well, today he announced that, contrary to his earlier pledge, he's eschewing the guarantee (and inherent limitation) of public funding of his campaign in favor of the risks (and potentially unlimited rewards) of private fundraising.
the spin: when he made that promise he didn't realize that, gosh darn, his opponent might fight dirty.
the reality: he made that promise back when he was weak and had no idea he'd ever be this strong (kinda like when hillary released all claim to the michigan and florida delegates back when she was strong and had no idea she'd ever be this weak, only in reverse).
the conclusion: he's no different than any other lying unprincipled scumbag opportunist politician who'd say or do anything necessary to win his office.
the message: open your eyes, people.
update: but you know what? right after i triumphantly hit "publish" and patted myself on the back for yet another post well done, i thought, "hell, mkf--you pride yourself on your objectivity; mix yourself another drink and look at it from his point of view for a minute."
so i did.
and what if barack is telling the truth--what if he did make that pledge in good faith?
then what that tells us is, he's a wide-eyed naif with a tendency to make rash promises on which he later has to renege once he actually understands the whole deal--which should make his first few months in the white house interesting not only for him and his rabid, credulous disciples, but for the nation and the world as well.
in other words--open your eyes, people.
[and understand, i'm not telling you not to vote for the guy; i'm merely telling you to open your eyes before you so wholeheartedly buy into all his happy horseshit.]
4 comments:
Well, being around a while, we've seen this all before: Think Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1993. Before Bill ever got in to office, he was already disappointing people. People read into him what they wanted and he had many of the same lines that Obama has now.
One of the reasons Hillary ran the campaign she did is because she was there in the early years of the Clinton administration and remembers how chaotic and inexperienced they were and how many mistakes were made and how when you ramp up people's hopes, it is an inevitable let down.
For those who have a longer memory, think Jimmy Carter in 1976. Again, lots of people read into Carter what he wasn't and he surely did disappoint. Carter has been maligned as a president, but at least he had an energy policy that was coherent and looks awfully good now compared to the Bush-Cheney solution of more oil and gas.
So, the let down is inevitable because Obama can't get elected without unrealistically raising people's expectations (no one gets excited and votes for competence as Michael Dukakis learned) and he can never fulfill the expectations he is raising so high once he gets in office.
Finally, I find Obama's most ardent supporters zombies or perhaps just downright naive.
For those who want to know the "real" Obama, there were a few good stories in the Chicago Tribune. The thing most of the local pols remember most about Obama is his unbridled ambition.
Obama has been the recipient of a few well-timed and placed gifts that propelled him to the Senate and arguably where he is today. In his first run for office, for the Illinois state Senate, Obama managed to have a few of his friends from Harvard Law School disqualify every other person on the Democratic primary ballot for the election.
Of course Obama was going to reject federal financing breaking his previous pledge -- that's what politicians do. When circumstances change, so do they. Some call it situational ethics, but it's really just politics as usual.
noblesavage: my only quibble with your comment is your implication that hillary gave much thought beyond triumphantly mounting the podium at the convention and accepting her rightful crown; i think that, for a very smart woman, she ran a lousy campaign--whether it was because she was a victim of her own hubris or because, when she could have had anybody, she chose a part-time hack with divided loyalties whom everybody hated to manage the campaign, i'll leave up to the historians to decide.
People should read this.
temira: i couldn't agree with you more--but then, i'm biased.
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