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Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:14:14 EDT
Subject: Re: [TSCM-L] {2933} Hugh Downs prediction
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"Permit me to issue and control the money of the nation and I care not who=
makes its laws." — Mayer Amsched Rothchild
I've decided that it doesn't matter which Freemason (Bro Obama or Bro
McCain) becomes president when you have over 140 members of the Council on=
Foreign
Relations surrounding whoever wins the presidency. NWO :-)
Also, what if Obama became president and was assassinated by certain
powerful insiders (ala Lincoln and Kennedy) to stir up unrest and take mor=
e of our
rights away? It would make the Rodney King riots look like a tea party. It=
would probably get so bad that martial law would be declared! Just a thoug=
ht..I
hope not..but just a thought.
In a message dated 9/28/2008 6:54:25 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
areda..._at_msn.com writes:
No one can honestly say Hugh Downs is not qualified to make a prediction. =
This has summed up the whole scandal that is the Obama run for the white h=
ouse.
If you have never voted, vote now. We cannot let the media glaze over the=
se
short comings of a person who would lead us. US the most powerful nation i=
n
the world.
Onion
Please forward.
At 87, Downs has offered us his thoughts regarding November 2008. The
following insightful analysis is well-worth reading and forwarding:
OBAMA WILL LOSE E-mail | Hugh Downs Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 =
It's time to throw my hat in the ring as regards predicting the election=
results. So here it is: Barack Obama will be defeated. Seriously and
convincingly defeated. Not due to racism, not due to the forces of reaction=
, not even
due to Karl Rove sending out mind rays over the national cable system. He =
will
lose for one reason above all, one that has been overlooked in any analysi=
s
that I've yet seen.
Barack Obama will lose because he is a flake.
I'm using the term in its generally accepted sense. A flake is not only a =
screwup, but someone who truly excels in making bizarre errors and creating=
incredibly convoluted disasters. A flake is a 'fool with energy', as the R=
ussian
proverb puts it. ('A fool is a terrible thing to have around, but a fool=
with energy is a nightmare'.)
Barack Obama is a flake, and the American people have begun to see it. The=
chief characteristic of a flake is that he makes choices that are impossib=
le
to either understand or explain. These are not the errors of the poor dope=
who
can't grasp the essentials of a situation, or the neurotic who ruins thing=
s
out of compulsion, or the man suffering chronic bad luck.
The flake has a genius for discovering solutions at perfect right angles t=
o
the ordinary world. It's as if he's the product of a totally different
evolutionary chain, in a universe where the laws are slightly but distinct=
ly at
variance to ours. When given a choice between left and right, the flake go=
es up
- - if not through the 8th dimension. And although there's plenty of
rationalization, there's never a logical reason for any of it. After awhil=
e, people
stop asking.
Obama's rise has been widely portrayed as a kind of millennial Horatio Alg=
er
story -- young lad from a new state on the outskirts of the American polit=
y,
a member of once-despised minority, works his way by slow degrees to withi=
n
arm's length of the presidency itself. That's all well and good -- we need=
national myths of exactly that type.
But what has been overlooked is the string of faux pas marking each step o=
f
Obama's journey, a series of strange, inexplicable actions, actions bizarr=
e
enough to require some effort at explanation, through such efforts have ra=
rely
been offered. It's as if the new Horatio made it to the top by stepping in=
to
every last manhole and open trapdoor in his path. And we, the onlookers, t=
he
voters who are being asked to put this man in the White House, are suppose=
d
to take this as the normal career path for a successful chief executive.=
What are these incidents? I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me, but
let's go to the videotape.
Here's a young man who graduated from Columbia with high marks, with a
choice of positions anywhere in the country. He comes from a state general=
ly held
to be a close match to Paradise. One, furthermore, that can be characteriz=
ed
as the most successful multiracial society in the world, with harmonious=
relations not only between whites and blacks, but also Japanese-Americans =
and
native Hawaiians as well. To top it off, a state controlled in large part =
by a
smoothly-functioning Democratic machine. So where does he choose to go?
To Chicago. One of the windiest, coldest, most brutal cities in the countr=
y.
One that is also infinitely corrupt in a sense that Hawaii is not. One tha=
t
remains one of the most racist large cities in the U.S. (Cicero, Al Capone=
's
old stomping grounds, a suburb that is effectively part of the city, is
completely segregated to this day.) It would be nice to learn which of the=
se
aspects most attracted young Obama to the city. But if you'd asked at the=
beginning of the campaign, you'd still be waiting.
