Posted on 07/08/2008 12:47:08 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
With 68 percent of Americans believing George Bush has done a poor job, and 82 percent saying the country is on the wrong track, the election of 2008 will turn on one issue: Barack Obama.
If Sen. Obama can convince the people he is "one of us," and not some snooty radical liberal from Chicago's Hyde Park, who looks down upon white America as a fever swamp of racism and reaction, a la the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the senator will be the next president.
The election of 2008 thus mirrors the election of 1980.
Then, the country wanted Jimmy Carter gone. Americans had had enough of 21 percent interest rates, 13 percent inflation and 7 percent unemployment. They wanted the Iranian hostage crisis ended, violently if necessary. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, America wanted a leader who would not kiss Leonid Brezhnev on the cheek but reassert American power.
The issue then was Ronald Reagan. Portrayed as some Al Capp cartoon of a crazed right-winger and B-Grade Hollywood actor given to spouting Reader's Digest bromides, Reagan was regarded as ridiculous by much of the media and too big a risk by much of the nation.
In one debate with Carter, Reagan erased the misperceptions and turned a close race into a cakewalk. That is Barack's opportunity.
A savvy politician, he has measured correctly the hurdle he must surmount and is moving expeditiously to alter an image of him forged by his own past associations and policy positions. In three weeks, he has jettisoned his new politics in a stunning display of raw pragmatism.
A prime minister must be "a good butcher," H.H. Asquith told Winston Churchill on naming him First Lord of the Admiralty, "and there are several who need to be pole-axed now." Four years later, Asquith would pole-axe Churchill over the Dardanelles disaster.
Obama is not lacking in this capacity that Richard Nixon, too, felt was an indispensable attribute of a statesman.
Samantha Power was tossed off Barack's sledge after calling Hillary a "monster" and suggesting Barack's Iraq timetable was not set in concrete. Robert Malley was canned for having talked to Hamas, though that was his portfolio at a think tank for conflict resolution.
Barack pole-axed pastor Wright and, though he said he could no more repudiate his church than his family, shortly after the second time Wright went off, Barack severed all ties to Trinity United.
Barack has spoken of how he cringed at the racist reaction of his white grandmother after she was accosted by a black man on a bus. Grandma has now been rehabilitated in a new ad as the loving woman who inculcated good old Kansas values into little Barack.
When his own surrogate, Gen. Wesley Clark, suggested John McCain's war service did not automatically qualify him as presidential timber, a storm erupted. Barack proceeded to cut the general's legs off.
His had been one of a few Senate voices to speak of Palestinian suffering. But Barack's address to the Israeli lobby read like it was plagiarized from the collected works of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.
When the Supreme Court declared every citizen has a Second Amendment right to a handgun, Barack stood with Justice Scalia. When Scalia said the court ought not to have taken away Louisiana's right to execute child rapists, Barack was with him again.
When Congress voted the telecoms immunity from prosecution for colluding with the Bush administration in wiretapping citizens, Barack stood with Bush and the telecoms. Fearing it might cost him his huge money-raising advantage over McCain, Barack tossed campaign finance reform over the side.
In Ohio, Barack was a populist opponent of NAFTA. He is now a free-trader. Yet when economic adviser Austan Goolsbee told the Canadians pretty much the same thing, Barack disinherited him.
As July 4 approached, Barack gratuitously dissed his friends at MoveOn.org for their "General Betray Us" ad mocking Gen. David Petraeus. And that flag pin Barack got rid of after 9-11, calling it a "substitute ... for real patriotism"? It's back on the lapel.
Last week, Barack said that, after he meets with Petraeus and his field commanders in Iraq, he might "refine" his commitment to withdraw all U.S. combat brigades within 16 months.
And finally, Obama has co-opted President Bush's faith-based initiative and claimed it as his own.
What is Obama up to? Having secured the nomination, he is moving to convince the nation he is neither a black militant nor a radical, but a man of the center who will even listen to the right.
Though infuriating to readers of The Huffington Post, this may save Barack. For in Middle America folks worry less about politicians adjusting positions than about True Believers willing to go over the cliff with flags flying -- and taking us with them.
Reagan was no Barry Goldwater. He knew when to "hold 'em," and he knew when to "fold 'em." Yet, America still knew who Reagan was.
