C'mon, folks--just how gullible are you?
Suddenly, the MSM has seized on a mediagenic face and is trying like mad to convince anyone who will listen that he is a viable candidate for President in 2008. And a goodly portion of posters here are being sucked into the trap.
Let's start with the simple part: why do you suddenly think the mainstream media's recommendation for who we should run for President is likely to reflect what WE want?
More after the break.
That's right: the pundits and the corporate media want you to think that Hillary and Obama are the top choices for Democrats in 2008. And some of us seem to be buying this.
Ahem. ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?
We're talking about an election where Democrats will have to carry places like Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, Pennsylvania and New Mexico. And they're telling us our choices are HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON or A BLACK MAN?
Give me a break.
I'm in California. I've worked in progressive politics here for 20 years. And I'm telling you: neither Obama nor Hillary can carry California. Either one would carry the Bay Area, Mendocino County, Santa Cruz County, and LA County west of the mountains (but not the San Fernando Valley). That's not a majority. They would lose, basically, the voters that just reelected Arnold Schwarzenegger. And if they can't carry California, they CERTAINLY can't carry the nation.
Let me be clear: I don't like that the country is still racist and sexist. But I'm not stupid enough to pretend that it isn't. Look at what they did to Harold Ford...and the fact that it worked.
The 2008 election is for all the marbles. It will decide whether the "unitary executive" is accepted as a principle of law, shattering the separation of powers and the checks and balances of the Constitution. It will decide whether the Supreme Court is loaded with right-wing nutcases that turn the clock back to the Stone Age. It will decide whether or not the US decides to get proactive about global warming, or to be the prime mover in the coming collapse of civilization as we know it. It will decide, in short, whether America survives, both as a culture of freedom and as a population of humans.
With those stakes, it is no time to "get creative". We are being led down the primrose path by people who want us to fail.
The Democratic Presidential candidate in 2008 needs to be a white, Protestant male with military credentials. I wish these qualities didn't matter, but they do, and pretending that they do not is suicidal.
Obama, at this point, is Chauncey Gardner: a charismatic, accomplishment-free media creation. Ten years from now, maybe we can talk about his joining a national ticket. Right now, he must be told to stand down, in no uncertain terms.
So enough with the delusional romanticism of "Obama 08". Enough with it. The man is unelectable. If he's your horse, you're devoted to failure. And failure is a price the nation cannot afford to pay in 2008.