Is Barack Obama becoming the new Che Guevara?

[Keystone Phil]

no. Obama isn't a revolutionary, and he won't achieve his means through murder.

This.

My friends, I'm not saying that Obama himself is like Che. I'm saying isn't he being adored like Che has been adored. Che has become a pop culture icon and most don't know what he is truly about.

[Iosif]

I think he's the new Rick Santorum personally. Only more successful at politics and life in general.

[Keystone Phil]

I think he's the new Rick Santorum personally. Only more successful at politics and life in general.

And you probably thought that you didn't have much in common with Rick!

[Iosif]

I think he's the new Rick Santorum personally. Only more successful at politics and life in general.

And you probably thought that you didn't have much in common with Rick!

Don't be silly, I like gays.

[Jake]

This election is largely a choice between "change" and "refurbished same old stuff"...

Seriously? I'd argue this election is a choice between "modifications to the current order" and "the current order". Barack Obama mentions gay rights nowhere in his manifesto. He mentions building on top of the current for-profit health care system in his manifesto. He mentions nowhere about paying down the national debt in his manifesto.

Barack Obama is not going to fundamentally change anything about America. When he leaves office people will still rely on either their employer or the government to purchase health care for them, from insurance companies whose bottom-line depends on denying as many claims as possible. When he leaves office the national debt will have increased substantially from where it is at now. When he leaves office there will be no federal civil rights legislation ensuring that gay partners receive all the benefits straight partners do. That's not change.

I accept that maybe there's no way anyone could accomplish such tasks; however building people up on the promises of fundamental system-wide change is disengenuous.

[Keystone Phil]

I think he's the new Rick Santorum personally. Only more successful at politics and life in general.

And you probably thought that you didn't have much in common with Rick!

Don't be silly, I like gays.

...

That doesn't negate what I said. But, yeah, Rick likes gays, too. His former chief of staff is gay. He has a history of standing by gay supporters of his campaign when certain other people wanted to "out" them.

[Хahar 🤔]

more like Reagan: beloved by his party, and some take it to an excess, wanting bridges, airports, roads, and rivers named after him, and wanting to plaster his image on Mt. Rushmore, public squares,

...or JFK.

Exactly. The cult of JFK is fading off, as less and less people remember him. If we look at the Democratic presidents since, none have been able to deliver that aura:

• Johnson: Lost left over Vietnam
• Carter: Failure as President
• Clinton: Too centrist

Barack Obama, on the other hand, has some of that mystique. He's the new JFK. Note that I'm not sure I like any of this. Obama's just another center-right politician to me.

[NDN]

Obama really is the Reagan of the liberals.  Conservatives had been left a cadre of uninspiring personalities for some time, and the nation had lost its sense of pride.  Reagan tapped that, but his appeal was to a different segment of society.

Except he's running nowhere near as to the Left as Reagan did to the Right. Obama to me seems like Bill Clinton circa 1992, but with less neo-Liberal rhetoric.

[perdedor]

no. Obama isn't a revolutionary, and he won't achieve his means through murder.

This.

My friends, I'm not saying that Obama himself is like Che. I'm saying isn't he being adored like Che has been adored. Che has become a pop culture icon and most don't know what he is truly about.

I think that idea is equally preposterous. You're comparing a grassroots campaign for the presidency to a marketing campaign directed towards rebellious adolescents who have the urge to piss off their parents.

[??????????]

When he leaves office people will still rely on either their employer or the government to purchase health care for them,

Lets hope you're right on that!

[Keystone Phil]

marketing campaign directed towards rebellious adolescents who have the urge to piss off their parents.

A Presidential campaign that has energized the youth as much as this one has can't be similar to that marketing campaign?

At least we can have a civil disagreement on those grounds. I just don't appreciate being accused of calling Obama himself a new Che or that all or most of his supporters are revolutionary Communists.

[Jacobtm]

Has Obama ever advocated/used violence to achieve his political goals?

[??????????]

Has Obama ever advocated/used violence to achieve his political goals?

Publicly, no. Among his surrogates, unsure. I don't trust him enough to say he's above that.

[Keystone Phil]

Has Obama ever advocated/used violence to achieve his political goals?

Did you even read the first post?

[specific_name]

I know exactly what you mean Phil, but I think you could have chosen a less divisive analogy. You have to put a disclaimer on this just to say "No I don't mean like a radical communist, I mean he's like vanilla coke." But then you would have been accused of racism. Maybe ipods would have been better fcuk I don't know.

I'd just let it rest. We all know that these campaigns have more in common with marketing than anything else.

[Bacon King]

I don't really see it. I'd say he could be the new Reagan though, yeah. Note that I don't consider that a good thing.

[Tender Branson]

No, this position is already taken by Austrian Right-Winger H.C. Strache:





(Thx god the election is already over, I hate to advertise for the Austrian Fascist Party ... )

[phk]

No, this position is already taken by Austrian Right-Winger H.C. Strache:





(Thx god the election is already over, I hate to advertise for the Austrian Fascist Party ... )

Now that is cool.

Where can you buy that shirt?

[Robespierre's Jaw]

No.

