COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Barack Obama


Obama is going to knock out Hillary. That is clear. It will not take much longer. The Clintons will not follow Huckabee’s Arkansas Waltz to certain defeat. Hillary will drop for the good of the party and return to the Senate with a bruised ego. The Democrats however, will discover what they bought.

Like zealots pumped up at an Amway demonstration, the Democrats will work to sell the Barack froth. The new and improved political detergent of the Left, doubly concentrated, guaranteed to please and amaze, will be open for scrutiny by more skeptical and sober souls. Six or seven months of accumulated campaigning will show that the all-purpose Barack soap leaves a spot here and a spot there. The multi-culture marketing scheme will break as they all do by failing in degrees to please. In the end enough sensible people will realize it is just soap in a cardboard box.


44 comments:

  1. I hope you are right but I am afraid that too many people are tired of the "war." Too many people are ready for "change." One can sense the country turning inward. ("Spend that money here.") I'm afraid that we are approaching a critical mass of voters who are in favor of more socialism.

    So far, Obama is golden. As long as Barack Obama can withstand public scrutiny he will be the front runner and most likely the next President.

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  2. This Reads like Distilled Stupidiy:

    I Married a Republican: There, I Said It

    (in which a Rhode Island "Republican" ends up voting for Obama!)

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  3. We have also reached a Critical Mass of Dumbed-Down Citizens, Whit.

    Distilled Stupidiy

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  4. I have great confidence in the ability of the US population to waiver in support.

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  5. I mean, McGovern was a Heroic Socialist, Obama a Socialist Con Man.

    ...and McGovern got blown away, back then, before PC worked it's evil Magic.

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  6. The nation is moving to the left. Even the GOP has shifted in that direction. Obama's soaring, hopeful rhetoric is a siren call and has ignited a spark in young people, blacks, and women.

    Recently, Fellow Peacekeeper sought reassurance that America was not heading in this direction. I wish that I could give it to him but I fear that we are entering a selfish era where bi-partisanship is valued above principles. Too many people are economically apprehensive and a recent trait that I have noticed among Europeans and increasingly among American liberals is a hardness toward real charity and sacrifice. They don't really care about others and seem to be actually more concerned with their own immediate self-interests.

    Obama's calls for unity cloak an underlying populist call for redistribution and involve exploitation of class envy. His seeds of division are finding fertile ground as his mesmerizing rhetoric insulates him against attack.

    In this atmosphere, it will be hard for John McCain to make the case for continued intervention around the world.

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  7. McCain is at his most unintentionally revealing when writing about his Republican predecessor in the Senate, Barry Goldwater. “I really don’t think he liked me much,” he wrote in Worth the Fighting For. “I don’t know why that was.…He was usually cordial, just never as affectionate as I would have liked.”

    That it never occurred to McCain why a libertarian Westerner might keep a “national greatness” conservative and D.C.-bred carpetbagger at arm’s length is both touching and deeply worrisome. Does he not understand that there are at least some people in American life who take liberty as seriously as McCain takes his notions of national duty? Judging by a comment he made recently on the Don Imus radio show, the answer seems to be no. Defending campaign finance reform, McCain said, “I would rather have a clean government than one…where ‘First Amendment rights’ are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice I’d rather have a clean government.”

    He may have his choice soon enough.

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  8. Doug:
    Its been a long time since the country sent McGovern packing. We have had too many years of a secular progressive academia and media working on cultivating the minds of young people and the disenfranchised. Young people of today are much more politically correct and less discerning.

    They have not been dependable voters but if they turn out in this election, combined with the traditional minorities of the Democratic party, they will take the election and alter the country forever. I think it could be a fait accompli but I have been wrong more often than right when trying to predict the results of elections.

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  9. I campaigned for Clean Gene,
    now I get to vote for Clean John.

    What a lucky guy I yam.

    Brainwashed in College,
    beaten down by reality.

