« Where's the Web Stuff? | Main | How Popular was the Palin Pick? »
August 30, 2008
Obama's Big Lie
You know the great thing about having kids? More early-morning blog opportunities.
Anyway, my keep-myself-awake reading led me to this great David Freddoso article about the gulf between Barack Obama's rhetoric and his record.
Last night, the man who opposed welfare reform bragged that while serving in Illinois he had “moved more families from welfare to work.”As I said Thursday night, I thought the speech was terrible, because with it, Obama sacrificed one of his strongest assets - his perceived likability. Instead of using his speech to promote his vision for America and leaving the red meat attacks to other convention speakers, Obama launched into full-throated criticism of the Bush administration and John McCain. What was billed as a historical speech was nothing more than a stump speech with a hefty dose of bile.The man who misled the public for four years about his vote to let a Chicago-area hospital continue leaving premature abortion survivors to die, and who promised that his first act as president will be to re-legalize partial-birth abortion, offered this calm plea to the nation: “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”
The man who is evading legitimate debate by smearing our own mild-mannered, thoughtful Stanley Kurtz as a “fear mongering . . . right-wing hatchet man,” last night called for “a new politics for a new time.”
It's unfortunate for Obama that he didn't have someone like Jim Geraghty on his staff, who could have given him some sound advice. And he's right - compare Obama's speech with the speech given by George W. Bush in 2000 - the harshest criticism Bush uttered was that the Clinton/Gore administration had "squandered" their opportunity and had not led.
With his speech, Obama had the opportunity to introduce himself to millions of people, and he blew it. Those who were not really paying attention to the campaign until now saw a man fighting the last election instead of looking forward. They saw a man who was not describing the America they knew. Times may be tough, but Obama essentially described an America that does not exist. Instead of simply acknowledging that the country faces challenges and offering his policies as the answer to those challenges, he painted America as a grim wasteland brimming with human misery.
It was pure rhetorical excess and lacked the optimism of Ronald Reagan or even Bill Clinton. And further, Obama never really criticized John McCain - all he did was badmouth the Bush administration and tried to tie McCain to the president. He couldn't even bother to directly confront the man he's actually running against.
All in all, the stadium speech/rally was nothing more than a celebration of his oversized ego and his hatred of the president.
Update - Michael Barone says much the same thing, only with much more eloquence and political knowledge.
Posted by slublog at August 30, 2008 01:47 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/3875