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| Home Front: Politix |
| Pierre Elliott Obama |
| 2008-03-31 |
| For Canadians, Trudeaumania was a magic elixir that blotted out the troubles of the modern world. Barack Obama is now selling the United States the same poisonous political opium Lionel Chetwynd, National Post (Canada) MSNBC talk-show host Chris Matthews tells us that Barack Obama's victory speech on Super Tuesday sent "a thrill up his leg." Frothing on, he compares the candidate to JFK. . . . Yet those who were there in 1960 do not recall John Kennedy evoking the clamour or deep, deep visceral response Mr. Obama seems to summon at will. The infection being loosed upon the land is far more rare than anything seen in 1960, more scarce even than the false memories of the revisionist hawkers of Camelot. But I have seen this virus before; it devastated a country I loved, a place that nurtured me and raised me up. In that Canadian day, we called it "Trudeaumania," the suggestion of "Beatlemania" pop idol glitter being no accident. Even those of us in his Liberal party were powerless to stop the mad embrace millions of Canadians threw around Pierre Elliott Trudeau with his promise of reconciliation of the two founding peoples, a happy era when the English (more correctly, Scottish) heritage would join hands with the French legacy and take us forward into a brave new age. And he'd reforge our relationship with "The Elephant to our South." That he was completely non-specific, avoiding policy questions in favour of depending entirely on his style and panache (and goodness knows, he had a surfeit of both) would surely undo him -- or so those of us who believed him to be a hard line leftist (because we'd read his essays in Cite Libre and studied his record) reassured ourselves. Of course, we were wrong; his very lack of specificity was his strength. A brilliant orator, he spun webs around huge crowds, proposing big ideas in obscure terms, making it possible for the listener to impose any dream they wished upon his smiling, Savile Row-suited tabula rasa. He was all things to all people. In service to "party loyalty" and civility, we held our tongues. And, in the meantime, the delighted English-language media, at last faced with a French-speaking Canadian they could love, dubbed him "Canada's JFK." By the time he and they were done, the damage would be staggering, even two generations later. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 not sure about the bra - but I'm pretty sure I heard that he threw his panties |
| Posted by: Woodrow Slusorong7967 2008-03-31 17:50 |
| #4 I heard that when Obama was making one of his political speeches, Chris Mathews took off his bra and threw it on stage. But, I wasn't there, so I'm not sure. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2008-03-31 12:47 |
| #3 Chris Matthews tells us that Barack Obama's victory speech on Super Tuesday sent "a thrill up his leg." Ick. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-31 11:54 |
| #2 Does this means if he's elected that they're gonna have to reopen Studio 54? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-03-31 10:21 |
| #1 For a minute, I thought you meant that Michelle Obama was going to be featured in Penthouse... |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-03-31 09:45 |