You should have your own blog!

I didn’t vote for Obama, but if McCain had made a more conventional VP pick I would have — Obama said lots of good stuff with which I agreed in the “interview” process. He is now performing at odds with what he claims are core beliefs. Oddly, some of the actions & claims with which I did not agree have also been sacrificed. He is (as some have noted http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/03-7 ) very Bush-like in some respects.

Being a hypocrite is a bad thing, but it’s not the WORST thing. I would far rather Obama be a hypocrite in some areas than for him to be so aggressively pursuing an ideology that is hell bent on bankrupting this nation and changing our economy from the world’s most powerful economic engine to that of a third world country. He is single-minded in his pursuit of that goal.

As far as his call for personal responsibility, he no doubt means it. But he doesn’t mean the same thing I mean when I say personal responsibility. When Obama talks about “personal responsibility” he is not talking about doing time for the crime, or owning up to choices on deadbeat mortgages. He’s not really interested in that, those are just circumstances. When Obama talks about “personal responsibility” he means things like paying higher taxes if you make more money. Or paying more for “green” energy. Or not buying an SUV. Or not “clinging” to guns or religion. Those are the things a person should be responsible for in Obama’s world. Those are the things that advance Obama’s agenda and conform to his ideology.

Not seeing the hypocrisy there either.

I get that. I heard Obama say that. Are you saying that he has knowingly acted in a way that is COUNTER to HIS ideals of “liberty and justice” or “freedom, fairness, equality and dignity”?

I would disagree. Obama has acted in ways that are ENTIRELY consistent with HIS ideas of that constitutes “liberty” and “justice” and the rest.

You and I probably don’t AGREE with his interpretation of those ideals, but I can’t say he is knowingly gainsaying his own beliefs.

Pursuit of ones own ideology is not hypocrisy. Obama, if nothing else, is single-minded in his pursuit of his own ideology.

Obama may have somewhere said “I don’t believe in big government.” But it is hard to pin him down on “hypocrisy” with that statement because it depends on what you mean by “big” and what you mean by “government.” I don’t think Obama sees nationalized health care as “big government.” He sees it as a way to equalize outcome of medical services. He’s wrong, as he is wrong in so many things, but that’s how he sees it.

And even if he did say that once, somewhere, I can’t really say that I agree it is a consistent principle with him. In fact everyone I know is completely aware that Obama is the biggest of big government Presidents we’ve had since FDR.

In other words, when Obama said he was going to pursue “transparency” in government, people believed him. He has repeated the remark numerous times. He made specific promises about it. On “big government” anyone who listened to his campaign platform who believed he was against “big government” was just an idiot.

“I believe with every fiber of my being that in the long run we also cannot keep this country safe unless we enlist the power of our most fundamental values. The documents that we hold in this very hall – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights -are not simply words written into aging parchment. They are the foundation of liberty and justice in this country, and a light that shines for all who seek freedom, fairness, equality and dignity in the world.”

I have a bit different view of Obama. I find it hard to pin him down on any actual principles at all. On taxes he said “95% of Americans will see no new taxes.” This is a lie because Obama knew different when he said it. It has already been broken as a promise. So it is a lie and a broken promise. But what PRINCIPLE of Obama does it violate?

I already used the open honest government example as an example of hypocrisy.

Let’s look at his other promises. To pull out of Iraq by June of this year, for example. Another broken promise. I believe this was also a lie because I find it difficult to belive Obama could be so ignorant, stupid or naive to believe it was actually possible. But what PRINCIPLE did it violate?

Earmarks. Same thing.
Signing statemetns. Same thing.

I can come up with probably a dozen or so examples of Obama LYING and BREAKING PROMISES. But I need help in determining which of them are HYPOCRISY since I have such a hard time identifying any actual core PRINCIPLES in the man.