“From Milk Toast Internationalist to Brave McCain-Like Warrior. . . In under 24 hours.”
By LisaB on August 10, 2008 at 2:25 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs
1) Kudos to Gateway Pundit for my title. That is how Gateway Pundit characterized Obama’s switch on the Georgia / Russia crisis.
Reuters has Obama’s flip flop on the Georgia / Russia conflict.
“I condemn Russia’s aggressive actions and reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire,” Obama said in a statement.
“Russia must stop its bombing campaign, cease flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and withdraw its ground forces from Georgia.”
Here at NQ, Larry did a great piece about Obama’s initial statement and how weak it was.
PatRacimora informs me Obama got his courage medal recently. That would explain it.
2) The Telegraph in the UK offers its list of Best Obama Jokes in an article about how the public may be tiring of All Obama All the Time.
BEST OBAMA JOKES
Craig Ferguson: “Barack Obama was in Germany” today, and “he did this speech and 100,000 people showed up. There were so many Germans shouting and screaming that France…surrendered just in case.”Jimmy Kimmel: “They really love Barack Obama in Germany. He’s like a rock star over there. Impressive until you realize that David Hasselhoff is also like a rock star over there.”
David Letterman: Signs Barack Obama Is Overconfident.
Proposed bill to change Oklahoma to ‘Oklabama.’
Offered Bush 20 bucks for the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner.
Asked guy at Staples, ‘Which chair will work best in an oval-shaped office?’
Having head measured for Mount Rushmore.
Offered McCain a job in gift shop at Obama Presidential Library.Jay Leno: “Of course, Obama’s supporters got him his usual birthday gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”
Jay Leno: “Obama’s people are trying to portray McCain as cranky, and McCain is trying to portray Obama as arrogant, you see. And when Obama was asked what he thought about being called arrogant, well, he said he was ‘above having to answer that question.’”
Jay Leno: “See Barack Obama on the news? He’s becoming a workout fanatic. He’s at the gym, like, twice a day, sometimes three times a day at the gym, yeah, according to his staff. Well, he has to stay in shape to do those flip-flops.”
Jay Leno: “Barack Obama back from his big European tour. Did you see him in Europe? People were cheering him, holding up signs, blowing him kisses. And that was just the American media covering the story.”
3) Meanwhile, back in the trenches, the LATimes publishes a wet kiss to Obama. This piece tries to turn the Obama = celebrity theme into a positive. Hey, movies are the highest form of myth, right?
It is axiomatic that the more powerful the theme a star embodies, the more powerful his or her stardom. Obama’s theme is a potent one. Whether one buys into it or not, he promises to cross divides — political, ideological, racial, geographic — and to transcend the old politics of fear and hate that has commandeered recent elections. He believes that America can — and should — be the moral beacon for the world by returning to its core values. In analyzing his own appeal, Obama says he has become a symbol — which, again, is exactly what all stars are. He is providing a really good, uplifting movie.
OK, maybe this is really a wet kiss for the movie industry. Either way, blech. It is really vacuous.
4) The WaPo has an article today about how Obama’s message has changed from a post-partisan theme back in 2004 to whatever it is today. I hoped the writer would address the schisms in the Democratic Party, but that NEVER SURFACED. WTH? Anyway, it’s not a terribly interesting piece. I read it so you wouldn’t have to.
5) The London Times published a piece by Andrew Sullivan that had an interesting point (I know, I know). Sullivan talks about how the race between Obama and McCain is shaping up and the fact that it is so close when Democrats across the board are doing much better. He says that cautious Democratic voters have some pause about “going all the way.”
The choice has evolved to that between an all-Democratic government, headed by a senator whose newness is still one of the most striking things about him, and an old, familiar warhorse who irritated all the right Republicans at one point or another and has a record of bipartisan achievement. Seen in that light, the voters’ reluctance to swing behind Obama in landslide numbers is understandable.
Several folks at NQ have used this vary argument as a justification for switching to McCain. Maybe Sullivan reads NQ?
6) Another good piece speculating about how race is playing out in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. After briefly rehashing the “racial Kabuki” the McCain and Obama campaigns have engaged in, the author has this to say:
THIS Kabuki invites the question: What is Obama’s rationale?
It’s racial politics, and goes like this: Because I’m a minority, you can’t use race but I can. If you do, I’ll zap you. And if you don’t and I do and you call me on it, I’ll zap you for even suggesting I’m playing racial games.