Obama's cult of personality will fade off as soon as he becomes President of the United States (yes, I'm joining many of you and finally calling the election for Obama, don't know what took me so long). His hardcore supporters, inclusive of a lot of his African-American supporters will soon release, probably within six to twelve months into his presidency, that despite his charismatic appeal, which won over a lot of support during both the primaries and soon-to-be the general election, that Obama is a traditional centre-right politician, with his added bonus of his charismatic appeal.

Thus, I find it safe to say that in 2012, that a lot of his voters, who voted for Obama based on his charismatic appeal, would finally read between the lines and release that Obama is like a traditional centre-right politician, as mentioned previously. If Barack Obama is to become like any past political hero it will more than likely be Ronald Wilson Reagan. And that's not a good thing.

[Meeker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEQz5dltmI

What I would give to see Phil's face as he watches this...

[cp]

But, yeah, Rick likes gays, too.

Gee, he's got a funny way of showing it:

 - Voting to prohibit same-sex marriage:
(Bill HR 3396 ; vote number 1996-280  on Sep 10, 1996)

- Opposing prohibition of job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation - a wonderful gesture to all those gays who worked for him that he 'stood up for':
(Employment Non-Discrimination Act; Bill S. 2056 ; vote number 1996-281  on Sep 10, 1996)

- Opposing expanding hate crime legislation to include sexual orientation:
(Bill S.2549 ; vote number 2000-136  on Jun 20, 2000)

- Supporting a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage:
(Marriage Protection Amendment; Bill S. J. Res. 1 ; vote number 2006-163  on Jun 7, 2006)

- Equating same-sex marriage to 9/11:
“This is an issue just like 9-11, we didn't decide we wanted to fight the war on terrorism because we wanted to. It was brought to us. And if not now, when? When the supreme courts in all the other states have succumbed to the Massachusetts version of the law?"

- Lying (or at least being profoundly ignorant) about homosexual coupling in history:
"In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality"

(For the record, dozens of civilizations throughout history, from Ancient Rome to Medieval Europe, to Mughal India, to modern Europe and the U.S. have embraced same-sex relationships and accorded them full matrimonial rights)

- And let's not forget his asinine statements equating homosexual acts to bigamy, incest, etc.:
 "if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery"

(I am aware he's commenting on the case itself, but he chose to phrase his criticism that way, and only that way, when given the chance)

Rick Santorum may have a passing toleration of gays who work for him (not exactly an unbiased source, by the way) and, Phil, you may have seen another side to him. But those things don't hold up under the withering reality of Santorum's record. His position on homosexuality with be remembered as one of clueless bigotry which contributed, in part, to his well-deserved electoral humiliation in 2006.

[AkSaber]

Hmmm. I think in one aspect, their situations are sorta similar. It's kinda like that Obama will confront "The Establishment" and stop them from ruining the country. Basically, the problems the Republicans and conservatives have created or haven't bothered to fix, they're "The Man." And the Senator is seen as the man who'll show these dopes what's what.

Just what I think.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This election is largely a choice between "change" and "refurbished same old stuff"...

Seriously? I'd argue this election is a choice between "modifications to the current order" and "the current order". Barack Obama mentions gay rights nowhere in his manifesto. He mentions building on top of the current for-profit health care system in his manifesto. He mentions nowhere about paying down the national debt in his manifesto.

Barack Obama is not going to fundamentally change anything about America. When he leaves office people will still rely on either their employer or the government to purchase health care for them, from insurance companies whose bottom-line depends on denying as many claims as possible. When he leaves office the national debt will have increased substantially from where it is at now. When he leaves office there will be no federal civil rights legislation ensuring that gay partners receive all the benefits straight partners do. That's not change.

I accept that maybe there's no way anyone could accomplish such tasks; however building people up on the promises of fundamental system-wide change is disengenuous.

Always nice to see someone, aha, "getting it".

[JSojourner]

YES!

Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the Senate.  Joe Biden is the second most liberal member of the Senate.  These guys make Bernie Sanders look downright conservative.  And we thought that book-reading, French-looking John Kerry was liberal?  We ain't seen nothing yet.

I am sure that in the first six months of the Obama-Biden administration, we will see the following...

1.   The Bible banned nationally as hate speech.
2.   U.S. troops ordered to unilaterally surrender to the insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban/Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.
3.   Operations of the U.S. military handed over to the United Nations.  And mostly, the French.
4.   Kindergarteners encouraged to try anal sex.
5.   Crack made legal.

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Collective farms, summary executions, forced abortion and Islam being made the official religion of the US (or Wicca, perhaps)....that's all a year or so out.

[exopolitician]

YES!

Barack Obama is the most liberal member of the Senate.  Joe Biden is the second most liberal member of the Senate.  These guys make Bernie Sanders look downright conservative.  And we thought that book-reading, French-looking John Kerry was liberal?  We ain't seen nothing yet.

I am sure that in the first six months of the Obama-Biden administration, we will see the following...

1.   The Bible banned nationally as hate speech.
2.   U.S. troops ordered to unilaterally surrender to the insurgents in Iraq and the Taliban/Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.
3.   Operations of the U.S. military handed over to the United Nations.  And mostly, the French.
4.   Kindergarteners encouraged to try anal sex.
5.   Crack made legal.

Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Collective farms, summary executions, forced abortion and Islam being made the official religion of the US (or Wicca, perhaps)....that's all a year or so out.

lol!