So far, from this admittedly small sample — and a bigger one called the primaries and caucuses to-date — there seems to be some real concern about Obama and/or his support system that is driving people to Hillary Clinton. Or at least keeping them in her camp, despite a tsunami of endorsements and activism for The Transformative One.
All the buzz is with Barack -- including virtually the entire media spectrum (all the way down to Rush Limbaugh) and a new generation of voters — and yet HRC maintains a modest lead.
Well, Hillary has Ann Coulter, though I think it's pretty obvious that Coulter (along with the other rightwing McCain "detractors") is gaming the system to push McCain deeper to the right and to give him air cover with moderates in the general election, so they won't notice how hardcore conservative he really is.
I truly believe that Obama could be a fine candidate and president, but as of now I am gratified that his campaign of vacant groupspeak about "hope" and "change" is coming up a little short.
IMHO, he'd be a much better candidate, and one I'd avidly support (FYI, I'm voting for any Dem in Nov., so let's not go there) if this air of perfection were washed away, if every misstep were not blindly explained away. If he'd stop running on rightwing talking points, and if his supporters weren't ginning up the ol' Clinton hate and generational disrespect.
Point out Hillary's mistakes all you want, and please do, but don't pretend that there isn't an aura that projects Obama as the New Jesus, whereas Hillary has had to take her lumps.
He fuels this devotion with pleasing happy talk that washes away something else: the crimes of the Bush years. Because it's so charmingly chill to promise a pony-filled future of non-partisanship, when we damn well know that across the aisle is nothing but sharks.
As a new Hillary supporter (now that Edwards is out of the race), I freely accept her mistakes as mistakes (though there is a difference between voting for the AUMF and being a madman like Bush who will abuse the power and lie to all concerned to justify it), and I don't think she's done a good job of putting it in perspective (either as an apology or an explanation).
And finally, there's the matter of Spielberg: Hillary supporter and, perhaps not coincidentally, someone who knows that sharks, like today's Republicans, are soulless killing machines. I would have said "godless," but the GOP ran a few lights racing to the USPTO and grabbed the rights to the "God" brand, like cybersquatters snarfing up sermononthemount.com.
Spielberg's career began with a series of better-than-could-be-imagined gems. From his memorable made-for-TV turns like "LA 2017" through Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it seemed he could do no wrong.
Famous last words, eh? He flopped miserably with 1941, and then picked himself up and rattled off a couple of more masterpieces. But gradually, one surmises, "could do no wrong" catches up to an artist. It always does, doesn't it?
Who in his massive circle of talented collaborators would tell him that, say, the endings of A.I. and Minority Report were pieces of shit?
How could they? He's Steven Fucking Spielberg!
For Barack Obama to be the best Candidate Obama and President Obama he can be, someone needs to tell him when his political framing is a piece of shit.
The American public is sick to death of the Republican brand.
There is no goddamn reason for us to run as if Karl Rove and Drudge rule our world.
It seems that as this campaign rolls on, Hillary has been figuring this out. And let us note that it is she who coined the term "vast rightwing conspiracy." Even if she has deeply disappointed a lot of us by her rightwing-enabling positions, she gives little indication that she plans to give away the progressive store if and when she gets back to 1600 PA Ave. The perfect progressive? Not even close. She's pushing mandated healthcare, when single-payer would be far saner. She's compromised. Wish she weren't, but she is.
But Obama keeps signaling that he's well past compromising. He wants us to forget that there is a vast conspiracy of sharks. And I, for one, will not forget that. Because the first drop of blood in the water, and the Reagan Revolutionaries will be on our asses faster than you can say 1994 election.
Because if you didn't like what happened to Bill Clinton's mandate, a mandate won by a charismatic, post-partisan candidate, you're not going to like it much when it happens to charismatic, post-partisan Barack Obama.
So, why not tweak Obama a little? Tell him he needs a bigger boat. And, sorry, we're not talking about a love boat. We need a boat that's ready for shark-infested waters.