The Obama Delusion

What's so funny about your article is how you write that he doesn't have substance which is what every opponent of Obama says yet you point out that a lot of his stuff is similar to Clinton's and that he has a 12 point plan and you even give specifics of that plan. So if there is no substance then what do you call that? I for one have listened to all the candidates and all of them are going to promise things they hope to get done. That is natural. You can't guarantee everything because you don't get to vote for everybody. It's obvious somebody in your organazation has been hearing all the flack about how Obama doesn't get scrutinzed by the media so they have you write an artical like this. To discount his ability to get people inspired to want to change things in America locally and nationally is a grave mistake. I'm 25 and have started to get involved locally as a result of Obama. So for you to say you were impressed in 2004 but now are not and then give no specific reason as to why other than to repeat what Mccain and Clinton have said shows your lack of own intelligence. If he made mistakes from the things he's promised to do than you have a point as of now, sorry no point here just a waist of an article aimed at trying to derail the inevitable.

Just Say NObama

If you do indeed lable yourself a journalist, or if that is what is says on your resume, you are a joke!

The difference is....Now that Obama has a movement of Americans behind him, his democratic plans and ideas will pass as bills. He never said that his plans were "non-partisan". He has classic democratics plans, but with a movement that includes Republicans and Independents they will cease to be plans and become reality. If you are looking for this substance that will become America's reality soon, visit his website and click on the "Issues" tab.

I have not yet chosen to support Barack Obama. I am visiting his website to inquire about his political beliefs. I feel that Mr. Obama needs to clarify his platform early on and to develop a defense for it. If this is not done soon, he risks losing the appeal he has generated and the fervor disintegrating into mere rhetoric. I fear that he may be susceptible to what I call "Kerry-itis," that dreaded disease where a lot has been spoken but not much has been said. Mr. Obama has been successful in energizing the base, but there needs to be an infusion of policies, and strategies for the future. He needs to speak in more substantive terms in order to broaden his base. In the last presidential election, Bush was very beatable. In the upcoming election, the same is true of the entire Republican field, particularly following the last congressional election. This momentum must be carried further, but a clear, concise message must be articulated and promoted in order to be successful. I will continue to visit regularly, but will withhold my support for him or any other candidate until such a time as I know what and for whom I am voting.

Samuel A. Guydon, II

So you would like Barack bama to do what no other candidate is doing???tell the whole story???so he could lose. John McCain has backed away form the immifration bill, both he and Obama co-sposored. Hillary Clinton is running as a middle of the road Bill Clinton style democrat, which she is not. She has also retracted on immmigration. But Obama should run as him do these other people can win. Interesting!!!

Thank you, I too have been wondering what "change" would take place. I'm 63 years old and haven't heard anything new that I haven't heard before. The differance this time is it is being said by a young African American instead of the familuar faces we have grown used to.

Tell us about McCain's policiies. Let's start with social security:

"Tough decisions have to be made, including the possibility of lifting the cap on the payroll tax." Let's move on to illegal immigration. The following shows that he is for unfettered amnesty.

Meet the Press: Meet the Candidates 2008 series May 13, 2007
:

"The Googling monkeys discovered that McCain himself embraced the term during a news conference a few years ago in his office in Tucson, Ariz. 'McCain Pushes Amnesty, Guest-Worker Program,' reported the Tucson Citizen of May 29, 2003. The senator is quoted as saying: 'Amnesty has to be an important part because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it.' The newspaper also quoted McCain as saying: 'I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible and at the same time make sure that we have some control over people who come in and out of this country...'

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Some believe we should round them up and send them back. I don't know how you do that, and I don't know why you'd want to ... (the undocumented) have grasped the lowest rung of our ladder. They want to rise, and we should let them. Let them come out of the shadows, pay a fine, stay employed, pay taxes, and earn their citizenship. We all will be the better for it.

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Those undocumented workers who declare themselves, pass criminal background checks, prove their employment, pay fines, taxes, learn English and study American civics may be offered eventually, and I stress eventually, a path to citizenship. Critics of the bill attack this as amnesty and a special path to citizenship that is denied to lawful immigrants. Both charges are false.