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  10. Yeah, Whit, you missed my
    "back then"
    It's a new world now,
    A Brave New World, indeed.

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  11. Gitout elicits a Gem:
    ---
    probus said...

    charles is such a 'card'-- he thinks he's charles guiteau, the assasin of President James Garfield-- his nickname was charles 'gitout' for reasons u can research on ur own-- charles is wacky as a bedbug for picking this guy for his 'handle'-- guiteau was a failure in every single thing he ever did, except for shooting Garfield (in the back)-- last words by guiteau from the gallows before they hung him: Charles Guiteau
    The Prisoner's Last Words
    (June 30, 1882)
    I am now going to read some verses which are intended to
    indicate my feelings at the moment of leaving this world. If set to music they may be rendered very effective. The idea is that of a child babbling to his mamma and his papa. I wrote it this morning about ten o'clock:


    I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
    I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,
    I am going to the Lordy,
    Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
    I am going to the Lordy.
    I love the Lordy with all my soul,
    Glory hallelujah!
    And that is the reason I am going to the Lord,
    Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
    I am going to the Lord.
    I saved my party and my land,
    Glory hallelujah!
    But they have murdered me for it,
    And that is the reason I am going to the Lordy,
    Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
    I am going to the Lordy!
    I wonder what I will do when I get to the Lordy,
    I guess that I will weep no more
    When I get to the Lordy!
    Glory hallelujah!
    I wonder what I will see when I get to the Lordy,
    I expect to see most glorious things,
    Beyond all earthly conception
    When I am with the Lordy!
    Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah!
    I am with the Lord.

    "I am Going to the Lordy".

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  12. "I saved my party and my land,
    Glory hallelujah!"
    ---
    Sounds a little like Clean John.

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  13. AND then a few weeks ago I came home from a business trip, pulled my politically correct car into our driveway, and stared hard at the sign in our yard. I blinked. I looked again. It was not a mirage.

    The sign said, “Vote Obama.”

    I shouted. I actually whooped. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Had one of my children put it there? A neighbor? It couldn’t have been Lorne.

    Inside, I approached him cautiously. “There’s a sign in our yard.”

    He shrugged and cast a broad smile my way. “He’s the best candidate.”

    Now my whole body was grinning.

    I sneaked off to call my cousin. “Lorne is supporting Obama,” I whispered.

    “No!”

    “He put a sign in our yard.”

    “No!”

    A few days later, Lorne sent me a text message: “KENNEDY HAS ENDORSED OBAMA!!!” I counted the exclamation points. Three could only mean giddy excitement. I gazed at the words on my cellphone and remembered how, 15 years earlier, I fell in love over black ink pasta and Chianti with a man who was thoughtful and independent (all right, and an excellent kisser).

    It would be nice to think I had changed him, but I hadn’t: if anything, he had just proved that he’s more thoughtful and independent than ever. And I, for better or worse, remain just as passionate and stubborn. Which is maybe (let’s hope) a big part of why he fell in love with me.

    Whatever the case, I can already see the bumper sticker: “Barack Obama: Uniting America, One Bipartisan Marriage at a Time.”

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  14. YES WE CAN!!!

    17 points Obama beat Billary by, in WI.

    On to Texas and Ohio
    The firewalls, like Rudy built ;)

    Billary garnering more WI votes than McCain and Huck, combined.
    It is WI, after all, not a portend of the November election.

    That will be seen in Ohio and Texas, PA, too.

    That the electorate of the US is moving left, a given. Anywhere GWBush can be considered a "conservative", the country is leaning left.

    Any country that cannot defend its' own borders, cannot project power around the globe.

    Pakistan. A single word exemplifying the failure of US foreign policy, enough said about that election.
    Basra, another example of US success.

    Locales that signify the course that the US has taken has been miscalculated. At best.

    McCain highlighting that Obama wants to take the War to Pakistan, via airpower, which even doug has advocated for. McCain thinks that an error, that aQ should be provided Sanctuary, there. The US should, must, depend upon the General/President to defeat the radical Islamists, in Pakistan.

