Born Under A Bad Sign, I’ve Been Down Since I Began To Crawl
I have no idea what Obama expects to accomplish by saying drivel like this:
Well do tell. How many people do you know who were raised in Hawaii by doting grandparents, who attended exclusive prep schools, who went to Princeton, Columbia and Harvard Law School? How many “average voters” made 4.2 million dollars last year, or $991.296 the year before? How many addressed the Democrat National Convention? How many live in a Chicago mansion? How many spend $10,000 a year on their children’s activities?
Why is he doing this? I’m not a political consultant, but the truth is that Obama will never appeal to working class Democrats because he has no idea what being “working class” means.
As for being more average than the other candidates, in one respect I suppose that is true. When Obama was living his idyllic life in Hawaii, John McCain was being tortured every day at the Hanoi Hilton because he followed his family’s tradition of service to his country.
Yeah Barry, I’m cryin’ for ya.
Well, I think ever since Abe Lincoln the great majority of candidates for high office went to much better schools and make much more money than us plain folk. And I don’t care about that, as long as they’ve researched our interests quite well and show signs of acting on them. Maybe it wasn’t one of the savviest of Obama’s sound bites, but he’s hardly alone in perhaps questionable efforts to establish some street cred (for lack of a better term). Dubya, I’m convinced, exaggerates his down-home Texas twang when after all he was a legacy Yalie who had the luxury of string-pullers keeping him away from a certain unpopular war.
And Obama and many others have duly acknowledged that McCain is a hero for what he went through. NOW YOU, qce, suspiciously title your posts with snippets of lyrics from 60s rock songs, to such an extent that I’m starting to suspect that maybe you weren’t always the paragon of respectable conservatism that this blog stands for. But I don’t mean to cast aspersions, because when I have one finger pointing at you, three others are pointing back at me
Comment by Roger Federer | May 4, 2008
After I did this post, I tried to think of the last POTUS who could be considered “working class”.
Since FDR, it seems most have made a career of politics or government service (Ike and Carter), except Truman who was a “haberdasher” before politics.
Both Bushes and Carter were businessmen before going into government. I can’t remember if Nixon had a “real” job before politics or not.
As for your claim that GWB is being “folksy” in a fake way, I don’t really see it that way—the guy goes to his ranch and chops brush for relaxation. And don’t forget—Bill Clinton also “pulled strings” to get out of going to VietNam–at least GWB made a stab at fulfilling his service obligation—Clinton did not.
But my questions for you:
1. What has Obama done to indicate he will act on his hopey/changey campaign promises?
2. Why do you think Obama does so poorly with working class voters?
As for “respectable conservatism”, I won’t go into my whole hopey/changey thing here again, but unless you are one of those who consider everyone to the right of Noam Chomsky a “conservative”, I do not fit that label.
I vote for candidates in both parties; I voted for Mr. Hopey/Changey in the primary and general when he ran for US Senate and I voted for him in the primary, but have since had second thoughts—-as have others. I’m for tax cuts, small government and a muscular foreign policy.
Also, all song lyrics are not from the 60s—how old are YOU?
Comment by qcexaminer | May 4, 2008
ROFLMAO! QCEx has been using song lyrics and titles in the majority of her posts since she started blogging!!!
There really have not been many true “man of the people” in office, other than Truman. Most, not all, Prez’ came from aristocracy or were highly successful businessmen/lawyers. Look at lineage of those make prez or even those that just run. Many of them like Bush and Kerry can trace their linage back to old school blood. All have ties to secret organizations like the Masons and Skull and Bones. And it seems that more and more of them are required to have an east coast pedigree to get the party nod from insiders. Even Agent of Shame Obama has East Coast pedigree, by proxy.
I think Bush, especially in his own mind, is exactly what he has always portrayed himself as: a shoot from the hip sheriff from the old west days out to clean-up the town/world from the bad guys. He just wrongly thought that his cowboyness would win over even the more liberal minded individuals.
Obama who portrays himself as “change” is little more than the classic blame America Liberal trying to fleece those that are moderate and conservative that he will carry out their wishes as well as the Kosocialist Masters he serves.
Comment by thescoundrel | May 4, 2008
My theory is the GWB cowboy thing is a rebellion against his patrician background—and dad!
Comment by qcexaminer | May 4, 2008
I was being tongue-in-cheek in joking about rock lyrics vs. ‘respectable conservatism’ (actually, the Grateful Dead has a conservative element in its fanbase, including Ann Coulter). But after perusing your blog a bit I didn’t think you’d take umbrage to being characterized as ‘conservative.’ To me, the term has much more moderate connotations than ‘right-wing,’ which I wouldn’t call you. But I’m probably wrong, as Coulter and other right-wing wingnuts are indeed commonly called ‘conservative’ which is big understatement to me.
And, yes, there’s some leap of faith that Obama, who I’m tentatively supporting, will act on his nice turn of phrase if elected. He’s been compared to Bobby Kennedy, but (and yes I’m old enough to remember) Bobby’s empathy for the poor and dispossessed despite his elitist background was taken as deeply sincere by such people. What did he have Obama doesn’t? But also Bobby had a lot of nuts and bolts political skill and was willing to buck the Demo establishment on occasion by embracing some ‘conservative’ bootstrap principles as rise-from-the-slums solutions.
But unfortunately Bobby’s not running this year, so I try to choose from among what’s proffered.
