Obama to hold mass rally for acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium

[The Duke]

Is it arrogant for Obama to move his speech to a larger venue so as to have a bigger crowd for the TV cameras?

It undeniably is.

There is all kinds of evidence to suggest that Obama has a massive ego, and perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence is that he ran for Presdient to begin with.  To run for President you have to believe that you should have the power of thousands of nuclear weapons at your fingertips, and that seems far more arrogant than wanting a bigger audience at your speech.  The only President of modern times who truly had no ego was Gerald Ford, and he was the only person who truly did not seek the job.

Do I wish that the enthusiasm gap were reversed and that Republicans were as excited about McCain as Democrats are about Obama?

Of course I do.

Frankly, I think the enthusiasm gap should be reversed.  John McCain is a war hero.  He is the first Presidential candidate I get to be proud to have voted for because I truly respect him as a man.  The most important thing Barack Obama has done in his political career is to get elected to things.  John McCain changed the way political campaigns are financed, he exposed and ended the corruption of Jack Abramoff and of the Boeing tanker deal, and his leadership on foreign policy saved our country from defeat in Iraq.  Tell me again why the enthusiasm gap favors Democrats?

Am I a little jealous.

No, I'm a lot jealous.

I hope it rains on the jerk.

Do I think Supersoulty is crazy?

Absolutely not.

I think he sees real comparisons between the way Bush approaches politics and the way Obama approaches politics. They both believe principle is less important than winning elections.  They both appeal to their party's base by appealing to the superficial and emotional rather than on substance.  They both approach the world in heavily religious terms that believe revelation and not inquiry is the proper mode of truth seeking.  Most dangerously, they both view history as a dramatic story in which they are chosen by destiny to play the role of hero, that they can change the world not by developing rational solutions to problems but by sheer force of will, and that change must be fundamental and revolutionary or else it is "small ball".  Supersoulty points out the various ways that the Obama story is beginning to parallel the Bush story and he is ridiculed by Obama supporters.  It reminds me of the way Bush supporters responded to attacks on their man after 9/11, frankly.  So visceral.  So emotional.  So personal.

Obama backers and Obama himself have no right to criticize anyone who says Obama is Bush's doppelganger.  After all, this is what you have been working on doing for years, is it not?  Building a Rove-DeLay style machine that could counter ours?  Isn't the whole idea that you just build a machine that can elect a Democrat President no matter what the cost?  After years of dailykos telling us their goal was to build the Democratic version of the Bush machine, you're angry that someone accuses Obama of running the Democratic version of the Bush campaign?  Please.

Besides, you have all forgotten the most important lesson of the Bush-Rove-DeLay story: It ends in failure, humiliation, and disillusionment.

[The Duke]

In reference to Soulty's last post, throwing ScarJo under the bus was my favorite part of Obama's campaign.

And the sad thing is, she probably still thinks he's an inspirational figure who will change us with the audacity of his hope.  God, there are so many people who are borderline brainwashed at this point in the campaign its getting freaky.

[The Duke]

Boris,

It probably will end that way because the circumstances upon Obama's entry will suck, but time will tell, bro.

So anything that goes wrong is Bush's fault?  Scapegoating failure already, are we?  Now there's a change I can believe in.

You say that it's okay that Obama puts politics ahead of principle because everyone does it.  You say that it's okay that he uses vague language instead of outlining concrete proposals because everyone does that, too.  But isn't part of the whole idea of the Obama campaign that he is different from other politicians?

You asked for examples of Obama thinking of the world in religious terms.  Aside from the obvious examples of religious language to arouse the crowd's subconscious ("We are the ones we've been waiting for" invokes the coming of a Christlike figure, except that in true new-age form we all get to be Jesus just like we all got to be Time's Person of the Year), there are clear examples of Obama going further, even relying heavily on the scripture to justify public policy positions (Which, as I recall, was considered very dangerous to the seperation betweenchurch and state when Bush did it.).

One example would be his use of Christianity to justify expanding the welfare state.  One of the reasons Obama said he was drawn to Trinity United Church in the first place was that, in Obama's words, "Rev. Wright's sermons spoke directly to the Social Gospel, and I found that very attractive."  In other words, God wants us to be big government liberals.

The costs associated with electing Obama that I refer to are the cost of your principles.  The whole-hearted adoption of Obama as the Great Left Hope will ultimately cost you, in the same way that conservatives adoption of Bush has cost them.  Conservatives wound up defending everything Bush did not matter how much of an affront to Bill Buckley's conservatism it was.  Liberals are already beginning to do the same.  It starts with a defense of withdrawing from the public financing system ("His fully privately financed campaign is really just a different kind of public financing!"  Sure, and eating steak for dinner is just a different way of being a vegetarian.)  But it doesn't end there.  Obama's kabuki dance on Iraq is an affront to the basic principles most liberals say they believe in.  You guys can't possibly think that this is acceptable, can you?

I also don't agree that Obama has run a clean campaign.  The attack on Clinton that he was somehow racist were despicable, and everyone should be ashamed of Obama for having done it.  Especially his supporters who thought they were getting something different and have ended up with something exactly the same.

Let me also point out this one little thing in your post:

I'm not sure if I would describe the responses in this thread as "visceral," "emotional," and "personal.

O Rly?

Given how you guys basically destroyed America over the past eight years

How could I have confused certain parts of this thread with "emotional", "visceral", or "personal" attacks?

[The Duke]

And Ford - just because some people actually like their candidate for a change does not mean they're 'brainwashed'.  Remember your man Reagan?

Not personally, no, I don't.  I was not alive when Reagan campaigned in 1980, and was one year old when he was re-elected in 1984.  I was never in a position to be "brainwashed", my Reagan experience comes entirely from the history books.