And what does he do when he reaches the city? Why, he joins a cult. Jeremi=
ah
Wright's Trinity United Church has been turned inside out since the
videotaped sermons appeared early this year, without anyone ever quite exp=
laining
exactly what Obama was thinking of when he joined up in the first place. S=
treet
cred, so it's claimed. But there are a plethora of black churches that wou=
ld
have provided him that without the taint of demented racism that Wright's=
church offered.
Obama apparently had to swear an oath of belief in 'black liberation
theology' when he joined the church. (It is the little touches of that sor=
t that
make it a 'cult', and not simply a 'church'.) Did the thought of his caree=
r ever
cross his mind? Didn't he realize that church would inevitably cause him=
trouble somewhere down the line? That he'd be required to repudiate it and=
its
ideas eventually? We can ask -- but we won't get an answer.
Back at school, Obama got himself named editor of the Harvard Law Review. =
This is a signal achievement, no question about it. The kind of thing that =
would be mentioned about a person for the rest of his life, as has been the=
case
with Obama.
But then... he writes nothing for the journal.
Now, let's get this straight: here we have one of the leading university l=
aw
journals in the country, one widely cited and read. Entire careers in lega=
l
analysis and scholarship have been founded on appearances in the Review,=
including some that have led to the highest courts in the country. Yet her=
e's an
individual who, as editor, could easily place his own work in the journal =
--
standard practice, nothing at all wrong with it. But he fails to do so. An=
d
the explanation? There's none that I've heard. We can go even farther than=
that, to say that there is no explanation that makes the least rational se=
nse.
We follow Obama down to Springfield, where as a state legislator, he voted=
'present' over 120 times. What this means, as far as I've been able to
discover, is that he voted 'present' nearly as much as he voted 'yes' or '=
no'.
Now, statehouses work very simply: a member approaches his colleagues and=
asks them to vote for his bill. Some comply, some do not. Some ask, 'Is it=
a
good bill?' and some don't. Either way, they customarily, except in unusua=
l
circumstances, vote 'yes' or 'no'. All except for Barack Obama. And how di=
d get
away with it? How did mollify his colleagues? How did he square himself wi=
th
the party bosses? Echo answered not.
(A good slogan could be made of this: 'You can't vote present in the Oval=
Office.' I hereby commend it to the McCain campaign.)
We turn eagerly to learn what his term in the U.S. Senate will reveal, onl=
y
to be disappointed. But it's not surprising, really. After all, he was onl=
y
there for 143 days.
And there lies one of the keys to Obama's rise. David Brooks pointed out i=
n
a recent New York Times column that Obama spent too little time in any of =
his
positions to make an impact one way or another. This is what saved him fro=
m
the normal fate of the flake: he was never around long enough for his erro=
rs
and strange behavior to catch up with him.
But a presidential campaign is a different matter. A man running for
president is under the microscope, and can't duck anything, as many a cand=
idate has
had reason to learn. If Obama is a flake in the classic mode, now is when =
it
would come out. And has it?
The case could be made. Here we have a campaign with everything going for =
it
-- the opposition party in a shambles, a seriously undervalued president,=
the media in the candidate's pocket, the candidate himself being worshiped=
as
nothing less than the new messiah. And yet the results have comprised litt=
le
more than one fumble after another.
First came the Wright affair. Obama apparently thought he was above it all=
-- a not-uncommon phenomenon with flakes -- and allowed the revelations to=
take on a life of their own before bothering to respond. Even then, his
thoughtful and convincing explanation (that he hadn't been listening for t=
wenty
years) did little to settle the crisis, which instead guttered out on its =
own
after nearly crippling his campaign. Even months afterward it threatens to=
pop
back up at any time.
The latest word is that Wright -- now a deadly enemy of his onetime prot=
égé
-- has written a book. I can't wait.
Obama learned his lesson, and confronted the next threat immediately,
tackling The New Yorker cover with the avidity of a man having discovered =
zombies
in the basement.
A development that could have been defused with a chuckle and a quip (the =
customary method is for the politician to ask the cartoonist for the origin=
al)
was allowed to explode into a major issue.
The campaign's relentless attacks on one of the oldest liberal magazines =
extant merely perplexed the country at large. After all, any Republican has=
had
to endure far worse.