We may be misunderestimating Barack. But the question of 2008 remains: When all is said and done, who is this guy?
I actually know a conservative who wants Obama to win so it will force the Republican party to “come home,” or something.
I can’t see how it’s worth it.
The risk is that after 8 years of Obamanomics and Obamapartheid there might be nothing left to come home to.
Misunderestimate?? That sounds like something from George Bush’s vocabulary!
After 4 years of Barry’s Marxist rule, I doubt there’ll be much left of America to “come home” to.
Exactly.
Rats.
I type too slow....:)
Gee, really Pat? You're the 547th columnist to come up with that one.
BTW, when will you announce your run this time, Pat?
Don't feel bad Sal, you're still the largest amphibian in the world. That's pretty darn cool :-)
An Obama win would force the GOP to re-group. But the country would go thru a lot of pain before we got back on track.
I think Pat has it wrong about the election comparison. Carter was elected on the “change” ticket..we had just come thru the Nixon era...Ford was pres...and the mood was similar to what we see today. Four yrs of Obama and Americans will be storming the palace.
Carter will look good compared to Obama.
As to McCain, he has a long history meddling in areas of no concern of the guv..and siding with RATS. Even talking to RATS ought to be a felony in my book.
Ive felt that McCain, if elected, will destroy the conservative wing and the 2010 elections will push the handful of remain conservative congresscritters out. We’ll see more Republican candidates similar to my worthless Senators...Dole and lil dickie burrito.
So our choice is this...bad or worse. Aint a good year at all.
Obama has a sycophantic media. It will only get worse if he gets elected. The media will never highlight all the contradictions lies contortions and stupidity that come from him
I can only hope the American people say one thing to the pollsters then vote for McCain on election day
I understand the theory, but I’m not wildly optimistic on the prospects for regrouping with people who would elect a madrasa-trained Marxist by staying at home.
Even with McCain as the next POTUS, the next Congress will probably be even more to the political left. Therefore, the entire U.S. will probably still be in deep trouble on all of the issues with either McCain or Obama as the next POTUS. This truly also doesn’t create that much of an incentive for conservative voters to willingly vote for McCain, who politically back stabs both conservatives and U.S. conservatism far too often on all of the issues during his entire duration as a U.S. Senator.
Ive been so angry with McCain for years I had openly expressed the opinion that we, as a country, could make a comeback from 4 yrs of Obama but 4 yrs of McCain would totally destroy any hope of getting the GOP back on track.
This doesnt mean Im for Obama..of course not...but we are in bad shape no matter who wins. Damn I hope Im dead wrong on this. Id like to be surprised by a CONSERVATVE McCain
McCain has some fine qualities to be sure but his legislative record and associations with known scum RATS have left a deep distrust of the guy with many people.
Just one simple question: Who do you want our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen saluting for the next four years?
Those who believe that Obama won't do much harm might want to reflect on the damage he can do simply with Supreme Court appointments. Kennedy is 71. Souter is 68.
Think about it, FRiends.
Who knows? That's always a problem, isn't it? "You pays your money and you talks your chances" as the saying goes.
At this point I believe he's a surrogate for Jeremiah Wright and the anti-war Left so I can't vote for him...But maybe not. Have to wait and see.
Meanwhile, McCain is not getting any younger and is adopting positions I absolutely cannot tolerate (although most on this forum would probably disagree) so I'll not be able to vote for him, either.
We truly have a death wish as a country if that's the case.
This election, in many ways, feels like one of those contests we all experience as athletes of any level at some point in which you feel you and your team are sleepwalking through the game and you can't snap out of it. They're not blowouts, but actually winnable games. It's just that you can't seem to get going. You know you have to, but you're in some kind of collective funk that prevents it.
It's not a perfect analogy because the folks here are not in that funk. We're more like the fans in the stands who are screaming at the team to wake up (among other encouraging admonitions best left at the park). Only thing is that we're supposed to be in the game, but the team kicked us off the field.
I can only hope the American people say one thing to the pollsters then vote for McCain on election day==
I heard form few friends that they will vote for Obama just to stop squandering money in Iraq. I see it that Bush failed them with this “stuipd war” (thier words) so they just want to try something else.
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