But racial politics is loaded with risk.
Obama needs to maximize minority turnout while pulling enough white votes to win. Yet the polls in this campaign are all over the place, meaning there’s no telling how Obama’s racial games will play out.
It ends with this:
Obama’s shameless playing of the race card — his combining of race with liberal ideology — might prove his undoing in what remains a deeply conservative culture. It raises profound questions about his judgment and leadership, and may leave him in voters’ minds precisely the inexperienced, insubstantial, immature celebrity of John McCain’s description.
7) Yet another WaPo story about how the election is going. This article says that things will really heat up after the conventions, but does not talk about anything other than the campaigns’ talking points. Yawn. It does say that polls are pretty meaningless at this point. Yawn again.
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By Sarah Palin (Release date: November 17. 2009)
I found this one interesting — about how Obama’s tax plan is a disaster for the deficit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/09/AR2008080901860.html
A taxpayer’s vote to Obamaflop
is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.
computer glitch — my comment should start “I found this one interesting –”
It’s a long article, but it’s example of Obama fakery. And this is from a liberal newspaper.
HAHAhaha @ Leno! I had no idea.
I think I’ll start watching him more often.
and CRAIG’s was the BEST for sure!!
dang ya think people are no longer afraid of the Bambi-bots?
That must be why some of them are snapping! “pop, pop, crackle, snap (insert insult here) and did I mention you are a racist!”
yawn
Remember this joke? Obama says “I’ve campaigned in all 57 states. UHHH 56 states I have one to go.”
I made the connection of the 57 states.
Cosrsi, who wrote an Anti-Obama best seller just out August 1st said on a radio show, “There are 57 Islamic countries that are terrorist supporters. 57 Islamic countries out of over 100 Islamic countries that are terrorist supporters.” {{{{{{creepy}}}}}}
iirc - After Obama’s initial Russia-Georgia statement, a DK front pager asserted McCain mainly targeted Russia because a McCain adviser is a lobbyist for Georgia.
Obamabots continue making excuses for THE ONE.
Politico covered that, too. Outrageous. Obama at one time co-sponsored legislation admitting Georgia into NATO, but he makes a namby pamby statement about the Russian attack, so he seems like a pacifist to the poor fools who still think he’ll immediately pull all US troops out of Iraq. When McCain calls him on this, he says McCain defended Georgia because his foreign policy adviser once lobbied for that country. That has nothing to do with the issue at hand; it’s merely a politically motivated cheap shot.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=781576
Apparently, Russ Feingold (Liberal-WI) did not get Obama’s memo. He says McCain is a true maverick, and while he supports Obama
And remember that temper accusation?
Hillary is #1
Who’s the 2nd best choice?
Looks like Russ is also going to vote for Maccain. Maybe that’s why after the FISA vote (Obama was for, he was against), he said something like: “Obama had to vote for FISA so that he can change it when he’s president”. Is it possible that he was being sarcastic?
Obama is starting to sound bitter. What is he clinging to?
a dream
(chuckle)
A birth certificate with the “wrong” name on it?
Good article Lisa….and accurate.
My favorites of the jokes are #1…Ferguson is a classic. and the last Leno joke about the MSM coddling their favorite porn star…chuckle….Of Course Letterman’s Top 10 is in a class all it’s own….imho….thanks.
Obama partisans block Clinton faction bid to end caucuses
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
8:55 PM CDT, August 9, 2008
PITTSBURGH - Hillary Rodham Clinton loyalists tried Saturday to kill off the caucus system that proved so damaging to her presidential bid, but were beaten back by a Democratic Party leadership firmly under the command of Barack Obama.
snip
*But the party’s platform committee refused to allow the amendment to come up for a vote or even a discussion.*
CONTINUED -
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-080908-caucus-clinton-obama,0,3234587.story
Clinton Campaign: Obama Is Not “Fundamentally American In His Thinking And In His Values.”
Turns out Hillary’s campaign had a strategy that would have killed Obama’s fledgling campaign in its crib but didn’t use it in time.
Pay attention Johnny Mac. You are the last line of defense.
More http://patriotroom.com/?p=1074
Kudos to Hillary for not going there. Anyone who thinks the Clintons used coded language to campaign against Obama and make whites uneasy was wrong and out of line to even suggest it.
Maureen Dowd has a good column on Edward today.
It looks like his floozie has a notorious past.