Almost simultaneously, the birth certificate saga was unfolding. On no
reasonable grounds, the campaign blew off requests for a copy of the docum=
ent, at
last releasing it through one of the least reputable sites on the Internet=
,
and so badly copied that literally anything could be read into it -- and w=
as.
I'm not one of those who believes that Obama was actually born in
Indonesia/Kenya/Moscow/the moon, but I still have plenty in the way of que=
stions,
almost all of them arising from how the matter was handled. Well played.=
The latest pothole (or one of them, anyway) involves Jerome Corsi's 'The=
Obama Nation'. Corsi has been given the full New Yorker treatment, with th=
e
campaign hoping to avoid John Kerry's 'error' in not challenging Corsi's 2=
004
book, Unfit for Command. What Obama missed was the fact that Kerry's major=
problem was not with Corsi but with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who=
were
disgusted with Kerry's hypocrisy in running as an experienced military vet=
eran,
and set out to take him down. Corsi's effort dovetailed with the veteran's=
campaign and to a large extent was swept up with it. No such campaign is i=
n
operation against Obama. The smart method of answering Corsi would have be=
en to
allow the media to handle it, instead of drawing attention to the book and=
raising it to level of an issue. This appears to be a real talent for the=
Obama campaign.
We could go on. The victory tour of Europe, and the speech in which Obama=
declared himself 'citizen of the world', a trope guaranteed to focus the=
attention of Middle America. His inept handling of Hillary, in which he wo=
und up
appearing frightened of the opponent he'd just beaten. Allowing Hillary (a=
nd
her husband there, what's-his-name) a starring role in the Democratic
convention is not a solution any sane individual would be comfortable with=
-- much
less a roll-call vote. This threatens the near-certainty of turning the en=
tire
affair into BillandHillarycon, with the nominee winding up as a footnote. =
But
it's all of a piece with the campaign Obama has waged up until now.
We've never had a flake as president. We've had drunks, neurotics, cripple=
s,
louts, and fools, but never a career screwup. (I except Jimmy Carter, whos=
e
errors arose from sincere, misguided goodwill.) And I don't think we're go=
ing
to get one now. Another three months of flailing, incompetence, and a
collapsing image will do little to assure voters concerned with terrorism,=
the oil
crunch, a gyrating economy, and a bellicose Russia. (Anyone doubting that =
Obama will go exactly this route can consider the Saddleback church fiasco,=
which unfolded as this piece was being wrapped up. Evidently, the campaign =
goaded NBC news personality Andrea Mitchell into all but accusing John McCa=
in of
'cheating' by failing to take his place within the 'cone of silence' during=
Obama's part of the program. The grotesque element here is that Obama's peo=
ple
and much of the liberal commentariat -- including Mitchell -- apparently =
believe that the 'cone of silence', a gag prop for the old Get Smart! comed=
y
series, actually exists and was in use at Saddleback.)
Many of us have dealt with flakes at one time or another, often in setting=
s
involving jobs and careers, and not uncommonly in positions of some
authority. We all know of the nephew, the fiancé, the boyfriend, whos=
e whims must be
catered to, whose reputation must be protected, who must be constantly wor=
ked
around if anything at all is to be accomplished, always at the cost of tim=
e,
money, efficiency, and personal stress.
In the fullness of time, we will inevitably see such a figure in the White=
House. But not this year, and not this candidate. Such acts of national
flakery occur only when there's no real alternative. In this election, an=
alternative exists.
Whatever his shortcomings, nobody ever called John McCain a flake.
