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 4 of 17)
46. If McCain is elected, could he even raise his arm to take the oath?
Just askin...
Drill Drill Drill Bomb Bomb Bomb Drill Drill Drill My Friends at 3:20PM on Aug 26th 2008
47. Obama's philosophy does not ring true though with the relativistic position the left has taken over the course of the past 2-3 decades.
xxx
for the past 28 years, the 'left' has not had enough power to take any position. Relativism in american politics is the product of corporatism. That's why your party has no stated platform except Obama's a muslim.
Bringing America back around to Americanism must begin with enforcement of Sherman and Clayton. Get that done, and the rest will follow. It's not new law, just enforcement of the laws that saved us from despotism before our nation was perverted from democratic ideals in 1980.
Clif Kuplen at 3:22PM on Aug 26th 2008
48. 46. If McCain is elected, could he even raise his arm to take the oath?
Just askin...
Drill Drill Drill Bomb Bomb Bomb Drill Drill Drill My Friends at 3:20PM on Aug 26th 2008
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I was wondering who has the job of brushing his teeth in the morning? Or does he just leave them in a glass on the nightstand at night?
And can he even *wipe* properly?
Eeeeeyyyyyeeeewwww....... Stop it, my imagination, stop it!
Saint Brian the Godless at 4:11PM on Aug 26th 2008
49. Now will the press stop genuflecting before this man and do him--and our democracy--the dignity of critically examining his views? -DoubleD'umb
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This is so true... about McCain. The press has been way too kind to him. He's been hiding behind "I was a POW for five and a half years!" as if that deflects all criticism. There's a LOT in his past that if everyone knew about it, he'd lose the election in a landslide. And the teflon shield is cracking even as we "speak!" People are starting to turn their attention to *him* now, and there's a lot there to dislike.
Saint Brian the Godless at 4:23PM on Aug 26th 2008
50. I was wondering who has the job of brushing his teeth in the morning?
xx
there was a song about that
I wake up in the mornin get you something to eat
Before I go to work I even brush your teeth
Come home in the evenin' find you layin' in bed
You got a rag tied round your head
so you're saying the gray dude's shiftless and lazy? could be...
Clif Kuplen at 4:34PM on Aug 26th 2008
51. SBG @ 48; I do have a sense of humor and the *can he even wipe* visual is funnnnnnny.
fanman at 4:45PM on Aug 26th 2008
52. The Power of Prose
Ironic that a man who makes his living and sews his discontents with words should stoop to trying to minimize their impact.
I suppose after almost 8 years of Bushism's we can be forgiven for having a hard time remembering the power of prose to unite, invigorate and energize the nation. "Ask not what your nation can do for you" - a rallying cry for a generation of people who went out into the world to make it better. "Nothing to fear but fear itself", when a nation was reeling from economic disaster. "We do these things not because they are easy.." was the launch point for the moon shot. And on and on over more than 200 years.
Words can heal or harm. Elevate intellect or drive us into ignorance. Make us bold or cause us to cower in the shadows. The neocons have taken the later approach for far too long. Me, I'd welcome the positive power of prose to make us want to be a far better version of ourselves than is apparent today.
Pliny-the-in-between at 5:05PM on Aug 26th 2008
53. "Being There" staring Peter Sellers is getting closer to reality. We maybe electing the gardner in November on two words of change and better.
Rich at 6:11PM on Aug 26th 2008
54. We cannot help that some peoples' myopic percetion will not allow them to see the big picture.Nor the fact that if one is biased enough, his understanding of intelligent discourse may be so clouded by prejudice that he misses the point. Also, there is an adage that goes thus: " A word is enough for the wise." But I guess if you are dumb no number of words will ever be enough. So, it is with the author of this article that he cherry-picked on Obama's discourse and worked extra hard to understand it in a way and manner that is contrary to what the rest of us with a little common sense got out of it. And the argument that the Vp choice should be based on the number of votes each candidate garnered is absurd, to say the least. I will suggest to the author that he pass his good advice on to McBush before he picks his vp. As far as Obama is concerned, a goob majority of us believe he made the right choice because Biden provides some degree of balance to the ticket, and proves that Obama will run a merit based government rather than the cronyism seen in the Bush administration.
Dbren at 6:27PM on Aug 26th 2008
55. Yeah, isn't it great? Can you think of two better words for this country right now? Change and Better... Way to go, Obama! Finally someone with a message rather than a "massage."
Saint Brian the Godless at 6:31PM on Aug 26th 2008
56. As usual the Bilderberger group decides who they think should run as the VP. As citizens of the USA we all should be ALARMED Read this
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=bilderberg+%26+joe+biden&spell=1
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3395
Dave at 6:34PM on Aug 26th 2008
57. Peter & Paul12:13PMJul 23rd 2008
Losers always look for someone else beside themselves to blame for their failings. Criticize the media; it can't be the lack of McCain's intellect?
Actually the less press coverage McCain receives the better for him. When people keep hearing him repeat himself continually then grin and say MY FRIENDS they cringe. It is actually painful to listen to his speeches.
Dbren at 6:36PM on Aug 26th 2008
58. Pliny, your post calls for a refresher on Bushisms. I read these and laugh, but then grow disgusted. Surely we can do better in choosing a leader of our country.
1. "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy, but that could change."
2. "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any governer, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'"
3. "Republicans understand the importance of bondage between mother and child."
4. "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
5. "The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."
6. "If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for, then I'm for it."
7. "I have made good judgements in the past. I have made good judgements in the future."
8. "The future will be better tomorrow."
9. "We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe, we are a part of Europe."
10. "A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
11. "We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
12. "For NASA, space is still a high priority."
13. "It isn't pollution that's harming the enviornment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
14. "It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
If you want more, just google Bushisms. It should scare the pants off every one of us. Why was this man given the keys to the country????
Jude at 6:39PM on Aug 26th 2008
59. After all the speeches, debates and advertising it will all boil down to experience, character and policies and one person is way ahead of the other.
Rich at 6:49PM on Aug 26th 2008
60. "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense..."
Dwight D. Eisenhower before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
34th president (Republican 1953-1961) of the U.S. (1890-1969)
DD You should pay more close attention to this great 34th Presidents way of thinking about "War" even though he was a General in the US Army. Barack Obama does not want a conflict if we can avoid it for the same reasons as in the quote. While McCain, a low ranking officer during the Vietnam era is a trigger happy man. I respect him for his sacrifices but I do not think he comprehends the enormous sacrifices the ordinary people are making because of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also is so wealthy now that he is totally out of touch with the regular Americans.
Ray
R Shanker at 6:52PM on Aug 26th 2008