Maureen Dowd is a piece of shit. She’s jealous of every “other woman” under the sun.
I feel sorry for Elizabeth and John’s a judgmental ass, but it’s a common failing and he will pay a big price.
Picking on the other woman is right up Odowdy’s bitter alley.
I didn’t expect the other woman to be a saint if she was hosing a sick woman’s hubby.
It’s no secret that the woman was crazy and a cokehead.
That makes it even WORSE for Edwards. Who does he think he is, a 21st Century Jefferson?
Remember, the guy with the “power” was Edwards, not the “floozie.”
I’d respect Edwards SLIGHTLY more if he was schtuping a woman of a certain income and renown, with equal or greater clout than he. Then it wouldn’t look like a Master-Servant banging.
He didn’t help himself in that interview, either. He couldn’t help mentioning that he’s not the only one.
Of course, his commentary about Bill Clinton’s little trouble with Monica was something to hear at the time–he ripped Bill a new asshole. Wonder if Bill will stand up and comment on JE’s hypocrisy?
http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/john_edwards_in_1999
Another Obama joke.
Working people frequently ask retired people what we do to make our days
interesting.
Well, for example, the other day I went downtown to go to the News Stand
for the Wall Street Journal so I could track my investments. I was only
in there for about 5 minutes.
When I came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. I said to
him, ‘Come on, man, don’t you have anything better to do than do than
write a retired person a ticket? Why aren’t you out chasing crooks or
child molesters…that’s out of your league, obviously!!!
He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.
I called him a ‘Nazi.’ He glared at me and wrote another ticket for
having worn tires. So I called him ‘Barney Fife’. He finished the
second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he
wrote a third ticket.
This went on about 20 minutes. The more I abused him, the more tickets
he wrote. Personally, I didn’t care…I came downtown on the bus.
The car that he was putting the tickets on had a bumper sticker that
said ‘OBAMA’ in 08. I try to have a little fun each day now that I’m
retired.
It’s important to my health.
Love it
LMAO
Good one Bert, Everyone needs a good laugh.
ATTENTION: Must share this with you guys
live inside of the Russia and Georgia War
Go here: http://www.channelchooser.com/
Click News (for you guys who have been here)
Then select Russia Today
Cool site….Thanks!
Where are the bots today? Birth certificate got them down?
They are exhausted from doing damage control from the other post Obama’s Impending Pearl Harbor ( http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/09/obamas-impending-pearl-harbor). Their lives are getting harder and harder trying to keep the faith in their Messiah and his jihad. They’ll pop back here soon once they’ve gotten their enema infusion of hopium from their handlers.
With every Gold AMerica wins in the Olympics, Mccain poll numbers wil increase. It’s all about patriotism and American values. EVerytime, the national anthem is sung, mcccain numbers will improve. Similarly, the story of Mccain courage as POW will resonate with American people. On the other hand, seeing that awefull footage of Obama’s pastor cussing America and using his church to spew hate will not go over well. Obama showed lack of courage when he stayed in that chucrh for 20 yrs just for political gains. . In times of crisis, America needs true patriots and people of courage. Anyone who cannot condemn an unrepentant domestic terrorist is no friend of America.
Mccain initial statement was very clear and firm. Had the western world and Obama been firm with Russia on the initial statement, Russia may have pulled back. Now I am sure Russia will take back all of Georgia and not just South Ossetia in this conflict. The Georgians made a mistake but Russia was over aggressive. Obama was hedging his bets and playing it safe. He wants to support both the invader and the victims because he wants both sides to like him.
Come November, the DNC will regret not supporting HRC. A vote for Mccain/Nader 2008 is a vote for HRC 2012.
OT….but your post reminded me of it.
Did anyone see China cut off our American anthem for Phelps’ gold medal? Both 41 and 43 were there…and the part cut. The very last part of the song.
“Land of the free…home of the brave.”
China pulls off one of the best openings of the Olympics but can’t manage to run an anthem in front of two Presidents who have good relations with their country.
Hmmmm….
YUP
Cynthia McKinney/Rosa clemente Green Party is starting to go viral with the Black community
Looking at this from afar: The UK press and the parochial press in the South print information. The LAT and WaPo print fluff.
After Obama’s inauguration, I expect the LAT and WaPo to continue to avoid all questioning of this living icon. The UK and the South will continue to run investigative news. The latter will be dismissed as foreigners and factions. As “foreign-backed secessionists”, as time goes by.
