IDOLS AND PRESIDENTS
THE COUNTRY badly needs a decent president but Iowa voters went to their caucuses and selected instead two preachers, one ordained, the other self-anointed and both successful manipulators of cheap cliches purportedly leading us, in one case, to Christ and, in the other, to hope and change.
How Huckabee, a cruel purveyor of Christian heresies about women and gays, would bring us closer to the Lord is anyone's guess. As for Obama, we noted some time back that "he's taken the easy way out and applied the marketing principles of Tony Robbins and Marianne Williamson to a political campaign. Having gone through eight years of EST with Bill Clinton and almost that much of AA with George Bush, we should be burned out on psycho-therapeutics as opposed to physical reality but sadly many are taken in by Obama's covert message that if you trust in hope you don't have to worry about the details like pensions and healthcare."
Obama might turn out to be a decent president - he certainly would be better than Huckabee - but at the moment the evidence provides little support beyond factors that matter inordinately these days, such as that he is young, good looking and half black. This is the sort of thing music producers look for in boy bands. Choosing a president is supposed to involve some deeper concerns.
Besides, there is nothing about Obama that gives him a copyright on hope and, if you really want change, then logic would point you to John Edwards. But our politics have been subsumed by the values of television and so we continue to look for an American Idol instead of an American President.
11 Comments:
All three of them are selling pie-in-the-sky, arguing about who is going to get what health care. When national health comes to the USA, it will probably be in the Massachusetts form that Romney passed, which is that you are required to buy health insurance.
Obama is the stereo typical Democratic candidate cut from the same mold as FDR's "New Deal", JFK's "Camelot" and LBJ's "Great Society". Resonant slogans that sell but that's all.
Rather like the vegetable slicer that looks good on TV but does not work for beans when you get one home.
Chris
Edwards is the only one who has an idea on the economy, unfortunately the economy is crumbling and can't support his soak the rich approach.
Where are these people on $100 oil?
wellbasically
Oh, come on now.
You have to admit it, Obama has got authentic Kennedy magic---
Ted Sorenson writes his speeches.
No wonder something sounded familiar.
Obama, I'm much afraid, is going to turn out to be the liberal Democrat flip side of G.W. Bush--that is to say, an incompetent with an utter lack of experience, and inability to be more than a poster boy for a particular group's 'values'. Like Bush, he'll be the convenient figurehead mouthing platitudes, while the real powers-that-be manipulate events. These days, I despair of we the public getting anything better from either party. And, no, I don't think Edwards is some great option. Stop trying to sell this guy as something that he patently is not, Sam.
If Obama and Huckabee wins the nomination you can see Establishment ganging up in favour of Obama and against Huckabee. Because Huckajesus is kind of populist and not exactly in the pocket of corporate pirates.
Huckabee will be abandoned by his own party , he will be McGoverned. Huckajesus will very likely be end up as a roadkill in the Electoral Highway.
And President Oblablablablabla will very likely fix Social Security by dismantling it. It would be his contribution like Clinton's was with Welfare Deform. And American People will stay fucked for the next 8 years.
And all those suckers who are fooled by Obama's Change Propaganda , I am laughing while I type this, I feel sorry for them. I really really do. I am sure Multimillionaires and Billionaires like David Geffen will get anything from Obama.But not those millions who vote for him.
Obama's campaign is coming straight out of Deval Patrick's campaign for Massachusetts governor. Basically everybody gets together to do this thing in the campaign, and then disappears. After a year he has turned out to be ineffectual, outfoxed by much tougher Democratic legislators.
On the other hand, at least Obama will take the shine off Bill Clinton's reputation.
Bring the troops home immediately.
Immediately restore Habeus Corpus, repeal the Patriot Act, and keep a constant check on the increasing threats to our civil liberties and our privacy, while pushing back on the police state measures.
Severely reduce the overall military budget, and stop the imperial adventures.
Get rid of the Fed.
No more ridiculous amounts of money for Israel, or American blood for Israel.
Who?
Ron Paul.
Sam, your value is in truth.
There is nothing heretical about Huckabee's views on women and gays; quite the contrary, they are straight from scripture. Like it or not, that is the truth.
Like you, I don't care for Huckabee or Obama, but lies (or misleading statements that amount to the same thing) are not the way to beat them. As a NH resident, I'll vote for Edwards.
Stick to truth, Sam. It's increasingly rare in our world, and you diminish yourself when you try to play the polemist. -wam
A true progressive would be doing everything he could to agitate for real change in the leadership of this nation, rather than throwing his support to yet another hack exponent of a tired system that has shown itself to be corrupted beyond redemption--that's why I *won't* be voting for Edwards--or any of the rest of them. Jesus, people, you proclaim yourselves as so desirous of change; yet you'll let Sam Smith talk you right back into accepting the same useless shit all over again. My question is: why isn't Sam pushing harder for a real alternative candidate movement? Has he simply spent so many years amid the Dem/Rep status quo that he simply can't imagine an actual alternative to it? Or is it something else? At this point, I don't see The Review as being so greatly different from all those mainstream house organs (The Times, The Post, etc.) that get bashed here regularly as being whoremongers for a corrupt oligarchy. With Sam enthusiastically backing yet another worthless servant of the corporacracy, somebody's going to need to point out this great difference a bit more explicitly to me, because I sure as hell am not seeing it. But isn't that what the "Greatest Generation" (viz. one of last month's stories) really ultimately all about in the final analysis--selling out to the corporate staus quo?
Primaries. Elections. Just "pro" wrestling for the white collar and near white collar populace. I pay zero attention to it. Modern american politics is just an "involvement piece" just like you find in junk mail. Pay your taxes, ignore it and live your life as best you can.
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