How Obama Lost the Election

Asia Times ^ | 9-4-08 | By Spengler

[Brookhaven]

DENVER - Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech last week seemed vastly different from the stands of this city's Invesco Stadium than it did to the 40 million who saw it on television. Melancholy hung like thick smog over the reserved seats where I sat with Democratic Party staffers. The crowd, of course, cheered mechanically at the tag lines, flourished placards, and even rose for the obligatory wave around the stadium. But its mood was sour. The air carried the acrid smell of defeat, and the crowd took shallow breaths. Even the appearance of R&B great Stevie Wonder failed to get the blood pumping.

The speech itself dragged on for three-quarters of an hour. As David S Broder wrote in the Washington Post: "[Obama's] recital of a long list of domestic promises could have been delivered by

any Democratic nominee from Walter Mondale to John Kerry. There was no theme music to the speech and really no phrase or sentence that is likely to linger in the memory of any listener. The thing I never expected did in fact occur: Al Gore, the famously wooden former vice president, gave a more lively and convincing speech than Obama did."

[Brookhaven]

Very long, but a great read.

Underlies why McCain has the right stuff to be a LEADER, and Obama doesn't.

[subterfuge]

Why didn't Obama choose Hillary? The most credible explanation came from veteran columnist Robert Novak May 10, who reports that Michelle Obama vetoed Hillary's candidacy. "The Democratic front-runner's wife did not comment on other rival candidates for the party's nomination, but she has been sniping at Clinton since last summer. According to Obama sources, those public utterances do not reveal the extent of her hostility," Novak wrote. If that is true, then Obama succumbed to the character weakness I described in a February 26 profile of (Obama's women reveal his secret). His peculiar dependency on an assertive and often rancorous spouse, I argued, made him vulnerable, and predicted that Obama "will destroy himself before he destroys the country".

And with that...Barry O is DONE!

[subterfuge]

Who is “Spengler?”

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Not familiar with this writer. Does he or she have a first name ?

[Oldpuppymax]

Barry Hussein is ...”the intellectual superior to all of his competitors...”? Oh please. His embarrassing brain lock any time a monitor shuts off has become legend in only a few short months...something even the media cannot help him with. He contributed no law review articles, wrote no laws and it goes on. The author can bemoan the Messiah’s fate, but lets not go overboard.

[Fred911]

save for later

[flyfree]

I don’t think anyone knows for sure. It is a pseudonym. This column gives us a clue that he must still have connections within the Democratic party.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

That was a GREAT read.

I loved these lines:

“American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention (DNC) stank of it.”

“(Selecting) Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain’s selection was a statement of strength. America’s voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.”

[dead]

Very good read.

I didn't agree with all his points, but his main theme - Obama's indecisive cowardice and the Biden pick have doomed him to a blowout loss.

McCain really slammed it out of the park with Palin. She's a force.