The Obama Delusion

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  • Posted By: MichaelMN @ 02/20/2008 12:56:32 PM

    Well, you had me interested in your remarks until you inferred that Obama was being criticised by Clinton for plagarisng her ideas. If you read the news at all you will find this charge was about a few campaign remarks he borrowed (with permission) from a friend. It seems you do not have a grasp of the facts, and should go back to square one and do some actuall research.

    • Posted By: norpoul @ 02/20/2008 4:26:21 PM

      Blind loyalty. Those were not a "few words" , they made up a brilliant speech
      that everyone admired. Chris Matthews on MSNBC said it made his knees
      quivver. THEN, we find out he's a copycat. Same with Hillary's economic
      plan. A week after she posted hers, he had almost the same thing. Even
      McCain said he had plagiarized it.

  • Posted By: emoney1969 @ 02/20/2008 4:25:10 PM

    Hillary hasn't said much about how she pay for all of the things she's promising. Hillary is giving speeches (inspiring) to her supporters as well, and yet this article is slamming Obama! This article demeans and beliitles the art of inspiration and inspiring people to go beyond what has been the norm. You are just making him out to be a good speaker, and yet I see no where in this article or in the previous posts that even mentions his accomplishments during his tenure in politics. But yet you say he has no substance to back up his speeches. We have become a nation that has become lost in our thinking that beleiving that that this country can't rise up and achieve. Question for you! If Hillary was winning, would you still be slamming his inspiration speeches? Would you be praising her in this article? Sir, Martin Luther King Jr gave inspiring speeches and those speeches ignited a nation of people and changed the scope of civil rights in an entire country. Was that useless rhetoric! The bible tells us that where there is no vision, the people will perish!
    Have a great day......

  • Posted By: rhtraveler @ 02/20/2008 4:24:42 PM

    Obviously the Clinton machine was consulted before preparation of this article. All politicians offer vision- some rear-view and some forward looking. Only Obama has offered hope and maybe this is what America is looking for more than detailed policy which we know will be mangled by the political process.

    It is about time we Americans can look forward. Our international audience has a clear choice- let us finally join the world community.

  • Posted By: bogie813 @ 02/20/2008 4:24:25 PM

    finally, someone in the media who sees past the paper lion.

  • Posted By: bernas @ 02/20/2008 4:23:40 PM

    I am just amazed that Michelle Obama is allowed to say anything anti-American and many people accept her views. I don't trust any politician or his wife to make derogatory statements about my country. There is no other country that gives a women of color the oportunities to go to college, and to climb as high as she has. I am old fashioned and I love this country even when our politicians make mistakes as all of them have. Hey Michelle, LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.

  • Posted By: dunny104 @ 02/20/2008 2:12:50 PM

    Finally, someone in the media that isn't afraid to speak out. There is no substance here; he will never win against McCain so then we have 4 more years of the same.

    • Posted By: papeets @ 02/20/2008 2:19:10 PM

      I agree with your comments. I don't understand how our country can get so caught up in a motivational speaker. I want solutions to our problems, not veiled promises, with no real solutions. He only says what he knows will get the crowds going.

      • Posted By: number40one @ 02/20/2008 3:02:00 PM

        And how is that different from ANY OTHER POLITICIAN IN HISTORY?

        • Posted By: papeets @ 02/20/2008 4:21:54 PM

          I just don't know if there is really anything left after all of Obama's motivational speeches are done. We'll see after the debates. Should be interesting.

    • Posted By: LuLuBelle @ 02/20/2008 2:53:41 PM

      God, I have been wondering how there are so many idiots who could listen to him speak and not realize that it is just a bunch of baloney! Thank you for actually listening to what he says and realizing that it is well, NOTHING!

  • Posted By: albertgorejr @ 02/20/2008 4:21:35 PM

    Posted By: jtemple04 @ 02/20/2008 4:09:56 PM
    Comment: I dont understand obama's rhetoric and his views.

  • Posted By: Toilet @ 02/20/2008 4:21:12 PM

    Obama gives hope when cynics like Newsweek take up obvious political agenda's. This nation is in shambles. We do not need bickering between McCain and Hillary. Hillary's tactics have become very rudumentary and ill concieved, the days of evil politics will end in November when President Obama enters the Whitehouse. I use to like Hillary, but her eveil tactics are transparent and Bill should just be put back in the doghouse as he ruined her chance to be the first female president, cheaters do not love or respect thier wives, they love themselves. Not matter what this creep writes, Obama will win.