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The bill's sponsors [McCain and Kennedy] are looking to jettison the three-tiered approach to citizenship included in last year's measure, which allowed undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States the longest to take a far easier path to citizenship than newer arrivals. That system would have made it all but impossible for anyone with fewer than two years' residence in the country to gain citizenship -- a circumstance that some officials warned would probably have kept the status of a substantial number of immigrants unclear.

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Here we go again, more excuses for Hilary and her supporters (Samuelson) playing the same political games. Take the losses with some class. Whenever she loses she is always trying to come up with some political comeback. Well here it is... Wake up Hilary, America wants someone who Doesn't stand for typical politics. We want change.

And so the media cycle continues... Build them up.. Wait until they're on top, then knock them back down. There's no reason this story couldn't have been published two months ago. But then again, that could've jeopardized the great storyline of Obama overcoming the odds, only to be pushed down again.

I'm not enough of a tin-foil hat-wearing conspiracist, to say that the media choose or decide the outcome of these races, but to say that stories are shaped and scheduled to finesse the story is certainly not an overstatement.

There have been very few stories about the role of race in this election. Wait until Obama is the nominee and see what happens: No need to print those now... wait until he has a fighting chance, then start the "Is America Ready?" race-baiting stories at full-tilt. The game is getting old. Quickly.

The author of this article is an idiot. You could say the same thing about any politician on the campaign trail. Most of all, no where in this article does the author really back up his comment that "the contrast between his broad rhetoric and his narrow agenda is stark." Raising the social security income cap could shore up the fund substantially. The cap was set years ago and should have been indexed to inflation or wage growth. There are a host of strategies to take on problems.

But, most of all, give me a break. EVERY SINGLE POLITICIAN on the campaign trail, now and in the past, speaks in "broad rhetoric" and sounds like they are going to save the world. Obama is not the first, only, nor the last. Heck, McCain has backtracked on everything he ever stood for...talk about empy rhetoric. Clinton failed miserably with her health care plan in the 90s (make no mistake it was more Hillary's plan than Bill's, just do the research).

This article typifies broad, empty rhetoric. It's clear this guy is just pushing for the candidates he wants. You could take this article, switch Obama's name for any other politician, and make the same argument.

I can't believe he gets paid for writing this weak garbage.

The American experience is predicated on "mass delusion." This nation is all about reinventing itself without regard to historical moorings per se or any in depth analysis. This is why Barak Obama as a major symbol of "change'" will actually effectuate this, and this is not only good for this nation but good for the world at large. The world at large will embrace this symbolisim even moreso than this nation's citizens. it is so myopic to look only internally to the problems that affect our citizens. The actions of the US affect the w orld and its actions are usually negative. Obama will fire a sure message to the world that our nation's position can indeed be proactive. Finally, this may actually help a president change the massive machinery of the pentagon and trans national investment which are routinelyu outside US constitutional bounds. And this is the real problem that plagues all of the American people and the world at large.

That is true Castro and Hitler were for also for change, but so was JFK, Dr.MLK Jr., Ghandi, Mother Theresa, the Pope, Mr. Robert "Nesta" Marley, and countless others who have influenced/impacted this country and world, in a positive way!!! You and people like you tend to want to see or look for the bad in others, find whatever flaw you can, to take away light from something so beautiful & bright... We the American people have the right, to want, look, hope & pray for something(someone) better, than what we have had over the past 12 years(especially the last 8) and We ( the many )old & young, white & black, brown & yellow, all see that light in Barrack Obama. Many of his opposers, tend to forget 8yrs ago, the system not the people elected then Gov., of Texas, who had as much knowledge or experience in running this country, as I have of riding a bull on his ranch, but he was elected anyway, now look at where we are and where that has gotten us? Please for the sake of a different path, a new direction for this country and in politics in general, allow nature to tak it's course, It's Barrack Obama's time, it is Our(the American People's) time. This time around as you can & have seen, Our voices are being heard, and we cannot be silenced, like 2000. Thank you for your time, God Bless, even those that disagree...

You know something you never mentioned is that no President can do all this alone and the American People are saying no more Clintons in the White House

HA!!! Mr. Samuelson, you end your 1st paragraph by soliciting your personal opinion. You then begin your 2nd paragraph with, "As a Journalist..." Did you go to any school of journalism???

Try covering the campaign race and the canidates with out our own opinion, and stick to the facts and the canidates positions.