This is funny. Obama is clearly beyond reasonable attack, so the talking point of the Right appears to be, "his speech was conservative".
So ludicrous.
Take Andrew Sullivan, for example.
Obama struck many conservative notes: of self-reliance, of opportunity, of hard work, of an immigrant's dream, of the same standards for all of us.
Funny. I didn't realize liberals wanted government to serve their every needs. I didn't realize liberals were anti immigrants. I didn't realize that liberals didn't want the equality of opportunity. I know Sullivan is trying to square away his conservatism with the GOP's gay-hating ways, but the way to do it is not to redefine conservatism. Equality is a very LIBERAL value.
Sullivan quotes the following Obama passage as further proof of "conservative values":
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all.
How the hell is that "conservative"? What liberal has ever said that government should solve every person's problems? Build that straw man and tear it down. It's fun. It's easy. It's bullshit.
Over at NRO's "The Corner", one of the posts reads:
RIGHT SPEECH, WRONG CONVENTION [Roger Clegg]
Barack Obama gave a fine speech, but it was not a speech that reflects the current Democratic Party. It celebrated America as "a magical place"; it did not bemoan our racism and imperialism. It professed that this black man "owe[d] a debt to those who came before" him; it did not call for reparations. It spoke of an "awesome God"; it did not banish Him from public discourse. It admitted that black parents, and black culture, need to change the way black children are raised; it did not blame or even mention racism. It quoted "E pluribus unum" and translated it correctly as "Out of many, one"; it did not misquote it, as Al Gore infamously did, as "Many out of one." Most of all, the speech celebrated one America, "one people," and rejected the notion of a black America, a white America, a Latino America, and an Asian America--a notion completely foreign to the multiculturalism that now dominates the Democratic Party.
Right. Powell was booed at the RNC convention four years ago, because his speech -- pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, didn't reflect the Republican Party. This is different.
Is reparations a mainstream liberal issue? No. Is unity a conservative value? Laughable, as the Republican Party has fueled its electoral dominance via the Southern Strategy -- using race to scare white southerners to vote Republican against their economic interests -- while attempting to maintain that dominance by demonizing gays.
And funny how Clegg doesn't mention Obama's warm talk of immigration, which is yet another fault line in the GOP's divisive efforts.
But that last sentence -- that multiculturalism is somehow incompatible with unity -- is perhaps the most laughable. The notion is as absurd as thinking that men are from Mars, women are from Venus, hence affirming one's sex makes unity impossible.
Heck, it's like saying rural folk and city slickers can't both be part of a united country. Ridiculous.
As for the "Awesome God" line, there's nothing conservative about citing God (unless Republicans are ready to welcome Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson into their fold). Conservatives want to inject religion into public life. Obama doesn't. It's that simple.
The reason Obama has put the Right into a quandry is that he exposed, in one masterful performance, every caricature the Right has of liberalism. He affirmed our belief in government's ability to make life better without conjuring up images of "welfare queens". He affirmed the right every American has to believe in the god of his or her choice, or no god for that matter, without making it a public matter. He affirmed the beauty of multiculturalism, that we are more than white, black, Asian, Latino, or anything else, without feeding the fiction that we all want a balkanized country. He affirmed that unity is an American value, while dividing Americans based on sexual orientation or race is not.
In short, he lay the Right's arguments against liberalism to waste in one relatively short speech.
(Oh, and note the slam against Al Gore for a misquote. This Clegg joker likely hasn't heard his president speak, like, within the last four years or so. Fool me once ....)