**************Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial
challenges? Check out WalletPop for the latest news and information, tips =
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-------------------------------1222658054
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6001.18099" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY:=
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<DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3>"Permit me to issue and control the money of th=
e
nation and I care not who makes its laws." — <CITE>Mayer Amsched
Rothchild</CITE></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3><CITE></CITE></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3><CITE>I've decided that it doesn't matter which=
Freemason (Bro Obama or Bro McCain) becomes president when you ha=
ve
over 140 members of the Council on Foreign Relations surrounding whoever wi=
ns
the presidency. NWO :-)</CITE></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3><CITE></CITE></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=3><CITE>Also, what if Obama became president and =
was
assassinated by certain powerful insiders (ala Lincoln and Kennedy) to stir=
up
unrest and take more of our rights away? It would make the Rodney King riot=
s
look like a tea party. It would probably get so bad that martial law w=
ould
be declared! Just a thought..I hope not..but just a
thought.</CITE></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 9/28/2008 6:54:25 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
areda..._at_msn.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid">=
<FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=
=2>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=3 PT=
SIZE="10"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">No one can honestly say Hugh Downs is not qualified =
to make
a prediction. This has summed up the whole scandal that is the Obam=
a run
for the white house.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>If you have never voted, vote now. =
We
cannot let the media glaze over these short comings of a person who would=
lead
us. US the most powerful nation in the world.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=3>Onion</FONT></FONT></DIV=
>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=3>Please forward.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT> </DI=
V>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=3></FONT></FONT> </DI=
V>
<DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT size=3></FONT><FONT lang=0 fa=
ce=Verdana
color=#000000 size=2 PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"> </DIV>
<DIV><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana color=#0000ff size=5 PT=
SIZE="18"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><I>At 87, Downs has offered us his thoughts regardin=
g
November 2008. The following insightful analysis is well-worth read=
ing
and forwarding: <BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana color=#000000 =
size=2
PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"></I><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=V=
erdana
color=#0000ff size=2 PTSIZE="10" FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><BR></FONT><F=
ONT lang=0
face=Verdana color=#000000 size=4 PTSIZE="14" FAMILY="SANSSERIF=
"><B><I>OBAMA
WILL LOSE E-mail | Hugh Downs Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008
</I></B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana color=#000000 size=4 PTSIZE="14"=
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B><I></I></B></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana color=#000000 size=4 PTSIZE="14"=
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B><I> </DIV>
<DIV><BR>It's time to throw my hat in the ring as regards predicting the=
election results. So here it is: Barack Obama will be defeated. Seriously=
and
convincingly defeated. Not due to racism, not due to the forces of reacti=
on,
not even due to Karl Rove sending out mind rays over the national cable=
system. He will lose for one reason above all, one that has been overlook=
ed in
any analysis that I've yet seen. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Barack Obama will lose because he is a flake. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm using the term in its generally accepted sense. A flake is not o=
nly a
screwup, but someone who truly excels in making bizarre errors and creati=
ng
incredibly convoluted disasters. A flake is a 'fool with energy', as the=
Russian proverb puts it. ('A fool is a terrible thing to have around, but=
a
fool with energy is a nightmare'.) <BR><BR>Barack Obama is a flake, and t=
he
American people have begun to see it. The chief characteristic of a flake=
is
that he makes choices that are impossible to either understand or explain=
.
These are not the errors of the poor dope who can't grasp the essentials =
of a
situation, or the neurotic who ruins things out of compulsion, or the man=
suffering chronic bad luck. <BR><BR>The flake has a genius for discoverin=
g
solutions at perfect right angles to the ordinary world. It's as if he's =
the
product of a totally different evolutionary chain, in a universe where th=
e
laws are slightly but distinctly at variance to ours. When given a choice=
between left and right, the flake goes up - - if not through the 8th
dimension. And although there's plenty of rationalization, there's never =
a
logical reason for any of it. After awhile, people stop asking.
<BR><BR>Obama's rise has been widely portrayed as a kind of millennial Ho=
ratio
Alger story -- young lad from a new state on the outskirts of the America=
n
polity, a member of once-despised minority, works his way by slow degrees=
to
within arm's length of the presidency itself. That's all well and good --=
we
need national myths of exactly that type. <BR><BR>But what has been overl=
ooked
is the string of faux pas marking each step of Obama's journey, a series =
of
