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2008-07-25 Home Front: Politix

Obamassiah oversteped his bounds - It's starting to sink in

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2008-07-25 01:30|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 "The first mistake". ROFL! The arrogance is staggering. But you do have to give them credit for their sheer and unadulterated willingness to prostrate themselves for Obama, no matter how much he degrades them.

the first mistake. Hahahahah. I guess they gotta spin it somehow.

Posted by Percy Spumble4268 2008-07-25 03:28|| 2008-07-25 03:28|| Front Page Top

#2 Rainfall hasn't invreased around here. In fact we are a 3-year low.

Posted by Fluting Black5987 2008-07-25 10:44|| 2008-07-25 10:44|| Front Page Top

#3 Oh, my! Even the New York Times is starting to waver...

By DAVID BROOKS

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

When John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, their rhetoric soared, but their optimism was grounded in the reality of politics, conflict and hard choices. Kennedy didnt dream of the universal brotherhood of man. He drew lines that reflected hard realities: There are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. Reagan didnt call for a kumbaya moment. He cited tough policies that sparked harsh political disagreements the deployment of U.S. missiles in response to the Soviet SS-20s but still worked.

In Berlin, Obama made exactly one point with which it was possible to disagree. In the best paragraph of the speech, Obama called on Germans to send more troops to Afghanistan. The argument will probably fall on deaf ears. The vast majority of Germans oppose that policy. But at least Obama made an argument.

Much of the rest of the speech fed the illusion that we could solve our problems if only people mystically come together. We should help Israelis and Palestinians unite. We should unite to prevent genocide in Darfur. We should unite so the Iranians wont develop nukes. Or as Obama put it: The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didnt matter. What Obama offered in Berlin flowed right out of this mind-set. This was the end of history on acid.

Since then, autocracies have arisen, the competition for resources has grown fiercer, Russia has clamped down, Iran is on the march. It will take politics and power to address these challenges, the two factors that dare not speak their name in Obamas lofty peroration.

The odd thing is that Obama doesnt really think this way. When he gets down to specific cases, he can be hard-headed. Last year, he spoke about his affinity for Reinhold Niebuhr, and their shared awareness that history is tragic and ironic and every political choice is tainted in some way.

But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isnt eloquence. Its just Disney.

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-25 11:02|| 2008-07-25 11:02|| Front Page Top

#4 David Brooks is hardly the New York Times. But the Washington Post does seem to be picking up on the Obamessiah at least at the editorial page. The Times is so far in the tank for him, that the WaPo may recognize that the best move, economically as well as editorially, is to detach itself from the lock step with the NYT and become the national middle of the road paper with the MYT to the left and the WSJ to the right.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-07-25 11:31|| 2008-07-25 11:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Quote from Victor Davis Hanson in Its America, Obama

Politicians characteristically say to applauding audiences abroad what they wish to hear. True statesmen often do not.

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2008-07-25 11:54|| 2008-07-25 11:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Obama, jumping the shark, thats a great line.

Posted by bigjm-ky 2008-07-25 13:24|| 2008-07-25 13:24|| Front Page Top

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