Posted on 07/25/2008 6:55:36 AM PDT by milwguy
Radical optimism is America’s contribution to the world. The early settlers thought America’s founding would bring God’s kingdom to earth. John Adams thought America would emancipate “the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.” Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush preached their own gospels of world democracy.
The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didn’t 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 Obama’s lofty peroration.
The odd thing is that Obama doesn’t 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 isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ouch, that is going to leave a mark. The Messiah is like a Disney character, Goofy comes to mine.
During the 1930s, Niebuhr was a prominent leader of the militant faction of the Socialist Party of America.
This is quite a surprise and very good news.
Think this idiot will vote for Bambi anyway?
LOL...I’m not sure that that’s not a cut to Goofy!
“in Berlin his act jumped the shark.”
This a MUST read!!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4392846.ece
your link under the headline says Wash.post
sorry, I made a mistake, it was in NY TIMes. Either way I get extra pleasure seeing a liberal paper print anything trashing the Chosen One.
LoL. That’s great
A pig just flew by my window.
“his act”? Gotta love it! McCain must be having a chuckle or two.
This is an opinion piece by the NYT’s token conservative, David Brooks (who’s no more conservative in fact, than John McCain). It hardly reflects the position of the NYT’s editorial board.
Brooks can be very good- but he often wanders so far from conservative principles that it’s hard to respect his thinking.
Goofy? More like Ber Bear.
“McCain must be having a chuckle or two.”
Got that right! All McCain has to do is sit back, keep his mouth shut and let The Obmanation (along with his willing accomplices in the MSM) self-destruct. I just hope the GOP and the McCain campaign has enough tape (or whatever they use now) to get all of this recorded for future use!
Obama makes my skin crawl.
The world wasn't "one". The Cold War was fought hard...that's why the wall fell.
Paul Krugman is off today.
Best part of the whole article.
* Speeches in stadiums filled with mesmerized, adoring audiences - Check
* An uninspiring background before meteoric rise - Check
* Creates his own new symbols of power - Check
* Associates with racists, hatemongers and violent radicals - Check
* A propaganda machine willing to show him only in the best possible light - Check
* Uses, “glorious leader” style Agitprop posters common in totalitarian nations - Check (see German
campaign poster for example)
* Wants Secret Police force - Check
* Somebody powerful people think they can control - Check
* Often dismissed as a light-weight by his opponents - Check
* Seeks to replace God with the State - Check
* People adopting his name as their own - Check
* Inspires adoration art - Check
* Appropriates symbols of past German glory - Check
* Never plans on giving up power - Check (Obama to be president for the next “eight to 10 years”)
* A narcissistic megalomaniac - Check
* Brazenly Takes credit for other people’s accomplishments - Check
* Wants to build “youth” movement through State service - Check
* Acts as if in power before he is - Check
* Some followers believe him to be divine - Check
* Worshiped and aided greatly by the media - Check
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — Santayana
This is a great line from the Brooks column:
“it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony.”
That’s Obama, sum and total.
Disney and Potted Plant come to mind whenever I hear Obamassiah's name.
Obama’s entire speech reminded me of John Lennon’s “Imagine”, “Imagine there’s no country”, “Brotherhood of man”, “And the world will live as one” and all that rot. In a pop song it is drivel, in a political speech it is absolutely ridiculous.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Obama just THINKS he is the Messiah.
Why, is there a cartoon where Goofy jumps the shark? ;-`
And in some dark, smoke-filled room, the Hillminions are smirking and working, feverishly.
Wouldn't it be interesting to be able to count how many liberally-oriented Americans begin to change their mindsets due to reflecting upon Obama? Perhaps a "pivotal" trip and speech indeed.
“My mind is clearer now
At last
All too well
I can see
Where we all
Soon will be
If you strip away
The myth
From the man
You will see
Where we all
Soon will be
Jesus!
You’ve started to believe
The things they say of you
You really do believe
This talk of God is true
And all the good you’ve done
Will soon be swept away
You’ve begun to matter more
Than the things you say..”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ytNoiQ8LkS8
Perhaps even liberals are not ready to march lock-step in Marxism...
Re#13 Agreed. So too is he the token conservative on NPR and to say he is a bit of a milquetoast is not far from the mark...
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
they are counting on it. I bet this was greenlighted to counter recent bad perceptions from being childish about letting John McCain publish his OpEd in the Democrat's paper.
LOL!
It would be. Unfortunately, our liberal friends seem to like vacuous happy talk.
What has Obam-uh's wife been doing in Germany? Is there any tape of her on a litre or two of beer?
Many were fooled into believing things like the "Peace Dividend" and the "Era of Big Government is Over" and even the "End of the Business Cycle!"
There a many who want to be fooled . . . and Obama is their candidate.
Haven’t heard a word about her but I have only been reading about the trip here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-9ry38AhbU
Ck out the ululating at 1:33 in Hussein’s speech yesterday.
Not all commentators on the NYT are liberal. David Brooks is not a liberal. Liberal newspapers carry at least one and usually more conservative commentators on their staff.
B-a-r-a-c-k, O-b-a-m-a
Hope and change, hope and change
Forever let us be elites on high!
But American radicals aren't. I'm looking forward to a Mondull type landslide - with or without the dead cat bump in the polls for Hussein Obam-uh.
From the Maha -
He's losing ground. If the Drive-Bys have that much impact this race would be over, he would be over 60% which, by the way, you go back to 1984, Mondale was up big over Reagan at this point. Kerry was up big over Bush at this point in 2004. Obama is not big over McCain anywhere.
“Treacle” — racist word alert!
bttt
The One just tanked in the heartland because of this tour. Whether or not that stays remains to be seen but all of a sudden he is losing steam - and fast.
bfl
David Brooks is the Slimes' resident "conservative." Think of a trained dancing bear on a short chain.
Maybe he's catching on that Obama is full of crap and that he shouldn't be admired for that quality? Gee, I sure hope so. Every little bit helps.
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