Barack Obama has gone back on his word, Barack Obama is a hypocrite... I couldn't be happier. With Obama turning down public financing, idealist can be heard saying, "Obama promised 'a new kind of politics.'" Well, let him get to that once he's in office.
As for myself, when I heard the news that Senator Obama had done what I'd hoped he'd do, I went to my window and – to paraphrase Howard Beale - yelled out, "I'm pleased as hell that Democrats aren't going to take it anymore!" After Swiftboating, Karl Rove, Willie Horton, Lee Atwater – take it all the way back to Richard Nixon's upside-down, inside-out, "Bring Us Together," I'm thrilled to have a candidate who is a bit more Machiavelli and a little less moralist. Even much less a moralist. This is what the Bush administration has brought me to: "By any means necessary."
And - comfort for the idealists - Obama is practicing a "new kind of politics" – relative to the norm – in the tone of his campaigns. But – campaign realpolitik - that only makes the demand for truckloads of cash all the more essential. If Obama refuses to run 3 A.M style ads against McCain he'll need to spend every penny of $270 million. And, when McCain's allies come up with something that makes the Reverend Wright attacks seems quaint in comparison, he'll need a double that to defend himself. In short, every dollar spent being depraved equals three dollars spent being a "candidate for change."
Truth is, if what's necessary to win in November is some outright cheating, I'd be all for that, too. Maybe the ghosts of "Landslide Lyndon" and the Kennedy brothers will help out by stuffing ballot boxes in Texas and fixing vote totals in Chicago.
I don't mean it. I exaggerate... maybe. I'm not sure. To paraphrase Joseph Welch talking to Joe McCarthy, maybe not until this moment have I gauged the full extent of my recklessness and - at long last - I have no decency.
If so I - we - need only remember Florida in 2000. "We should move on." We have – too much. The election was stolen by a method so without precedent, so brazen, and confronting it was so unlikely to offer closure, let alone success, that even those who were horrified quickly turned the page. Forget the math, the hanging chads, the votes for Buchanan/ Gore, that sort of flim-flam Johnson and the Kennedys would have applauded. But in 2000 the Supreme Court sat in for Boss Tweed. That transgression alone easily justifies, to my thinking, the slight skullduggery of Obama's decision. The consequences of four years of John McCain in the White House? To my mind, that justifies even greater Machiavellian derring-do. If need be, let's get down in the mud.
Finally, I have heard the goofy idea that he – Obama - is "trying to buy the White House." The operative word is "he." Michael Bloomberg, Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, John Corzine are "he"s who opened up their checkbooks and tried – sometimes successfully – to buy an office. If the Obama campaign funds – however obscenely huge they hopefully grow - successfully brings a victory in November, it will be a "them" – millions of contributors opening up their checkbooks – who got the job done.
Jonathan Leigh Solomon is a (retired) stand-up comedian who appeared regularly on "Late Night with David Letterman" and the "Late Show with David Letterman," co-hosted the MTV morning show, "Awake On the Wild Side," was the host of the late, great, sorely missed NBC children's program, "Kid's TV," and the star and co-creator of the not so greatly missed Fox sit-com "Bachelor Life." Among the television shows Jonathan has written for are Michael Moore's "TV Nation" and "Mad About You." In 2000, as a member of Vice-President Gore's press pool, he covered the presidential race for Politics.Com, filing his column "Solomon Wises to the Occasion" and appearing regularly as a featured guest on political talk-show programs offering fact-filled punditry. In his spare time, Jonathan continues his work as history's greatest political consultant. He wrote, "Our long national nightmare is over," for Gerald R. Ford. Prior to consulting with Jonathan, Ford had been planning to go with, "Wow, I'm president! Can you believe it?! Me! Gerry Ford! Wow!!! Now who do I gotta' pardon to keep this gig?"
Your most correct when it comes to wondering what it is McCain will come up with. Wright might be old news or might be brought back into the news, but I'll also bet they've got something else up their sleeve or they are looking for it. FB
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Fred Bogart (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 6:57:16 PM
I know exactly what it will be and it won't be a completely new fact: They 'll drag out the guys he did a line of blow with and the guys played basketball and a girl he might of, but didn't, hit on at a party in 1982 and they will be a "Swiftboat" collection and their only goal will be to remind the voters that Obama is black. He's not one of us! That might do it. It worked with Harold Ford (Harold, "call me!") and a long list of other candidates.
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Bill Bressen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 6 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 7:04:15 PM
...I'm not going to get hung up on semantics and linguistic sleight of hand any longer. The territory is not the map and the territory is clearly Germany circa 1937 and leaning into 1939. The Mossad is killing spooks and Palestinians in Texas, for crying out loud, and trying to plan a martial-law inducing event in Houston.
Some may think we hanged too many at Nuremberg, but I think it's clear that we did not hang enough. Too many escaped and too many have infected the rest of us. Once one side of the argument starts using Machiavellianism and the Tragedy of the Commons, everyone else gets sucked into tit-for-tat.
I'll bet Joe Wilson knows what "tat" is. I wish he'd share.
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Richard Volaar (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 80 diaries, 260 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 9:38:48 PM
HOW DID OBAMA GET TO BECOME A FRONT RUNNER? DON;T ASK WE THE PEOPLE WE DON'T KNOW, ASK THE GLOBAL ELITE THEY KNOW, EVERYBODY IS GRABBING FOR STRAWS, BUT THE TRUTH IS THIS SHIP IS SINKING AND THE HOLES ARE TO BIG TO PATCH, THE BOTTOM LINE WE HAVE NO PEOPLES CANDIDATE TO PICK FROM, AND WE ALL HOPE OBAMA IS THE HERO ON THE BIG WHITE HORSE THAT WILL FIX EVERYTHING. BUT DO YOU THINK OUR FOR FATHERS BUILD THIS REPUBLIC WITH HOPE . DON'T THINK SO.
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RICH SHA (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 106 comments)
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 2:56:55 AM
First off, as for what the McCain-ites will drag out, they've already got this guy Larry Sinclair. Obama is gay, is the idea. But actually, my guess is that they'll continue to be no traction there. Bill, you are right - the race issue is where the battle will be waged. And, it won't just be "he's not one of us." It will be, "he's uppity." And by the way... I have no idea what Volaar is trying to say. As for above, I don't have much faith in Obama once he's in office, but it's like Gore Vs. Bush - same poison, but after 8 years we see what a difference even a very imperfect choice would have made. McCain Vs. Obama same danger, same necessary compromise.
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Gabriel Goodman (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 4 comments)
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 3:05:54 AM
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