Comment by Roger Federer | May 4, 2008
Ahh the same Bobby Kennedy that magically morphed from McCarthyism puppet to agent of change in the late 60’s. The same Anti-Vietnam War chanting late 60’s politician that was busy with his brother JFK promoting the assasination of a sitting South Vietnam President while also helping his brother create the basic ideology for LBJ’s eventual escalation of the same war. The same Bobby Kennedy who made a name for himself chasing down mafia members, that curiously were his daddy’s Prohibition moonshining partners that double-crossed daddy Kennedy. The same Bobby Kennedy that approved the FBI secretly wire-tapping civil rights leaders like MLK for possible use against the individuals if needed. The same Bobby Kennedy that is what has been another in a long line of Charasmatic Agents of Non Change. Sorry but there is nor has there ever been anything other than power hungry politicians that run for the office of POTUS.I do not believe in political messiahs - liberal or conservative.
Comment by thescoundrel | May 4, 2008
Bobby had a lot of his own baggage to overcome. A reason I still admire him is I believe he changed, was changing. I don’t fault him for chasing down the mafia, though. That he’d do that even though some of them made his dad rich and made his brother’s election possible to me shows some character, not the lack of it. His brother may have been bought, but he wasn’t. (I’m very choosy about which Kennedys I choose to admire, by the way.)
And Bobby wasn’t ‘chanting’ anti-Vietnam war WHILE his brother was promoting the assassination of Diem. It was years later, hardly an incidental detail, as it again shows the capacity to realize where mistakes have been made. A trait that eventually even includes Robert McNamara.
But we probably don’t want to bog this blog down into THAT old quagmire.
Comment by Roger Federer | May 4, 2008
Back in the day, I was a McCarthy grrrrl, but as numerous accounts of that time have shown, (including my current read The Prince of Darkness by Bob Novak) Bobby really didn’t believe in “change” until McCarthy won the New Hampshire primary, which indicated that LBJ was vulnerable. Bobby was a good party man—until McCarthy paved the way for him to challenge the POTUS.
Bobby Kennedy always seemed like a political opportunist to me, and not some visionary or agent of change. I’m guessing a Bobby Kennedy presidency would have looked a lot like his brother’s. Not wishing death on anyone, but thank the gods we were spared!
PS: Don’t forget it was Bobby and Jack who tapped Martin Luther King, Jr.’s phone. It seems liberals don’t mind bugging domestic troublemakers—they just get hysterical when foreigner jihadists are bugged!
Comment by qcexaminer | May 4, 2008
Sorry Roger that was just some of my bad hillbilly sentence structure. I did no mean to imply Booby was antiwar when he was part of JFK’s administration. In fact I intended the sentence to say that he was as strong an advocate of the War as JFK was until it was politically expedient to be anti-war later in the decade. I do not hold either Johns or Roberts early Vietnam war stance against either one. I actually think it showed they both had backbone to stand up face-to-face with an enemy, something sadly lacking in much of the modern Democrat party. I do not even hold Roberts change of philosophy during the late 60’sagainst him, though I do not believe he was any more interested in packing up and leaving the War than Nixon was. It was a necessary political move. In reexamining history a Robert Kennedy presidency would probably have been less divisive than Nixon’s terms. Kennedy’s have traditionally been more Teflon than other politicians. Probably one of the saddest information finds of history is that if Nixon had not let his ego get him wrapped up in political suicide, he might have been able to hold off the Jane Fondanistas long enough to get the surrender of North Vietnam. Information that has since been released suggested that North Vietnam was on the brink of collapse and surrender if Nixon had continued the carpet-bombing campaign. Nixon had the right idea but it came way too late in the war. In fact I think both Robert and John were both strong leaders. I just do not hold politicians up on a pedestal. In fact I pretty much rate them as all standing in old fashioned pig pens. Politicians are all pretty much power mongers, in my estimation, even those doing the right thing at the right time. The higher up in politics they climb the bigger their egomania and power lust. It is just the nature of the beast. The only Kennedy I hold true animosity towards is Teddy. Teddy and local boy Lane Evans are the only two politicians I truly despise. The rest are just a necessary evil.
I did not know you were old enough to be a Joe McCarthy Girl QCEx! That is another interesting point in historical information. It seems that released Soviet documents have proven old Joe was very correct about the USSR infiltration of the US Communist party. But Joe went about his investigation in a manner that made himself look like the bad guy. I was not around in those days so I can only read what history has to say about old Joe and his McCarthyism trials. Whatever the real story was and is history has not taken a liking to his communist witch-hunt, even though there were some witches needing to get caught. The Kennedy Family is probably fortunate that they did not bite the bullet with him.
Comment by thescoundrel | May 5, 2008
Um, I took qce to mean she was a EUGENE McCarthy grrrl. A very different proposition.
Comment by Roger Federer | May 5, 2008
Shhh! Don’t wake her up it is after three in the morning and you don’t want to disturb her with trivialities.
Comment by thescoundrel | May 5, 2008
hee!hee! Scoundrel, I’m old, but I’m not old enough to have been a JOE McCarthy backer—I wasn’t old enough to vote for Eugene in ‘68 either, for that matter, but back in the day everyone was involved in politics, partially because of the war, but mostly because of the DRAFT!
Looking back, I now realize that Eugene McCarthy was about as electable as Joe McCarthy—but I was only a teenager then, and not the discerning adult I am now.
Comment by qcexaminer | May 5, 2008