfect storm” for a Democrat president in a nation that hasnt elected a Democrat with a majority vote since the 1970’s (and what a disaster he turned out to be) — people are unhappy with the war, worried about the economy, and yet they still wont elect a lib.
Tell us, will you renounce your citizenship and flee to france when you lose torrent? Of course, that wont work, they elected an America-loving conservative there too. As did Germany, and Britain is about to. I spose there’s always Venezuela or Cuba!
I love it. I dont know if this was part of McCain’s reasoning or just happy happenstance, but for the next 60 Days, Democrats are going to be trying to prove that their presidential nominee is more qualified than our vice-presidential nominee.
F**king brilliant!
And the only conclusion anyone without spittle drooling from their lips as they talk can come to is that no, he isn’t.
LOL @ torrentprime: “Obama gave a speech, but hes been campaigning since then, and meeting people!” Meanwhile, Palin has only been running a state, balancing a state budget, negotiating oil contracts, routing out corruption, and everyone knows governors don’t talk to people.
This election is over. Obama just came out of his Nurmeburg rally, er, convention, and at best Rassmussen has him with a 3 point lead, while Zogby has him trailing McCain/Palin by 3.
The “perfect storm” for a Democrat president in a nation that hasnt elected a Democrat with a majority vote since the 1970’s (and what a disaster he turned out to be) — people are unhappy with the war, worried about the economy, and yet they still wont elect a lib.
Tell us, will you renounce your citizenship and flee to france when you lose torrent? Of course, that wont work, they elected an America-loving conservative there too. As did Germany, and Britain is about to. I spose there’s always Venezuela or Cuba!
I begin to wonder if torrentprims isnt a masochist, he gets his a** kicked every time he comes here, and yet he always comes back for more.
And by the way. I love GP, but I really hate the filter.
NDT, you’re right. Left-liberals are outraged because McCain is effectively changing “the narrative” on them.
“The narrative” was supposed to be: Republicans are corrupt and out of touch; meanwhile, our inexperienced Marxist is black, so ignore his corruption and cast a ‘historic’ vote for him. The McCain campaign is changing it to: Your inexperienced Marxist is indeed corrupt and phony to boot; meanwhile, our talented gal is a true American reformer, so ignore her whiteness and cast a ‘historic’ vote for her.
good grief, corruption is the conservatives mantra.
Try 136 days. And where is that “anti-nuke” legislation? So he was in the the Daley Machine in Illinois for 8 years. What did he accomplish in that time? And by that I mean something meaningful other than, say, a commemorative postage stamp featuring Rosa Parks?
Let’s say you’re right that Palin isn’t fit to be VPOTUS/POTUS. If that’s true, why in the name of Christ would you want Comrade Obama to be POTUS?
I think it’s very simple – it’s time to get back to policies that adhere to “we the people” not “we the corporation”. This is the basis of the failures of the Republican party in the white house for the last 8 years (and control of congress up until 2 years ago). We’ve watched as policy/legislation has favored corporate control and uber-rich citizens over the majority of people in this country. Talk about trickle down theory – the removal of money flowing through the US economy at such a staggering rate has been mind-boggling. Jobs lost in America due to the favorable tax cuts given corporations to move off-shore; massive tax cuts given to the wealthy who have the ability to continue to make their fortunes not only grow larger, but have the ability to move the money off-shore (not necessarily a political party thing either – look at the Fajul brothers of South FL – one a democrat, one a republican who’ve been feeding off the poor and creating misery for years). Look at how the lack of oversite in the mortgage industry created the crisis we have now – serious over-estimates of housing values coupled with high numbers of loans to people who couldn’t afford them in the first place.
The infrastructure of this country has begun to deteriorate at an alarming rate since 2001 – with less taxes being paid into the system, then there have been less basic services available. I’m not talking about the ones that Republicans like to attack like welfare. I’m talking about basic services like police, fire, schools, road maintenance, etc. I think people are finally getting to wise to the fact that tax-cutting can only go so far. It all starts with stopping the rich from getting the big break they’ve been used to under Bush. Obama (as well as other democrats who were running for prez) articulated these points quite clearly in their campaigns.
I’m not wanting or expecting the government to give handouts easily, but I’m expecting it’s going reverse the disastrous course undertaken in 2001. It started with the Democrat majority in congress elected 2 years ago and will contineu with the election of Obama.
11: Are you serious? This man is one of the most articulate and well-spoken people we’ve seen come along in a quite a while. Then again, that can be said of anyone in comparison to the current president, who is purely incapable of speaking a grammatically correct sentence when he goes off-script (well, to that matter, he talks pretty slow when he’s reading a script as well).
If Corporations and jobs are leaving the US (even though unemployment has been <5% for most of the Bush Administration), might that have something to do with the fact that the US has the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world? (Obama wants it to be higher). Might it have something to do with the crushing burden of regulations American firms are saddled with? And which the Democrats want to increase?
Infrastructure crumbling? That must Kevin’s take on Obama’s lavish praise for ports and airports built by his Chinese Communist idols. In point of fact, the last two transportation infrastructure bills passed by the congress and signed by president Bush were notable not for their parsimony, but for their lavishness.
The United States also spends more per student than almost any country in the world on education, and education spending at the Federal level is up more than 70% under Bush. With results that have been negligible at best. As for police and fire department spend, the Department of Homeland Security has been pretty generous with grants. Nevertheless, fire and police have traditionally been state and local, not national, issues.
So, the American of Kevin’s fantasy… basically, a third-world country where the rich are privileged and poverty prevails, where infrastructure is crumbling, where schools are failing, where public services are shoddy, where business is fleeing … seems to only be true in large American cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Newark… places run for generations by one-party Democrat rule.