Cosmic Conservative makes an interesting comparison.
(Some paranoid out there will undoubtedly claim this is a veiled wish for Obama’s literal demise, but stupid people are common in politics.)
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No doubt some paranoid will do so Dean, but that’s fine. That’s what is great about the Internet, it provides a constant reaffirmation of the incredible, indelible stupidity of some people. And I get a kick out of that.
The point of my post is to point out that much of the Obama "momentum" is tied up in the myth that he is somehow superhuman. That he is somehow a "transcendent" politician who is above all the political game playing that all those "other" politicians fall back on. Hillary’s attacks punctured that illusion by showing how Obama not only lacked "gravitas" (I hate that word) but that he was not above attacking Hillary directly and through his surrogates just like any other politician.
Of course the great majority of Obamatons still believe the myth, the reality is that when people invest that much energy and emotion into a myth, they find it hard to let it go. But those Hillary supporters who believed themselves to be the victims of Obama’s campaign tactics have lost any desire to join the Obama cult.
And the truth of Obama’s campaign is that outside of the cult of "hope and change" that Obama has spun, there is very, very little of substance to entice a person to support him. So you have this huge group of Hillary supporters who desperately want to support a Democrat, but who look at Obama and see what Hillary saw, a typical political opportunist who has hoodwinked his cult followers with platitudes and emotional speeches about how GREAT Obama is, without any actual evidence of greatness to back it up.
This is the great vulnerability of running a cult-based campaign. As long as people believe the myth and are hoodwinked into believing that the cult leader is somehow superhuman ("The One!") they will charge the gates of hell for him. But if the kool-aid wears off, it’s very, very hard to get people to drink another cup and rejoin the cult.
This is Obama’s real challenge, and is why he picked a Joe Biden to shore up his real-world (as opposed to his mythological) credentials. But I don’t think it’s going to work. There are no doubt going to be a lot of ex-Hillary supporters who hold their nose and vote for Obama, but there are going to be a whole lot of others who look at Obama, look at McCain and say "you know, McCain is a lot more like Hillary, and his actual leadership credentials aren’t mythological."
This is a real problem for Obama. And it may get worse before it gets better.
Or so I hope anyway.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Midnight Messiah myth musings
It’s going to be an interesting week.
Be Fulfilled This Week in Denver
h/t vanderleun
That’s great stuff McK…. Saturday Night Live caliber comedy. Nothing punctures an inflated ego as effectively as the sharp barb of ridicule and mockery….
You go John!!
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Humor and Ridicule, the best tools against arrogance and conceit
I’m not quite sure where you guys get this stuff.
The only thing different about the Obama campaign is that he is trying to treat the American people like adults. To explain things in simple, straight forward English, rather than engaging is silly, childish rhetoric.
Obama reminds me of my favorite Sagan quote:
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." Carl Sagan
And as for "silly, childish rhetoric" — rhetoric is all Obama’s got.
JLBussey’s last blog post..Munson Creek Falls
And as for "silly, childish rhetoric" — rhetoric is all Obama’s got.
Obama is a very good speaker, but he treats his listeners as adults, and explains his positions.
mike:
I see the kool-aid lingers in some people. LOL
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..Iraq sets timetable for US withdrawal?
Cosmic, that’s a pretty substanceless response to mikeca’s unsupported assertion.
Unfortunately, mikeca, you set yourself up for it by arguing only via unsupported assertions. Please elaborate. I would like to see examples where Senator Obama treats his listeners as adults, and explains his positions. That’s a good quality, if true; but simply asserting that it’s true without citing examples is just as nakedly partisan as Cosmic’s response.
Martin:
You are being far too nice to Mike. Mike has a habit of condescending to people he disagrees with, and this is the same old tactic.
You see, Mike isn’t JUST saying that Obama "treats his listeners as adults" he is implying strenuously that other politicians DO NOT, and therefore if you support other politicians you must be receptive to messages that are below the adult level.
Perhaps Mike mistakes the use of sesquipedalian verbosity as "adult" rhetoric. He wouldn’t be the first.
In my mind treating a listener as an adult first and foremost means respecting the listener, and if there is one overriding quality to Obama’s speaking it is his overarching condescension towards his audience.
To suggest, as Mike has, that McCain, for example, does not treat his audience as adults is typical liberal elitism. It is a bald-faced attempt to say "we are smarter than you dumb hicks."
As I said, it’s nothing new. And I tend not to put a lot of effort into exposing Mike’s tactics because they are so trite and obvious. Thus my short dig, which is all he truly deserves.
CosmicConservative’s last blog post..I’d like to hear McCain and Obama’s position on this issue?
Maybe mikeca or someone can explain what it means that Michelle’s speech was meant to humanize Barry Obama.
I thought he was already humanized.
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