Wisconsin Correspondent Briefly Loses Marbles, Finds Them Again
BDR’s post on the “cultlike” Obama movement nearly made my head explode. Not because of BDR’s cynicism about Obama himself—while I wouldn’t put it in the same words, I think it’s obvious that even if it sounds that way now, Obama would not govern in the overlords-be-damned way a Kucinich might—but because of that CNN graphic. Obama supporters are a cult? As opposed to George W. Bush followers, some of whom were happy to take “the Bush pledge”? As opposed to the religious right itself? Jesus H. Christ on a soda cracker. “Some say” the passion for Obama is cultlike? Opinion writers get to use “some say”—reporters are supposed to say who. Right wingers? Hillary followers? Random dudes off the street? A CNN producer angling for a job in the McCain Administration?
Sara Robinson demolished the whole Obama-as-cult-leader thing at Orcinus last week, and got to the point that stirs up the cult accusation: Obama is firing up his followers the same way Ronald Reagan did. He inspired a passion for change that endured long enough for his movement to make it happen. That change has proven to be hideously bad for the world, but as Sara puts it, “[W]e’re never going to be able to do better until we can inspire that same passion for change.” Hillary can’t inspire people that way. She’s talking plans and policies like the wonky boomer she is, and with the dutiful passion she learned at Wellesley during the 60s. That was enough to win elections in the 90s, but not anymore. If the Hillary wing would rather lose than take a demonstrably successful cue from Reagan, then they’re not the win-at-all-costs team everybody thinks they are. In an era where everything’s amped, you have to get amped too, or you’ll lose.
I didn’t get to see Obama’s amperage when he visited Madison last week; Hillary’s appearance here was postponed by the snowstorm yesterday, although she’s supposed to be in town today. It’s a tight race statewide, although polling in the last few days shows Obama slightly ahead. Hillary has blanketed the state with an ad slamming Obama for refusing to debate, an ad that seemed dumber and more desperate the more snow that fell yesterday, and the closer we got to Election Day. I expect Obama will win tomorrow, and by a comfortable margin as the undecideds break in his direction.
On the Repug side, I’ll be interested to see if Huckleberry actually gets the 32 percent he was polling (versus McCain’s 48) over the weekend. While I don’t understand much of anything about social conservatives, I understand the impulse that is driving them to cast a meaningless vote for a loser: I voted for Howard Dean in the 2004 primary after John Kerry had already been crowned the nominee. I’m tempted to vote for John Edwards tomorrow, but it’s a close race and I’ll be voting for Obama—although my passion is anything but cultlike.
Posted: February 18th, 2008 under Dumbocrats, Edwards, Hillary, McCain, Obama, Pigtards, The Primary Season.
Comments: 10
Comments
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: February 18, 2008, 9:02 am
I am coming to the conclusion that using the word cult to refer to Obama’s campaign is another form of racism.
Obama has the option to talk about specifics, but neither Clinton or McCain have the option to inspire a crowd and attract–and keep–younger voters.
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: February 18, 2008, 1:36 pm
The cult thing got legs with Paulie the K over at Times Tower. And Orcinius may have good argument but is brain candy that preaches to choir. Vandenheuvel, si. Peretz si. Schlossberg-Kennedy, si. But the Gottbaums, maybe they know a sc%war*e when the see one. Culturally Obama is brie and chablis. More Dunster House than Dunkin Donuts. More Chateauneuf than chittlins. And maybe after the fishboil fires die down in Dorr County, we will start hearing whispers of “draft Gore.” How does Gore-Obama sound?
Comment from Remington Winchester
Time: February 18, 2008, 1:50 pm
Obama has just divulged his remedy for putting an end to illegal immigration, he suggests leaving in place the present administration, thus driving our dollar down to parity with the peso.
He stated, “Eventually it will not be worth picking up stakes and crossing our borders in search of jobs that no one in this country will do and at the same time, we will have saved an enormous amount of peso-dollars, on a fence.” BRILLIANT… Cult on big O
Comment from Sasha
Time: February 18, 2008, 2:01 pm
Paulie the K seems to do anything to support Hill. He has forced me to stop reading him for the duration. Gore/Obama sounds super-sucky to me. I don’t know why either one of them would be interested.