What inauguration? You’re assuming he’s going to win. A big assumption–and nightmare.
Is Obama going to be inaugurated as President of his Country Club? Because he’s not winning this Presidential election.
It’s just not happening.
I saw some bots writing over at Obama’s impending Pearl Harbor. They hate Larry, you know.
Larry must be doing something right.
There were several of us on Larry’s Russia/Ossetia thread that were posting better factual information about Ossetia’s invasion by Georgia, and who started what based on the very informative UK press, which disagreed with the Bush administration version of “Russia invading Ossetia.”
But we’re not Bots. Not by a long shot.
Wouldn’t vote for Barak Obama if he was the last candidate on earth. YUK
BARRY’S “FRIEND”….DETROIT MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK……HEADED TO JAIL
http://chicagoagainstobama.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/barrys-good-friend-kwame-headed-to-jail/
OMG Bert! Please tell me that is a true story! ROFLMAO!
Note - when Russia/Georgia first started, Obama said nothing. It was only when he started taking hits from the media that Obama took a stand on the matter. Some people think that this is the “judgement” of a President?
He’s a follower, not a leader. He kept turning to Hillary during the debates hoping she’d answer first when both were asked about issues involving foreign policy, and he’s going to follow whatever McCain says if it sounds like the public agrees with him.
It happened at every “debate”. Hillary would give a reasoned and detailed response. Barky would then say that he agreed but blah, blah, blah, which was always some platitude masquerading as wisdom. But only the fools fell for his game, as can be attested by the trolls who lurk around these parts.
the president of Georgia is Shaakasvilli and he is also a George soros puppet. the whole thing was orchestrated by Shaakasvili to coincide with Obama’s vacation and the opening of the Olympics
Yep! Larry gets to them EVERY time, love it.
A few months ago it was reported Barack has not traveled much. Could it be that he did travel extensively but used an Indonesian Passport? What did he use to travel to Pakistan in 1981. He also said he traveled through Europoe in college. Again, what passport? He may have 3 different ones from 3 countries.
He probably did, which would then mean that his US passport would not contain any mention of the countries he visited.
An American citizen MUST use American passport when entering the US.
not trying to be petty, but i believe the expression is ‘milquetoast”.
Yeah, but the original post at Gateway had it this way.
It’s very simple: he does not know what he is doing. Why would he? He has NO foreign policy experience, and he is supposed to step into the role of CIC? It’s absurd.
Off topic:
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on the ballot
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/08/BAC2127RCJ.DTL
Bye Bye Nancy Pelosi
You have to be kidding about Sheehan beating Pelosi. Sheehan could barely get enough signatures to get her name on the ballot. Pelosi is deeply entrenched in that district and there is no way she is going to lose it.
True, but progressives/liberals in the Bay are furious at her for taking the impeachment of GWB off the table.” There is another female candidate (forgot her name) from San Francisco running against Pelosi on that very issue. Her ads against Pelosi are witty and biting! Let’s hope she prevails over Madam Speaker.
I read several pieces over at By The Fault on the Russia-Georgia crisis. It gives some good, factual context and input from around the world. Looks in detail at both candidates statements finding Obama deeply, deeply flawed and McCain better but also off the mark. Compares Obama to Chamberlain; McCain to Churchill and the regrettably absent voice of HRC to FDR. Seems like a good site.
I wouldn’t say that BOBO’s playing the race card could be his undoing because this is a deeply conservative culture. First this isn’t a deeply conservative culture. The consumerism that capitalism needs to sustain it is any but conservative and we have charged and mortgaged ourselves to the hilt in support of consumerism.
It’s the charge of racism alone that will do him in. Most of us have found our way to live at peace with all the peoples that call America home. Some choose segregation. Some choose integration, but most of us live somewhere in between. As such it’s jarring after you have spent so much time living well amongst all the diversity that is America, somebody just hauls off and calls you a racist because you don’t happen to support their candidate for president and he is AA. Your first reaction is What the fuck!? but after that it doesn’t take long for you to resent the people making the charge. Number one they don’t know dick about you other than you don’t support their candidate. Number two, THEY are the ones that are so dead focused on his race. So why am I the racist? People are looking at this charge and rightfully saying, “No, you are wrong.”