    Depending upon an unpopular loser, Vietnam redux. So much for experience.

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  15. deuce, David Brooks published an editorial in NYT along the same lines as yours but he concluded with:

    " The victims of O.C.S. struggle against Obama-myopia, or the inability to see beyond Election Day. But here’s the fascinating thing: They still like him. They know that most of his hope-mongering is vaporous. They know that he knows it’s vaporous.

    But the fact that they can share this dream still means something. After the magic fades and reality sets in, they still know something about his soul, and he knows something about theirs. They figure that any new president is going to face gigantic obstacles. At least this candidate seems likely to want to head in the right direction. Obama’s hype comes from exaggerating his powers and his virtues, not faking them.

    Those afflicted with O.C.S. are no longer as moved by his perorations. The fever passes. But some invisible connection seems to persist. "

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/opinion/19brooks.html

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  16. Does the Huckster have a day job other than trying to be POTUS?

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  17. I, honestly, believe that the Obama tenure will be the most damaging presidency in the history of the Republic; but, I'm still voting for him. McCain's would be only "slightly" better, and, then we'd get 8 years of Obama, anyway.

    It's gonna be "Ugly," folks; it's gonna be ugly.

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  18. worse then Shrub's reign? I doubt it.

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  19. You're out of your fucking mind, Ash. We're talking "Cataclysm," here.

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  20. No, mat, he's a full time candidate. Unlike the others that work for the government, while they run. Instead of resigning from their full time governemt work, to run.

    He's the only honest one of the bunch. Not taking our money for work they don't do.

    Romney was also in that boat, but all the others were/are taking a paycheck for work they ignore.

    Conservatives and liberals, alike.

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  21. rufus, a "Cataclysm"?

    It is pretty easy to rhyme off a litany of shit served up by Bush but what has you shivering in your boots about the upcoming POTUS?

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  22. I hesitate to vote for Obama because I think he won't be bad enough. We need a President who will really finally 'sink' the country for good and all, so we can get back on track.

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  23. Disaster overseas, and an economic meltdown worse the Oct '29, is the only thing that will save us.

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  24. Well so much for that gas price newsletter I read. They said gas prices would drop 50 cents a gallon, by summer.

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  25. None of thos will occur, bob.

    Just a acceleration of the status que.
    The border will remain unsecure, the migrants will continue to come.
    Social Security will be paid with a fiat script of litle worth.

    The formulas for SS payments, refigured. Just as was the "core" inflation formula.

    Trade agreements will become frozen, but not rolled back.

    Taxes will go up, as will expenditures. Back to the future.

    But the Republic will muddle on, the urban centers and suburbanites griping no matter the course.

    The GOP will retain forty Senate seats, so no disaster will pass the Congress, just a continuation of the current course, but trending further left.

    The pendulum swings

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  26. rufus had told us he was voting Democrat, then he looked at the Democratic candidate.

    Now he foresees a "Cataclysm" if he votes Democratic.
    While McCain will extend the Iraq presence for 100 years. Which could be worse than a cataclysm.

    Mr McCain not bringing fifty years of experience, but five years experience, done ten times.

    His position on Pakistan a throwback to Vietnam. Backing a corrupt loser, because he does not see another course.

    Locked into yesterdays' solutions to tomorrows challenges. While Obama, my oh my, advocating the wrong solutions to todays problems.

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  27. Taking my tongue out of my cheek, I'm afraid I agree with Whit. Obama will look so much better than McCain in the debates, no matter that he doesn't say anything. He'll have a polished ready answer, a magical wand that won't be asking for any sacrifice from anyone other than the 'rich' and nobody likes them folks. And we're screwed on the imiigration problem with either of them. Some other factor would have to enter the equation, a terror attack, some revelation that sticks making Obama look like a really sick man. Grim.

