Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Obama again

It seems that, as Cousin Mark says, I am picking on Obama, but I am really trying hard to like him. But it seems that he is serving as an empty vessel into which everyone is pouring their hopes. The flaw here is that the vessel has begun speaking his mind, if only when he thinks that only sympathetic souls are listening. It is beginning to look like the Democrats are, again, going to nominate an unelectable individual; see McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis.

Senator Obama is an earnest idealist, but history does not bear out his speaking points. He has NEVER acted in a bipartisan manner in the Senate. His voting record is highly liberal, or I guess I’m supposed to say progressive since liberal is a dirty word; he is arrogant and can’t hide it; he is elitist; he is tainted by the Chicago political machine; he associates himself with a racist black theology (and he is not even authentically an American black). All of this adds up to the core Democrat vote in November and not much of the persuadable electorate; that damnable mid 40% level.

It is hard to imagine Senator McCain, with his long history in the public eye, ever producing anywhere near the negatives that Senator Obama is piling up.

I thought the Democrats would nominate Senator Clinton with her negatives of almost 50, (truly a disaster) but they may actually make a worse decision. Let us all hope that Senator Obama proves to be a better candidate than he looks to be today.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well J.R., I don't think Mr. Obama ever had a chance to get your vote anyway.

He is a Democrat, so his positions on the issues were never destined to please you. In my opinion, there is no Democratic candidate that can't be chopped at by the right-wing, and Obama is worth a shot, especially when you compare to Hillary. I don't want another Bush or Clinton in the White House.

It does some strange to me that Obama has to take responsibility for anything anyone he's ever met has said.

I think Obama has a good chance against McCain. The side by side comparison will be dramatic. And the fundamentals for Republicans are not that good. McCain - 72 years old, endless Iraq occupation, "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran". Do we really need another Republican warmonger in the White House?

J.R. said...

I would vote for a Democrat if they would jettison the tired old socialist tendencies. Tax and spend for the last 70 years has not exactly made our economy wonderful. And yes President Bush has done a horrible job of maintaining any kind of spending discipline. Signing off on the horrifically expensive Medicare Part D just accelerates the pending insolvency. And yes the war cost money but it is less than 1% of GDP. Spending on our security is not the problem, spending on buying voting constituencies, particularly the elderly, is the problem.

The weakening economy just makes the Republican candidate's task more difficult. But it is a long time to November and things will change dramatically for both sides before then.