If in the most important personal relationship a candidate has with a voter, honesty and trust, the candidate and his supporters can so cavalierly be dishonest about the true nature of the voters just to score some short term political points…how can we ever trust them?
We’re sure not going to vote for him.
Andre Frigging Sullivan…he makes Obama look resolute, the way he’s been flipflipping.
Andrew has, apparently, only recently discovered that Congress’s jobs include that annoying “checks and balances” role. Who’d a thunk it!!
And yes, he probably has read NQ–he never has an original idea, it’s always something one has seen elsewhere in his essays.
Good thing he wasn’t born sixty seven years earlier, I guess!
“I strongly condemn the outbreak of violence in Hawaii, and urge an immediate end to armed conflict. Now is the time for the United States and Japan to show restraint, and to avoid an escalation to full scale war. America’s territorial integrity must be respected. All sides should enter into direct talks on behalf of stability in Hawaii, and the international community should fully support a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
God, he’s a fucking idiot.
This is really good stuff, Lisa. Thanks for pulling these pieces together for us.
Three things in response to some of the articles.
1. The reason the LA Times writer is trying to walk the horse back into the ‘celebrity is good’ barn is that A) The celebrity meme is accurate and it’s killing Obama; B) It is one of the foundational pieces of his campaign, along with the race card (explicit and implicit); that is, he MUST use it or he has no chance at winning; and, the most immediately relevant point, C) The Invesco Field fiasco is going to be the biggest celebrity event in political history. In other words, Obama is teeing himself up to be destroyed — in true Rovian fashion — by Camp McCain after what is supposed to be his shining moment. The Disaster at Invesco will be a monument to Team McCain’s portrayal of Obama as vacuous celebrity using stunt media ploys.
The writer of the piece knows this, and so they are trying to reverse the meme before the Disaster at Invesco happens. It’s not going to work, however. Team McCain has nailed the essence of Obama and his campaign, and the reason the spots are doing so well is because they are true and people immediately understand them and see them as being correct.
Invesco will haunt Obama. Count on that.
2. I think Andrew Sullivan and other persons of homosexual orientation are really beginning to sour on Obama. I could certainly be wrong about that and I’m not trying to make any blanket statements. However, starting with McClurkin and now the reports that gays are feeling very much put off by the DNC, Obama and Obama’s posse isn’t helping matters any for the feelings of the homosexual community towards Obama. Now, having said that, Sullivan is a conservative. Some will say he was never going to like Obama, anyways. False. Sullivan has been one of Obama’s biggest lauders in all of the media. It seems that period has ended.
3. The Richmond, VA paper is spot on. Obama is taking ENORMOUS risks with his liberal usage of the race card. Team McCain drilled him on this recently, and they will do so again if Obama or punk enablers like Bob Herbert try to play that card another time.
Obama and his loser posse knows they are playing with fire here, and that is why you have seen a number of pieces from his fanboys decrying the crap that Nikki Turner pulled in Tennessee.
However, the real point of these Obama fans’ outrage with Turner is that she got crushed at the polls and she overplayed the race card. That is, she used it (and the religion card) so totally ineptly that it both draws attention to how pols use the card and it makes the environment less friendly for Obama and his peeps to try to play the race card when they want to.
What the Obama people are trying to convey, desperately, is that THEY aren’t using the same vein of tactics Turner did. Sure, a KKK guy in an ad isn’t the same thing as Jesse Jackson, Jr’s “Katrina Tears” nor is it a South Carolina Memo, but the theme is the same: Race card.
What Turner did with a club over the head in the subtlety department the Obama camp is trying to do as a loud dogwhistle. Both camps are trying to manipulate people based on race. And because the Obama camp knows it cannot win without this ploy, its supporters are trying to shoot down the Turner story as fast as possible.
Barky has publicly stated he visited Pakistan. Can you imagine if it doesn’t appear on his Obama passport?
Under the Freedom of Information Act, can someone request another person’s passport info, say Barry Soetero? Information about birth records, naturalization records and passports can be accessed, but I don’t know if you must be related.
I hope someone requested Stanley Dunham’s records. Could be very telling.
It’s spelled “milquetoast”.
Not if you’re quoting someone else who spelled it that way.
WE should have been asking who is on the Credentials Commitee.
We have placed all our emphasis on the SDs and they may have no input on the eligibility issue!
I wonder if only candidates (Senator Clinton) can challenge at the convention.
I would think that eligibility would be the BEST POSSIBLE REASON to challenge!
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