I’m in Obama’s town–Chicago. And I just drove by an old beat up car on the South side that has “Obama” emblazoned on the rear windshield.
Me, I’m a bit more skeptical these days.
Last week, I admit I was caught up in the New Yorker’s “Obama as Muslim” cover like a lot of others in the media.
But now that that’s died down, I finally got around to reading the insides of that particular issue. Wouldn’t you know the most tasteless thing wasn’t the cover but on page 89: A picture of Santa Claus apparently involved in a sex act with a woman in a red dress who did not look like Mrs. Claus.
Honest. But not a peep from the taste mongers out there.
Shows you how sexy the Obama story is these days.
I also finally read the story in that issue on Obama by Ryan Lizza which may explain why the reporter found himself bumped off the plane at the start of Obama’s trip to the Middle East.
If you are one of those somewhat disenchanted by Obama’s compromises and failures to live up to the idea that he’s such a fresh radical departure from old style politics, then the article is must reading. It reveals how Obama painstakingly used Chicago as his springboard to develop his winning political persona, networking, stepping on toes, being critical of all that is bad, while reserving the right to partake in some way in the practice. (See Tony Rezko).
They are all hallmarks of the strategy of Obama’s to become the first black man to be president of the United States, by being all things to all people, all at once.
Of course, how does it all wash when you apply standards of integrity and consistency? That has become the problem with Obama for many of his supporters.
It’s not such a bad thing that he’s making it up as he goes a long. He’s smart. He has committees of other smart folks putting words in his mouth.
No, the disappointment is felt by those on the margins, among them the young and heretofore self-disenfranchised, who really thought Obama was something new and different. Dazzled at first by his oratory, I asked my 19-year-old yesterday how enthusiastic she was for Obama.
It’s not like it was after Iowa. Now she’s not sure who she’ll vote for. She realized something the New Yorker story points out in great detail.
Obama is nothing if not a super-ambitious traditional pol.
Slimy? Maybe it’s sunscreen.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/21/080721fa_fact_lizza?yrail