OBAMA'S TRAGIC FLAW: REALITY
By Geoff Metcalf
July 8, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Preaching to the choir is easy. Both Democrats and Republicans do it…almost as much as Libertarians. Traditionally a chronic menu of red meat (or tofu) is used to win the party nomination.
•
GOP primary candidates focus on God, Guns, and Abortion.
• Dem primary candidates cling to the gospel
of the 60’s and anti-war, anti-‘them’ rhetoric.
• However, eventually both strident opponents
have to deal with the annoying empirical reality that ‘most’
Americans do not subscribe to the fundamentalist dogma of either the
left or right.
Barack Obama, who has been reiterating the “change” refrain like a minister calling for an “Amen!” is now amending and revising his doctrine…kinda/sorta. And the sycophant faithful who embraced the certitude of their rock star candidate don’t like that change is subject to change. Once again, words apparently do have meaning…
The New Barack Obama:
1.
Iraq may take longer?
2. Pro Gun
3. Pro Religion
4. Pro Death Penalty
5. Pro expanding eavesdropping programs
6. Anti-public campaign funding
Once upon a time, Bil Gilbert wrote (about John Audubon, the bird guy), “Audubon biographers and scholars [have noted], by various euphemisms, that all great men have their flaws, and their man’s principal flaw was that he, well, he lied a lot.”
So Obama is in good company with Audubon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and yes, equal numbers of republicans.
"There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the national Republican Party.
That is to be expected from a GOP party operative, but when I asked a gay, liberal, democrat, grass roots, guerrilla in San Francisco about the Barack flip-flopping, the response was both inimitably critical and unprintable in most venues beyond HBO scripts.
Despite his remarkable success is packaging and selling the form of his candidacy, that annoying substance thing threatens to undermine, abrogate and morph “change” into “flip-flop.” Ouch!
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Routinely, candidates of all stripes use the General election campaign to tweak their messages for broader appeal and acceptability. It may be smarmy, but frankly, it is not such a bad thing (except for the fact it reveals the duplicity of the primary spitting matches).
Sen. McCain has made a career out of eschewing the partisan gospel and frankly has been running for the General election from the jump. Republicans who don’t like his moderate RINO (Republican in Name Only) views will hold their noses and support the party nominee as the lesser of available evils. However, Obama has been accenting positions that are flat out abhorrent to his legions on the left on several issues.
•
On Iraq, Obama now says his upcoming trip might lead
him to refine (amend, change, dump) his promise to quickly remove U.S.
troops.
• He suddenly supports broader government authority
for eavesdropping program
• And legal immunity for telecommunications
companies that cooperated with Bush eavesdropping policy.
• Obama became the first major-party candidate
to reject public financing for the general election
in the wake of his earlier promises to accept it.
• Both ways on gun control.