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  28. Larry Sinclair, savior of the republic! :)

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  29. bobal said...
    ...He'll have a polished ready answer, a magical wand that won't be asking for any sacrifice from anyone other than the 'rich' and nobody likes them folks.


    Until they find out that 'rich' has been defined down to making $50K/yr.

    Like rufus sez: "Cataclysm".

    He's gonna need money from everyone to "eradicate poverty in the world."

    Change, biyatch.

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  30. Why sure, bro.

    Everyone above the median income is rich, everyone below it, poor.

    Such is the DC way.
    We are the world.

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  31. hey, now there is an idea, start income taxing folk who make 50k and up - all income below 50k isn't taxed.

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  32. Joyce Bigbee, director of the Legislative Fiscal Office, said the accelerated business depreciation schedule in the federal economic stimulus package will affect Alabama's tax collections because Alabama's depreciation schedule is tied to the federal schedule.

    She estimated it will cause a $59 million drop in income tax collections from businesses. That will affect public schools and colleges because the income tax is dedicated to public education.

    The chairman of the Senate Finance and Taxation-Education Committee had Bigbee explain the loss to his committee Wednesday and said it will hamper writing a budget for fiscal 2009 that will already have to be smaller than this year's budget due to the economic slowdown.


    Alabama Tax

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  33. desert rat said...
    Why sure, bro.

    Everyone above the median income is rich, everyone below it, poor.

    Such is the DC way.
    We are the world.


    Don't forget 'Rat, 50K and above is "lucky" too.

    Plain. Dumb. Lucky.

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  34. Under Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission regulations, 527 organizations can raise unlimited amounts of money to advocate issues to voters. The name 527 refers to the section of the IRS code that authorizes their existence.

    The ads from such a group cannot specifically call for Clinton's election or Obama's defeat.

    The FEC, however, has recently applied a tougher standard to such organizations and has fined several of them for not registering as political action committees. Such a committee can only raise contributions from individuals of $5,000 or less.


    Pro-Clinton Group

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  35. "Don't forget 'Rat, 50K and above is "lucky" too.

    Plain. Dumb. Lucky."


    Or corrupt, parasitic, etc, etc.

    But don't forget invincible, with the patience of Job. Can't be beaten down and can't be run out of the country. Tighten the yoke, increase the load, won't kill the golden goose.

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  36. "There are no contradictions."

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  37. Victor Davis Hansen on Hugh Hewitt seems to agree with Deuce's assessment of the American public. He says that Obama's platitudes will not be enough to satisfy the pragmatic public. They will need to hear specifics.

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  38. Two fighter jets collided in mid-air off the Florida Panhandle Wednesday during a training mission.

    Search and rescue teams are en route to the crash while the conditions of the two pilots is unknown.

    The two F-15C Eagle fighter jets disappeared about 3 p.m. ET off the Florida Panhandle over the Gulf of Mexico, said Eglin Air Force Base spokesman Sgt. Brian Jones. The crash occurred about 50 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base.


    Off Florida Panhandle

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  39. Seriously, I think after the events of the last year or so, it is safe to say that the best prediction is not to make one, and wait on events for a little while.

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  40. Cutler:
    Just got your email. See the next post.

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  41. Some of these mistakes, some of these leaks, some of this infighting, and some of this desperation are the inevitable outcome of a campaign behind the eight ball. Clinton's operation looked a lot more disciplined when she was the prohibitive front-runner.

    But explanations are not excuses, and it's growing increasingly hard for Clinton to argue that her experience and electoral discipline set her apart when the largest organization she's ever run—this campaign—is listing so badly and exhibiting a reality so far from the rhetoric. In her speech tonight, Clinton launched her broadside against Obama by saying that "while words matter, the best words in the world aren't enough unless you match them with action."

    The problem for her is that Obama has matched his words with actions, fulfilled his promises with votes. It's her campaign that rests on an increasingly precarious foundation of words and that needs to demonstrate results to match its rhetoric.


    Underperformer

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