Sorry to be a party pooper, but I can't share this swooning Obama hysteria

[bijou]

Has everyone lost their marbles? The inauguration of President Obama is being treated like the Second Coming.

The coverage is so gushing we might all drown. Of course it’s a great thing that America, with its history of slavery and segregation still a shockingly recent memory, now has a black President; the palpable joy of African-Americans is entirely understandable and deeply touching. And there’s no doubt that Obama is a highly charismatic and attractive personality.

But what’s more than a wee bit troubling is that the swooning hysteria reflects the fact that people appear to believe that as of today the world will be saved. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares, peace will be brought to the Middle East, Iran will be pacified, every American will have health insurance, poverty will be eliminated and utopia will have arrived.


Sorry to be a party pooper but I’m afraid I must register a small note of dissent. It’s not just that people have projected onto the person of Obama expectations that - especially given the world financial crisis - cannot possibly be met.

I think that the desperate dangerousness and complexity of our world and a profound terror of what properly facing up to its problems would entail have led people to believe a cartoon version of why we’re in such a state - and to have invested their hopes similarly in a fantasy figure of hope, to such an extent that they have shut their ears to some very loud warning bells ringing from his past history.

People believe that Obama represents a renunciation of an America that throws its weight around the world. And they think it’s that ‘war-mongering’ characteristic, represented in particular by President Bush and the war in Iraq, which has caused so much global trouble and resentment. ...

read the rest here

Where's his track record? How many who voted for him researched his past? I'm afraid this is New Labour a la mid 1990s all over again. Peope have fallen for the romance of the notion of a man becoming a first black president. How sad that so many chose style over substance.
Click to rate     Rating   11

- Andy Russell, Worthing, 20/1/2009 14:00

The Black Messiah - I don't think so.
Another political chancer whose learnt well from Blair; all spin and no substance.
Click to rate     Rating   17

- Roger, Spain, 20/1/2009 12:57

[Lord Undies]

No thinking person who uses logic, reasoning, and good judgment is celebrating today.  Today is for the moment-minded and emotionally driven sorts who habitually run out of toilet paper before buying more.

[jinxmchue]

Today is for the moment-minded and emotionally driven sorts who habitually run out of toilet paper before buying more.

Are you a writer?  If not, you should be.  That was well and truly poetic.

[md11hydmec]

True.  I have some friends who are smart people, but, they bought into the whole O thing because, I think, they didn't like President Bush.  They would use his speeches and criticize him for not speaking well, when their main man O would be the same way-- speaks well when its on a teleprompter, but sound like a blooming idiot off prompter.

[Splashdown]

No thinking person who uses logic, reasoning, and good judgment is celebrating today.  Today is for the moment-minded and emotionally driven sorts who habitually run out of toilet paper before buying more.

Meh. There are some celebratory elements.

Today, affirmative action dies. 

Well, there's ONE celebratory element.

[Atomic Lib Smasher]

Of course, a lot of the idiots are gonna be celebrating that which they don't even know they voted for. "Oh, he's so cool!" "It'd be racist NOT to vote for him" "Doesn't Obama look bitching in those Ray Ban sunglasses?" "CHANGE!!!!!!" et al, and that's just the MEDIA!

Seriously, even watching the AFC championship game the other day, CBS (Constant Barack Suck-ups) was promoting new episodes of 2 and a half men and the new Doogie Howser show with the idiotic Obama layout and mantra. Can we 48% ers get a rest from this crap??????

[SaintLouieWoman]

as of today the world will be saved. Swords will be beaten into ploughshares

I believe they updated it today. One of the speakers said "swords will be beaten into tractors". 

[Peter3_1]

We have had a National nervous breakdown. Now, we are about to pay the price for this breakdown. I hope before God that by next election, we will be well on our way to full recovery.

I'm thinking the price we are about to pay may well be a shock cure for a major portion of our breakdown.

[docstew]

I believe they updated it today. One of the speakers said "swords will be beaten into tractors". 

i wondered what the hell that guy said...

[DumbAss Tanker]

I believe they updated it today. One of the speakers said "swords will be beaten into tractors". 

Seems like a damned inefficient way to make tractors, if you ask me.

 

[Wretched Excess]

I believe they updated it today. One of the speakers said "swords will be beaten into tractors". 

I thought he said "guns", but I caught that reference, too.   it was as though they were trying to rip off as many pieces of literature and other people's speeches as possible.

[Wretched Excess]

Seems like a damned inefficient way to make tractors, if you ask me.

 

I am sure that is at least 1.5 million of the 3 million jobs (or is it 4 million now?) he has promised;  bullet to tractor conversion factories. 

[Zeus]

"She thinks my tractor's sexy
It really turns her on
She's always staring at me
While I'm chuggin along
She likes the way it's pullin' while we're tillin' up the land
She's even kind of crazy 'bout my farmer's tan
She's the only one who really understands what gets me
She thinks my tractor's sexy "

[docstew]

Does this mean we have to say "Live by the tractor, die by the tractor"?

[Zeus]

Does this mean we have to say "Live by the tractor, die by the tractor"?

"Nothing runs like a Deere". They are green too. 

[Wretched Excess]

Does this mean we have to say "Live by the tractor, die by the tractor"?

another question is whether congress will outlaw tractors now.

[JohnnyReb]

Seems like a damned inefficient way to make tractors, if you ask me.

 

Well, what else you going to make'em out of? OSHA, EPA and the mining act closed all the iron ore mines and busted the steel mills whem Jimmy C. was in office. Bill Clinton gave China most favored nation trade status and they bought up all the scrap steel. About all that's left is the silverware Hillary didn't steal and some rusty swords.

[Eupher]

I got a '65 Chevy Impala on blocks that I'll donate......

 

[bijou]

The initial model was not a success

[Eupher]

I'll bet that thing will be running long after I'm dead........

[SaintLouieWoman]

The initial model was not a success

  Very funny, Bijou.

[Crazy Horse]

I thought he said "guns", but I caught that reference, too.   it was as though they were trying to rip off as many pieces of literature and other people's speeches as possible.

Hr said to beat "TANKS" into tractors

[docstew]

Hr said to beat "TANKS" into tractors

cuz nothing's more efficient than plowing a field with a vehicle that gets a quarter mile to the gallon of fuel, especially in fuel starved areas, or that tear up the ground simply by moving their massive weight.  tractors do neither of these things, which is one reason they are good for what they are used for.  this is why you don't have idiots make defense policy.

[Crazy Horse]

cuz nothing's more efficient than plowing a field with a vehicle that gets a quarter mile to the gallon of fuel, especially in fuel starved areas, or that tear up the ground simply by moving their massive weight.  tractors do neither of these things, which is one reason they are good for what they are used for.  this is why you don't have idiots make defense policy.

we do now

[JohnnyReb]

Hr said to beat "TANKS" into tractors

Look up some Russian bulldozers and crawler tractors.....95% of them have track systems and boogies very similar to TANKS....makes converting them to war footing easier. ....and they're basically trash for there intended civilian uses.