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The Audacity of Barack Obama (Marvelous Analysis of 0's Politics and Megalomania)
The Claremont Institute ^ | 1/19/2009 | Charles R. Kesler

Posted on 1/25/2009, 11:23:54 PM by mojito

Any politician who has taken on Bill and Hillary Clinton's national political machine and won should not be underestimated. Yet Republicans as well as many Democrats persist in underrating Barack Obama's electoral talents and, above all, his soaring political ambition.

His writerly mind, professorial bearing, and effortless self-control make it difficult to take his measure as a politician. He can seem cool, detached, unusually introspective. As a wag at the Financial Times put it, if John McCain's life story is the stuff of Hollywood movies, Obama's is like an off-Broadway play—it lacks action but is full of internal monologues. Raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, his father a Kenyan, his mother a sweet Midwestern atheist, Obama as a young man thought himself something of an outsider wherever he went. Smart and popular, he seemed to prefer to maintain his emotional distance, partly because he was confused about his own identity (as he explains in Dreams from My Father, the autobiography he published at age 33), and partly because he feared being trapped in places that were too small for his talents.

Eager to find himself by finding a community to which he could belong, he was struck, nonetheless, by the flaws or limits of every race, culture, and country he encountered. Unlike other intelligent human beings who have made the same discovery, Obama did not lower his expectations but decided that, just as he could and did choose to refashion his own identity, communities could do the same, with a little help.

(Excerpt) Read more at claremont.org ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: audacity; bho2009; ideology; megalomania; obama; zeroworship
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Maybe the best analysis of the roots of Obama's political ideology.

Be afraid of this man.

The essay is long, but very worthwhile.

1 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:23:57 PM by mojito
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To: mojito

“His writerly mind...” Couldn’t get past that fricking bullshit right there. He’s an EEO hire, big time.


2 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:26:29 PM by Monsieur Poirot
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To: mojito

Of course you are aware that HE did not write his autobiography, arent’ you? This piece is about 90% BS IMHO.


3 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:30:09 PM by basil ( It's time to get rid of all "Gun Free Zones")
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To: Monsieur Poirot
There's nothing EEO about Prof. Kesler or the Claremont Institute:

“Dr. Kesler is editor of Saving the Revolution: The Federalist Papers and the American Founding (Free Press, 1987), and co-editor, with William F. Buckley, Jr., of Keeping the Tablets: Modern American Conservative Thought (HarperCollins, 1988). He has written extensively on American constitutionalism and political thought, and his edition of The Federalist Papers (Signet Classics, 2003) is the best-selling edition in the country.”

http://www.claremont.org/scholars/id.196/scholar.asp

4 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:34:06 PM by mojito
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To: basil
I'm sure pleased that FReepers are so quick to dismiss the work of one of the foremost conservative scholars of American history and American political thought.

Way to go!

5 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:35:43 PM by mojito
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To: mojito
This is the same guy who let Caroline Kennedy do the vetting for his VP; she came up with Biden and Bambi fell for it.
6 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:35:43 PM by jennyjenny
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To: Monsieur Poirot

writerly isn’t even a word. The “Author” if turning this in for a college essay would fail on that alone. Enough said.


7 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:37:08 PM by Danae (Amerikan Unity My Ass)
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To: mojito

Thanks for posting this. Will bump now and read later when I access Internet from PC rather than my Blackberry


8 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:41:32 PM by jla (Sarah! 45)
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To: mojito

Thanks for posting this. Will bump now and read later when I access Internet from PC rather than my Blackberry


9 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:41:55 PM by jla (Sarah! 45)
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To: mojito

Are you surprised?


10 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:42:50 PM by EveningStar (Socialism in the USA began in 1933. In 2009 it kicked into warp drive.)
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To: jennyjenny

Barack Obama - Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?

http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections

The best thing conservatives can do is back off and let him expose himself. This is not a far left nation by any stretch. Oppose his policies on principled and constitutional grounds, explain in detail why they are opposed.

The dems do not need the Repubs for passage of their agenda. Let them own it, 100%.

Their calls for ‘bipartisanship’ is merely a desire for political cover.


11 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:45:33 PM by Islander7 (LOST TAGLINE - If found, please return. LARGE Reward.)
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To: mojito
re: I'm sure pleased that FReepers are so quick to dismiss the work of one of the foremost conservative scholars of American history and American political thought.)))

But he's so obsequious!! Professorial. Writerly. The author obviously identifies with Obama, and it's likely they're both narcissistic.

Cool? Look at the antagonistic way O handled the Poliico reporter. Picture Bush doing that, or Reagan. Picture Bush telling people not to listen to a leftwing pundit, like O warned against Rush. Observe the shirtsleeves signing of his first exec orders, mumbling and dithering and asking Craig to explain what HE i signing.

Whatever he's done before, it's pretty clear the writer's Got a Crush on Barack.

12 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:47:13 PM by Mamzelle (Boycott Peggy Swoonin')
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To: mojito

I read a raving review of a glorious man. At least that is how they portrayed him. To be feared, yes. But only because he is so magnificent and Republicans and critics need not bother.

Did anyone else get this from the article?


13 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:49:31 PM by autumnraine
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To: mojito

He might be a great conservative mind, but he seems enthralled with Obama.


14 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:50:01 PM by autumnraine
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To: Islander7

I want someone to turn on the mic like in “A face in the crowd”.


15 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:50:38 PM by autumnraine
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To: mojito

There is a vast difference between what someone thinks he is doing and what he is really doing ...Obama the unifyer is already souring


16 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:51:08 PM by woofie
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To: Mamzelle

I think this article was written several months ago.


17 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:51:14 PM by jennyjenny
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To: Danae
Yeah, it's a word, maybe newly cast but a word nonetheless, and it has internal references to some other words. For example "Painterly" is used to refer to the sense an artist brings to rendering a scene or object into oil paint on canvas (or pixels on a CRT).

Following "painterly" we can then see "writerly" as a refernce to the sense a writer brings to rendering a scene or object (or events and people) into words on paper (or pixels on a CRT).

Kind of an insult to a guy who has followers who imagine that he actually has the power to influence events and people.

I think I'll go LMAO!

Oh, one more thing, Obamasama's popularity dropped 15% from Wednesday through Friday, and it dropped another 12% from Saturday to Sunday.

That's a 27% drop in less than a week. I think that sets a new record.

This gives rise to another newly cast word "Popularly" which is the sense a voter brings to rendering a politician or his cronies in his mind as someone to trust or dump at the next election. A voter may well render that sense into pixels on vast numbers of CRTs.

18 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:53:18 PM by muawiyah
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To: Danae

writerly
adj.

Honestly, I'm not sure how reliable a source "thefreedictionary.com" is...but still. Would you like care to retract your statement? Submit your resignation? Give up your own "teaching" credentials, perhaps? I mean, you were very quick to hand out a failing grade, weren't you?

19 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:54:34 PM by BlueDragon
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To: autumnraine

No.


20 posted on 1/25/2009, 11:56:43 PM by muawiyah
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