  • Posted By: zjemi @ 02/20/2008 4:21:02 PM

    Samuelson really is so dazzled that he doesn't even know what Obama has said. Fortunately many of us know better, which is why we are voting for Obama and giving small donations to his campaign. See p. 183 of the Audacity of Hope, about the need to reduce the cost of Medicare. Obama's health care plan puts cost cutting first, despite Clinton's complaint that he isn't for universality first. Some of us know better.

  • Posted By: albertgorejr @ 02/20/2008 4:20:45 PM

    Posted By: lyingbigot @ 02/20/2008 4:06:46 PM
    Comment: "Change" scaries the crap out of me. I'm supposed to be educated and a bit more knowledgeable than your average Joe. I fell like rubbish!. I love George Bush and I am hopeless!! He gave me the boost that l needed to actually vote for Hillary. I love her.


  • Posted By: Ohioalexander @ 02/20/2008 4:20:38 PM

    Let's talk about pride in one's country. I'm a veteren and very proud to be an American but in my 47 years of exsistance I've had some not so proud moments. For instance I remember visiting my relatives in In W. Virginia as a child and not being able to go into certain stores, eat at certain resturants and those infamous water fountains. Oh yes I remember them as well. Not a very proud American moment. I recall Reaganomics and tax cuts for the very rich while the poor got poorer, Not a very proud American moment. A friend and fellow soldier dishonorably discharged from the army when he admitted that he had relations with a women. This was during a rape trial and he proved his innocense but was still dismissed because he was a married man and adultry is not permitted even though his commander in chief did the same thing around the same time, lied about it, was found out and still kept his job. NAPAM! We are sent into a war by another Commander in chief on false pretence thousands die or are wounded but never send a single soldier into a country where hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered, to stop the viloence. NAPAM. When we had a horrific natural disaster in our own back yard and help comes from Canada before the victims get any relief from our own country. In fact many are still waiting. NAPAM. So yes I am proud for the first time in a long time.

  • Posted By: revapeters1 @ 02/20/2008 4:20:09 PM

    Samuelson can say and feel as he likes. So can you and I but I'll let you in on a secret: you only get one vote and after the American people speaks, that's the one chosen by the people, for the people, we elect his then stand by him, pray for him because we chose him. If it is Obama, that's okay too, he won didn't he, then except it.

  • Posted By: PHAEDEAUX @ 02/20/2008 3:07:36 PM

    During the first eight (8) years of his elected service Barack Obama sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced:
    ??? 233 regarding healthcare reform,
    ??? 125 on poverty and public assistance,
    ??? 112 crime fighting bills,
    ??? 97 economic bills,
    ??? 60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills,
    ??? 21 ethics reform bills,
    ??? 15 gun control,
    ??? 6 veterans??? affairs and many others.
    His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included
    1. **the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006 - became law,
    2. **The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act, - became law,
    3. **The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate,
    4. **The 2007 Government Ethics Bill, - became law,
    5. **The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, In committee, and many more.
    In all, since entering the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096.
    He's not just a talker. He's a doer.

    • Posted By: akennedy @ 02/20/2008 3:12:35 PM

      Right on! It's good to know.

      • Posted By: 1of2Utes @ 02/20/2008 3:21:57 PM

        Thanks for posting this. I've read about Obama and I've looked at the "accomplishments" of his opponents and it's amazing to me how often they attack him for a lack of action but fail to ever take the simple step of listing their own. Obama was a heck of a senator in IL and he's been working like hell in the US Senate. The record is there, but those attacking him are too damn lazy to bother checking their facts.

        • Posted By: dewcooper @ 02/20/2008 4:14:45 PM

          Well, according to your facts, Obama was only successful in getting 3 bills passed into law, out of almost 2000 that he slapped his name on. Doer? Uniter? If he can only get Congress to buy into 3 of his 'ideas' out of 2000, how effective will he realy be?

          Looks more like he was padding his resume...

  • Posted By: msshechild @ 02/20/2008 3:07:06 PM

    If I had a penny for everytime Obama mentions "change" or "hope" I would be a millionaire. It's going to be funny watching all these "inspired" people have egg on their face when this man does nothing--if he makes to the white house. I'm 29 and have always followed presidential campaigns. Don't they all promise a change in one way or another? Everyone thought Bill Clinton was young and going to bring a new feel to the white house. Did he? Elections remind me of the high school kid running for student body president that promises a longer recess and pizza everyday. Once he gets the position, the promises are forgotten and it's the same old routine. Call me cynical but I find no inspiration from Obama (or any of the candidates for that matter).