Comment from Keyser Söze
Time: February 18, 2008, 3:59 pm
In November it may even be an honor to vote for him. But his astounding rise imposes a certain obligation of skeptical calm. Change: fine. A new generation: fine. A new politics: fine. It is all fine, and it is all contentless. Inspiration without content is a prelude to alienation. Newness is the oldest pitch in American politics. And I am a little sick of hope. (”I do not believe in miracles,” says Herodias in Wilde’s play. “I have seen too many.”) Also I have a queasy recollection of 1975.
When, as in the debates, Obama cannot resort to his silken swelling sentences, he seems pretty conventional. The closer he comes to the stuff of policy, the swifter the magic is gone. Perhaps policy is just not magical.
Comment from John McCreery
Time: February 18, 2008, 5:55 pm
Policy is not magical, but, hey, I just have to suspect that a guy who made president of the Harvard Law Review and teaches Constitutional Law isn’t going to be slack in that regard, a supposition confirmed by the 60-page Blueprint pdf available on the Obama website.
Politics, however, is magical. And leaders who can’t deliver the inspiration are forever stuck in transactional quagmires. E.g., the Clinton administration, as described in James MacGregor Burns’ Dead Center.
Comment from Brick
Time: February 18, 2008, 9:07 pm
As Hill says on the stump, you can’t govern with poetry; you got to govern with prose! And as old Bill states, what a fairy tale!
The basic problem I have with Obama is why is there so much support from the national-corporate media establishment for his political meanderings. Harvard may impress you guys, but look at the havoc the Ivy League graduates have dispensed these last 50-plus years on the world, to say nothing of their contribution to the elimination of freedom and rights within our own borders . The design of the national security state originated in its hallowed halls. And after the appropriate brainwashing and stamped credentials by these Ivies, its tokens (Obama and Clintons) and legacies (both Bushes) are paraded out to continue to perpetuate and deploy the murder and rampage necessary for the continuance of the empire. That in itself is enough to question the substance of Obama’s movement or anyone from these propaganda mills!
As for genuine change, although amusing, why not Huckabee? He graduated from Ouachita Baptist University! Think of all those jobs that Creationism studies would generate!
Comment from Groom Lake
Time: February 19, 2008, 1:56 pm
Huckabee plays a Fender bass, so he knows that intelligent design and Leo Fender are two different things. He knows how to manage change as guv of AK. He knows what ails US tax policy and has some ideas on how to stop US tax policy from strangling states. He isnt a micromanager. He doesn’t have to be jewish (Kinky Friedman’s famous quote if elected president) to know how to hire “good people.” He is not fast out of the backfield, but he is persistent, more than the other GOP and Dem ballcarriers, to hit the line until he can’t play no more (even if that’s the way god planned it). So there is no question about culture and effort with him- not snob political elite like McCain, Clinton, Obama, and (sorry to say), Mitt. The religious right doesn’t own his ass, they know it and he knows it. Huck is at l10 million votes taken away from GOP or Dem if he goes independent. You don’t have to be “not white” to be passionate about America. If Marie Antoinette really said something like “Let Them Eat Cake” regarding the poor folks in France who hated her guts, well, I see Hilla and Barack telling the American middle class (forget average and po’ Americans) “let them eat croissant”. Eh??? At least a Huck or a John Edwards would make sure that everyone gets a Hostess Twinkie, or a Lil’ Debbie Cake (bad food, but hey… who can read labels these days) because they still believe that America still can provide something for everybody. And that’s what we’re still about. I don’t mean entitlements, neither.
Comment from Josh Hammond
Time: February 19, 2008, 5:54 pm
Groom is on a roll or role. I liked it.
Comment from Brick
Time: February 19, 2008, 8:25 pm
Well said, Mr. Lake!
Write a comment