It’s All Gone
- 04.13.2008 - 6:59 PMThe radiant charm; the verbal agility; the promise of change; the post-racial unity; the deferential press; and most importantly, the vagueness of character and intent that sustained the whole façade. These were the hallmarks of Barack Obama’s run for the Democratic nomination, and bit-by-bit, associate-by-associate, gaffe-by-gaffe, the junior senator from Illinois has given all of it back. The extraordinary bounty that had made his campaign a nearly unstoppable force of nature is gone.
With last Sunday’s revelation—that he looks at smalltown America and finds armed, hate-filled, irredentist religious zealots—the last piece of the Obama puzzle fell into place. He is not, it turns out, an agent of change; he is a walking checklist of modern liberal inanities. Big government: check. Crippling taxes: check. Arrogance: check. Identity divisiveness: check. Moral superiority: check. Softness on enemies: check. Shakiness on Israel: check. Questionable patriotism: check.
Half a year ago, the formula for a serious journalistic portrait of Barack Obama was as follows: one extra long cosmetic description, one detailed childhood recap, some praise for his efforts as a memoirist, and a closing discussion of a nation poised for change. No one knew enough about the man’s politics to delve further. However, in the course of a few months he has created a resume of mistakes that’s left the content of those early articles looking as relevant as the lines on a printer test. Today’s Obama portrait is of a man embattled, a candidate whose repeatedly faulty judgment demands explanation.
Yet, the math is the math is the math, and as we know the superdelegates are his to lose. While they may now realize they’ve thrown in their lot with the dazzling candidate from a few months ago, turning their backs on the candidate who can’t stop fumbling today could cause a scandal—one perhaps even bigger than the scandals repeatedly served up by Hillary and Obama. However, it’s a scandal the party leadership may decide to weather, because the man who has at last filled out the empty suit has turned out to be very very beatable.
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April 13th, 2008 at 7:09 PM
Has anyone mentioned Thomas Dewey’s similarly unfortunate “Damn fool engineer!” remark that helped sink his 1948 campagn?
April 13th, 2008 at 7:24 PM
Ah yes, but . . . he lies and lies and lies, and the media looks away and looks away, and most in the general electorate aren’t watching all that much. As the Wright flap unfolded, I stopped counting his dissembling and dodging and minimizing. Conservatives think Obama has sunk himself this week. But the MSM is giving him another pass, having finally shown itself as not just incompetent or Liberally-inclined, but having consciously signed on to elect this neo-Marxist. See-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil. My hope is that Axelrod & Kennedy - the man behind the curtain - have met their match in the bloggers and an as-yet formed 527 that will counter-weight the MSM. Otherwise this guy will skate through November, regardless of his numerous, serious, political faux paus.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:23 PM
It doesn’t matter if “Barry” Obama will lose in November. Too many black voters will stay home if their guy is “stabbed in the back by the white establishment.” End of story. Why are so many people unwilling to face this harsh reality? The Democrats are stuck with Obama—and that’s all there is to it.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:46 PM
It’s probably a mistake to think anyone is unelectable if they can win a Democratic or Republican nomination. But I think Obama is as near to being unelectable as a candidate can get after winning a national primary (even though he hasn’t yet won).
I know too many Democrats who say they’re going to vote for McCain, and they say it seriously and without angst. It seems we all know people like that.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:50 PM
Ahhh, David. Its better then that. Watts will look like a preamble to what’s coming….
April 13th, 2008 at 9:10 PM
He’s toast, though I share Michael Totten’s apprehension. Nevertheless, to paraphase from Star Wars: “Obama, losing is your destiny. You don’t know the power of the McGovernite pull on the Democratic Party.”
April 13th, 2008 at 9:16 PM
“Ahhh, David. Its better then that. Watts will look like a preamble to what’s coming….”
Yup, there may even be violence in some parts of the country. This may explain the reluctance of most people even to bring up the subject. I also suspect that some are afraid of being charged with racism. Why else am I about the only one talking about it? Is there something I may be overlooking?
April 13th, 2008 at 9:41 PM
Superb. Obama is finally receiving the drubbing he has rightfully deserved throughout the entire campaign cycle. Slick as oil but endlessly obfuscating, he has finally painted himself into a corner, been pinned down, his risible message of “change” notwithstanding.
And thus will fall America’s quickest upstart politician in a generation. It is indeed quite amazing how many people have been utterly deluded by this man, have fallen for his silliness and his charades and his silly little word games.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Well, I can tell you here in Chicago, the fools still love them some Obama. And I am not hanging on the South Side with uncle shabbos either — the yuppies here still love him. It is truly nauseating.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:31 PM
This just in. Faced with a continuing criticism over his “God Damn America” remarks, Rev. Jeremiah Wright
conceded he had been inartful in his sermon. “I didn’t say it as well as I should have” he added,
“Now, I am the first to admit that some of the words I chose, I chose badly; The words I chose, I chose badly.
They were subject to misinterpretation, they were subject to be twisted and I regret that.”