The Obama Delusion

This is the first "real" evaluation of B.Obama's political rhetoric I've read. In general, the press and pundants are way too soft on B. Obama, and at the same time seem to nitpick at H. Clinton. Sure, Obama is impressive; we want him to succeed; we, like the "Obama Girl" on You-Tube, have fallen in love with the image. Obama represents what we would like to see valued--the American Dream in action. But, talk is not performance. Promise is not results. Politicians must deliver; to do so, they must know the system, not just talk about how they can go around it. Jimmy Carter tried to make a difference in Washington--with all good intentions--but failed more often than not to bring about his promised "change." Obama, too, will ultimately fail to deliver on the promises he's glibly making to all of us.

This is the first "real" evaluation of B.Obama's political rhetoric I've read. In general, the press and pundants are way too soft on B. Obama, and at the same time seem to nitpick at H. Clinton. Sure, Obama is impressive; we want him to succeed; we, like the "Obama Girl" on You-Tube, have fallen in love with the image. Obama represents what we would like to see valued--the American Dream in action. But, talk is not performance. Promise is not results. Politicians must deliver; to do so, they must know the system, not just talk about how they can go around it. Jimmy Carter tried to make a difference in Washington--with all good intentions--but failed more often than not to bring about his promised "change." Obama, too, will ultimately fail to deliver on the promises he's glibly making to all of us.

I can't see McCain saving social security or improving the economy while continuing the $200 million/day in Iraq... for another 100 years remember is ok by him.

Obama and Hillary's plans are very similar, this is true. However, the key difference is who do I believe is able to lead and bring these plans into reality?

Two main points here make Obama that person for me... his ability to inspire and bring people together to listen and work towards solutions, and his work towards transparency and accountability in our gov't.

Imagine, Obama as president, with the organization he has developed as an ongoing grassroots lobby who will support him and lobby our reps and senators, instead of delegating that to pro politicians and lobbyists and spacing out. Obama is offering us an antidote to Washington insiderism empowered by the ignorance of narcicisstic or apathetic "citizens." Citizenship under Obama is what will change Washington! We are the rightful lobby.

Comment: I believe this article is incorrect, because there is a real difference between Obama and other politicians. It is an issue of ability to galvanize political will to achieve hard things, and he will tell you the same thing. The fact that those unachieved hard things are not new ideas is not the point. As he said, Washington has become a place for good ideas to go die. THAT is what he is telling us he will change, and THAT IS what we believe he is capable of, with OUR BACKING - with his grassroots organizing ability to galvanize political will, to summon the wind to his back.

Comment: I believe this article is incorrect, because there is a real difference between Obama and other politicians. It is an issue of ability to galvanize political will to achieve hard things, and he will tell you the same thing. The fact that those unachieved hard things are not new ideas is not the point. As he said, Washington has become a place for good ideas to go die. THAT is what he is telling us he will change, and THAT IS what we believe he is capable of, with OUR BACKING - with his grassroots organizing ability to galvanize political will, to summon the wind to his back.

This is like the first article pointing this out. He has been going around promising change and never says what he will change. He seems to think that when he is elected, all the republicans and democrats will get together in a big love fest and pass everything he wants to do and majically the budget will balance. He has a "vision" for america that sounds a lot like Bush's vision in 2000. Remember he was going to unite everyone in Washington as well. As far as experience, he has about the same amount of experience as Bush, and that has certainly worked out well for all of us.

This is like the first article pointing this out. He has been going around promising change and never says what he will change. He seems to think that when he is elected, all the republicans and democrats will get together in a big love fest and pass everything he wants to do and majically the budget will balance. He has a "vision" for america that sounds a lot like Bush's vision in 2000. Remember he was going to unite everyone in Washington as well. As far as experience, he has about the same amount of experience as Bush, and that has certainly worked out well for all of us.

Sour Grapes!

glad the media 'lovefest' is over. i have one newseek magazine from a couple of weeks ago that practically was dedicated to obama. when this becomes a fair contest - which it maybe too late to become that - then maybe i'll take the obama people seriously. right now - i have no interest.

I just don't want somebody singing cumbaya all day long. I want a fighter as commander in chief. Sorry, but all this good feel talk is not what i'm looking for. I want someone tough and ready to jump in the ring. especially for the next phase of this election. hillary is the only one out of all of them (repub and dems) that looks like she has the stomache to fight

It's not what Obama can do for you, its what you can do for Obama!

Interesting MacknIowa, that the same ignorance you speak of is the same ignorance you display! To say that the reason "obama's main base is blacks and younger voters [who] do not have the education nor experience to know better" is rather superficial of you. No doubt, your "good" black friends may be backing him for the wrong reason, but dont assume that is the case for the rest of this country's blacks or younger voters. You are free to disagree with a candidate's stance, but dont let that make you into a self-proclaimed guru. Simply put, to assume there are Obama-supporters who havent done their "homework" would only make you as delusional as the people you speak of.

I agree with Samuelson. Anyone can get up before a crowd and proclaim what they will do. However, the truth is in the pudding, as they say. Obama's rhetoric is just commonplace promises that he cannot fulfill. If you go beyond his eloquence with words, then there is nothing but empty promises. We need a leader who is truly an American, who is truly concerned with the problems in our country. Everyone wants to blame all of our problems on our current leader, who is not without fault. Our problems started years ago, and they are ballooning out of control. We cannot sit by any longer and allow our country to fall, as one foreign leader projected many years ago, that we would destroy ourselves. This is what we are doing. Obama cannot lead our country as it was founded. I fear that he will be elected just because he is black, which is what I have heard a lot of people say. That is a poor excure for electing the leader of our country. No one should be elected just because he is black, white, asian, or whatever. They should be elected on how they can lead our country. AGain, lets remember that we need a LEADER, which is someone who will lead us in the right direction, a direction that is for the people of this country to better serve our needs. Obama is NOTthat man. Clinton is NOT that woman. Unfortunately, I do not think that McCain is the man either. This makes our election really sad that we do not have a candidate who can lead this country in the way that it needs to be led.

The first words that I heard Barack Obama say were -- This should be, That should be. The words sounded like promises, promises for that which we want. But I gave another thought to his words. He sounds like he is promising something good. But he only said that it SHOULD be this way. In other words, he was saying to me that there were great things in the world (BUT DON'T TELL ME LATER THAT I PROMISED IT TO YOU, BECAUSE I ONLY SAID -- IT SHOULD BE).

Finally, someone with enough intelligence to see beyond the extremely vague promises Obama has made. His voting record tells us that he will change absolutely nothing if elected and all 'business' will be as usual. Why do people fall for such absolute 'nothingness' all the time. The same reason Obama's main base is blacks and younger voters--they do not have the education nor experience to know better. Many black friends of mine are supporting him, but when questioned as to why they do--the answer is 100% that he is black. Very unfortunate. Very good black people, but if they only back someone because of this, then it is just plain and simply more prejudice, only in a reverse form.
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