    PS: Nice article

    • Posted By: CAdreamin @ 02/20/2008 4:14:24 PM

      I "believe" that Clinton DID follow through on a couple of his campaign "promises". Lowering the national debt, and balancing the budget. THAT would be my first criteria in the next person I vote for, my greatgrandchildren do not need this monstrous tax burden. Oh, I know, the next thing I hear about this post is he's a scandal! Well, sorry to break it to you folks, but so was JFK. It's just that the national media had more integrity back then, they didn't air all our dirty laundry to the world.

  • Posted By: dave1law @ 02/20/2008 2:29:43 PM

    Your article critizes Obama on really only one basis - his change message. You claim that his policy ideas are not consistent with his "change" message because it is essentially the same thing Hillary and McCain advocate. Maybe or Maybe not.

    Nonetheless, one thing you cannot dispute is that change needs to occur from the bottom up not from the top down. Obama gives us that. Change is more likely to occur when people want it to happen and not when politicians force it to happen. For example, after 9/11 the people wanted a fundamental change in safety and security on American soil. Bush was able to pass several measures that significantly reduced individual and consitutional rights because the people wanted change. Right or wrong, and while I do not believe in most of the measures the Bush Administration has taken, you must face the reality that those "changes" could not have occurred simply from the top down, they need overwhelming support from the people for change.

    To that end, your article is the same old "hold us down" type of rhetoric that underestimates the power of "change" - particularly when the people call for it. Change occurs when people want it to and Obama is building a huge consensus of people who want change. Don't underestimate the power of the people. Obama give us the best chance to get these policies enacted.

    • Posted By: CitizenF @ 02/20/2008 2:44:07 PM

      Why post this racist garbage? You can barely write english and you give asians a bad name.

      • Posted By: akennedy @ 02/20/2008 4:13:29 PM

        Huh?

      • Posted By: dave1law @ 02/20/2008 3:27:06 PM

        Dear Citizen F - You keep supporting the tired old polcies advocated by Republicans. Eight years from now we'll have $7/gallon gas and 1000% inflation. Get a life and learn a little.

  • Posted By: politik @ 02/20/2008 4:13:26 PM

    This is why he would lose to McCain.

  • Posted By: albertgorejr @ 02/20/2008 4:13:26 PM

    Obama is like Spam. A little piece of meat all fluffed up with no nutritional value.

  • Posted By: charles_in_seattle @ 02/20/2008 4:13:08 PM

    Fear is a terrible thing. As long a Barack Obama seemed a nice pleasant alternative, a nice way for some to feel empowered by the graciousness that they and others in the Washington DC periphery bestowed upon him. It certainly seems that the national media liked the idea. Wouldn???t it be nice, lauding how much fun it would be to write about the 1st plausible African American in the Democratic race, at least until he was defeated by a more ???proper??? candidate.

    Now it appears that his candidacy has a real possibility and that he just might attempt to enact some of his ideas on transforming some of the corrupt environments in Washington DC. This realization holds much fear for those entrenched in the Washington DC establishment, and that would most certainly include some in the national media.

    So now it begins??? Fear is a terrible thing???

  • Posted By: bitstream @ 02/20/2008 1:06:17 PM

    iteach: one thing to note is that the people who have voted for Obama are largely better educated and wealthier than those that voted for Hillary. What does this tell you?

    • Posted By: norpoul @ 02/20/2008 4:10:57 PM

      They had lousy teachers and poor schools

    • Posted By: daisy_mom4 @ 02/20/2008 1:35:41 PM

      It tells me that they don't give a sh*t about the dying middle-class that 's what it tells me! They are drunk on his promises and could careless of the outcome to the hard working backbone of America. It's probably the same dumb jerks who voted in Bush, not once but twice! It tells me they are as arrogrant as Obama and that with all that education they still can't think with common sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!Enter Your Comment

    • Posted By: Tjohn55 @ 02/20/2008 1:17:16 PM

      Hey bitstream, better educated and wealthy tells me that people who live a life of comfort and ease become stupid. Liberal college education is the bitter enemy of common sense and experience. This country became the pinnacle of world economic success solely by hard workers not the highly educated.

  • Posted By: jtemple04 @ 02/20/2008 4:09:56 PM

    I dont understand if people have such a huge problem with the gap bwtn obama's rhetoric and his views then instead of talking behind his back about it i.e. news reporters and columnist, why not just call him out on it. for some reason or another people seem to be scared to ask him about the discrepencies. if there is such a big problem Mr. Samuelson, then telephone him personally and call him out on it. i'm sure he would be willing and ready to defend his policies and his rhetoric. if he give a half-assed answer then you know that he's a crook and all this is just a delusion...ASK and stop assuming...it's not becoming of reporters and columnist

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