I think I'll let the Democrats define themselves more clearly at the convention before I comment on it. But I cannot help but regard Obama's choice of Joe Biden as a blunder. Hillary must be going nuts and thinking: "How many votes did I get and how many votes did this guy get? Is this affirmative action for white males or what?" Leave aside the fact that the choice is unimaginative, uninspired, banal. It seems that Obama is going after the hoi polloi by naming one of their undistinguished number to the ticket. Sure, Joe is a jovial character, but when is the last time he had an idea? To date his best lines have been plagiarized from others. Let's just hope he doesn't begin his convention speech, "Four score and seven years ago..."
Well, it's Obama who's at the top of the ticket and it's Obama we should be focusing on. So far it sounds like Obama is running not for president of the United States but for president of the world. Obama is a globalist, and in his Berlin speech at the Brandenburg Gate Obama decalred himself a "fellow citizen of the world." I guess this means that in conflicts between our world and other worlds, Obama is decidedly on the side of Planet Earth.
Sure, there's more to Obama's argument than his platitudes. Essentially Obama has been arguing that "there is no challenge too great for a world that stands alone." The problem with this is that there are competing ideals and competing interests in the world. China would like to be a regional bully and kick around the little countries that are in its neighborhood. Russia too would like to restore some of its czarist and later Communist hegemony. How exactly does our Chicago community activist propose to change these global realities?
Obama's answer is: through the power of prose. In his stump speeches Obama has been sounding a Robert Frost note, talking a lot about walls. According to Obama, the greatest threat in today's world is not terrorism or nuclear war. Rather, the "greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another." According to Obama, the walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic, or between natives and immigrants, or between races and religions, "cannot stand."
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall," Frost wrote, and certainly we can all share the feeling. Perhaps the best example of an unloved wall is the Berlin Wall, which came down thanks to the efforts of people like Reagan, Thatcher, the Pope, Havel, Walesa and Solzhenitsyn. Yet Frost's poem ends with these striking lines: "Good fences make good neighbors." Frost's point is that the sentimental resistance to walls must be modified by the recognition of the utility and even indispensability of walls. I'm quite sure the Obamas understand the principle quite well: they would not be happy if their neighbors' kids crossed into their yard and treated it as their own. Good fences make good neighbors.
So when should walls be taken down? Consider a contemporary example. It's possible that the wall the Israelis are building is saving Israeli lives and protecing that nation's security. It's also possible that the wall is unncessary, and that it's fueling further Palestinian grievance. My point is that the correct position is going to derive from a careful analysis of the situation on the ground. Vague and lofty talk about the badness of walls isn't going to help. Yet that is precisely the level of analysis that we are getting from Barack Obama. Now will the press stop genuflecting before this man and do him--and our democracy--the dignity of critically examining his views?
Reader Comments ( Page 17 of 17)
241. aolwtf?
Clif Kuplen at 2:51PM on Aug 28th 2008
242. Is there anything at all in your head that's longer than fifteen words
thomas J gassett at 5:06AM on Aug 28th 2008
xxx
???? can you read? try 235 236 and 237.
let me guess - you're really towelie and you're stoned again, right? You're a towel! fffffft.
Clif Kuplen at 2:55PM on Aug 28th 2008
243. Good luck.
Clif Kuplen >>
When you can't wow them with wit ... bury them in bullshit.
You can spew a thousand words Clif and it means nothing. Any thinking person knows that liberals will always spend more ... your idiot muse aside.
thomas J gassett at 3:35PM on Aug 28th 2008
244. Is there anything at all in your head that's longer than fifteen words
thomas J gassett at 5:06AM on Aug 28th 2008
xxx
???? can you read? try 235 236 and 237.
let me guess - you're really towelie and you're stoned again, right? You're a towel! fffffft.
>>>
You stupid stupid boy. That fifteen words is what was left from your moronic post that I replied to. Of course a craphead like you couldn't say hello in fifteen words. You are a cut and paste troll with nothing to add but meaningless bulk, that NO ONE reads. Do you really think I would bother to wade through your nonsense spewed across this board by the ton? Then you really are stupid.
thomas J gassett at 3:40PM on Aug 28th 2008
245. Well I feel better, I said several weeks ago that if JM had 1/2 a brain he would pick SP or KBH as his running mate. I like CR too, but the Iraqi corruption has hurt her standings.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:28PM on Aug 29th 2008
246. How about that AOL straw poll? Over 200,000 votes and 63% vote for JM... Abomination is taking a fall.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:32PM on Aug 29th 2008
247. Clif post 237 - You really are a moron aren't you? With your socialist hate. If you want to be a socialist so bad, please find another country. There are so many to choose from, but do quit trying to make America a socialist republic.
Man_in_Wilderness at 12:43PM on Aug 29th 2008
248. MIW,
Are you worried about a world without walls? The way the new Republicans are going you should be worried about a world without wilderness. That means you could be losing your home!
Mokele Mbembe at 1:49PM on Aug 29th 2008
249. Mokele post 248 - actually you are right, my wilderness is being closed in. However I figure it will be done so quicker by the socialist. Either way it is bound to happen.
Man_in_Wilderness at 4:07PM on Aug 29th 2008
250. 47. Clif post 237 - You really are a moron aren't you?
xxxx
there you go again. you have a 75 word vocabulary and the mental acuity of a gerbil and I'm a moron? What's that make you, slime mold?
xxxxxxxx
With your socialist hate.
xxxxx
I'm a democrat. I do hate marxist suckups like you and and muslim fundamentalist parrots like you, but so do most patriots.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you want to be a socialist so bad, please find another country.
xxxx
This is my country, cocksucker. You and mussolini don't figure in its future.
You'd be right at home with al quaeda - they hate americans as much as you do.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There are so many to choose from, but do quit trying to make America a socialist republic.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When you renounce marxism for Bear Stearns you can have another audience, miss streisand.
Clif Kuplen at 6:34PM on Aug 29th 2008
251. ou can spew a thousand words Clif and it means nothing. Any thinking person knows that liberals will always spend more ... your idiot muse aside.
thomas J gassett at 3:35PM on Aug 28th 2008
xx
you're not a thinking person, you're an exploding turd. Your fight is not with me, it's with reality. I'm just the messenger here, and you're just the exploding turd. I hope you're not in anyone's house. Turds usually have the good sense to go out and lie in the yard.
Clif Kuplen at 6:35PM on Aug 29th 2008
252. Clif your hateful pus is amusing. You are the socialist suck-up. You are so lazy that you think the government will actually care for you. Try getting a job, and making it on your own. We do not need big brother taking care of us. You do, please find another country, you obviously don't love America.
Man_in_Wilderness at 9:46PM on Aug 29th 2008
253. Clif you are the messenger of anti-America. You really are a pathetic excuse of a decent human being.
Man_in_Wilderness at 9:49PM on Aug 29th 2008
254. The Question of the Day: Which Presidential Candidate do you think the enemies of the U.S. want as President? - Greg---http://us.imdb.com/name/nm2734923/
GregbeingFrank at 7:05AM on Aug 31st 2008