strange, inexplicable actions, actions bizarre enough to require some eff=
ort
at explanation, through such efforts have rarely been offered. It's as if=
the
new Horatio made it to the top by stepping into every last manhole and op=
en
trapdoor in his path. And we, the onlookers, the voters who are being ask=
ed to
put this man in the White House, are supposed to take this as the normal=
career path for a successful chief executive. <BR><BR>What are these
incidents? I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me, but let's go to the=
videotape. <BR><BR>Here's a young man who graduated from Columbia with hi=
gh
marks, with a choice of positions anywhere in the country. He comes from =
a
state generally held to be a close match to Paradise. One, furthermore, t=
hat
can be characterized as the most successful multiracial society in the wo=
rld,
with harmonious relations not only between whites and blacks, but also
Japanese-Americans and native Hawaiians as well. To top it off, a state=
controlled in large part by a smoothly-functioning Democratic machine. So=
where does he choose to go? <BR><BR>To Chicago. One of the windiest, cold=
est,
most brutal cities in the country. One that is also infinitely corrupt in=
a
sense that Hawaii is not. One that remains one of the most racist large c=
ities
in the U.S. (Cicero, Al Capone's old stomping grounds, a suburb that is=
effectively part of the city, is completely segregated to this day.) It w=
ould
be nice to learn which of these aspects most attracted young Obama to the=
city. But if you'd asked at the beginning of the campaign, you'd still be=
waiting. <BR><BR>And what does he do when he reaches the city? Why, he jo=
ins a
cult. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church has been turned inside out =
since
the videotaped sermons appeared early this year, without anyone ever quit=
e
explaining exactly what Obama was thinking of when he joined up in the fi=
rst
place. Street cred, so it's claimed. But there are a plethora of black
churches that would have provided him that without the taint of demented=
racism that Wright's church offered. <BR><BR>Obama apparently had to swea=
r an
oath of belief in 'black liberation theology' when he joined the church. =
(It
is the little touches of that sort that make it a 'cult', and not simply =
a
'church'.) Did the thought of his career ever cross his mind? Didn't he=
realize that church would inevitably cause him trouble somewhere down the=
line? That he'd be required to repudiate it and its ideas eventually? We =
can
ask -- but we won't get an answer. <BR><BR>Back at school, <FONT
color=#ff0000>Obama got himself named editor of the Harvard Law Review<=
/FONT>.
This is a signal achievement, no question about it. The kind of thing tha=
t
would be mentioned about a person for the rest of his life, as has been t=
he
case with Obama. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><U><FONT color=#ff0000>But then... he writes nothing for the journ=
al.
</FONT></U><BR><BR>Now, let's get this straight: here we have one of the=
leading university law journals in the country, one widely cited and read=
.
Entire careers in legal analysis and scholarship have been founded on
appearances in the Review, including some that have led to the highest co=
urts
in the country. Yet here's an individual who, as editor, could easily pla=
ce
his own work in the journal -- standard practice, nothing at all wrong wi=
th
it. But he fails to do so. <U>And the explanation? There's none that I've=
heard.</U> We can go even farther than that, to say that there is no
explanation that makes the least rational sense. <BR><BR>We follow Obama =
down
to Springfield, where as a state legislator, he voted 'present' over 120=
times. What this means, as far as I've been able to discover, is that he =
voted
'present' nearly as much as he voted 'yes' or 'no'. <BR><BR>Now, statehou=
ses
work very simply: a member approaches his colleagues and asks them to vot=
e for
his bill. Some comply, some do not. Some ask, 'Is it a good bill?' and so=
me
don't. Either way, they customarily, except in unusual circumstances, vot=
e
'yes' or 'no'. All except for Barack Obama. And how did get away with it?=
How
did mollify his colleagues? How did he square himself with the party boss=
es?
Echo answered not. <BR><BR><U>(A good slogan could be made of this: 'You =
can't
vote present in the Oval Office.' I hereby commend it to the McCain campa=
ign.)
</U><BR><BR>We turn eagerly to learn what his term in the U.S. Senate wil=
l
reveal, only to be disappointed. But it's not surprising, really. After a=
ll,
he was only there for 143 days. <BR><BR>And there lies one of the keys to=
Obama's rise. David Brooks pointed out in a recent New York Times column =
that
Obama spent too little time in any of his positions to make an impact one=
way
or another. This is what saved him from the normal fate of the flake: he =
was
never around long enough for his errors and strange behavior to catch up =
with
him. <BR><BR>But a presidential campaign is a different matter. A man run=
ning
for president is under the microscope, and can't duck anything, as many a=
candidate has had reason to learn. If Obama is a flake in the classic mod=
e,
now is when it would come out. And has it? <BR><BR>The case could be made=
.
Here we have a campaign with everything going for it -- the opposition pa=
rty
in a shambles, a seriously undervalued president, the media in the candid=
ate's
pocket, the candidate himself being worshiped as nothing less than the ne=
w
messiah. And yet the results have comprised little more than one fumble a=
fter
another. <BR><BR>First came the Wright affair. Obama apparently thought h=
e was
above it all -- a not-uncommon phenomenon with flakes -- and allowed the=
revelations to take on a life of their own before bothering to respond. E=
ven
then, his thoughtful and convincing explanation (that he hadn't been list=
ening
for twenty years) did little to settle the crisis, which instead guttered=
out
on its own after nearly crippling his campaign. Even months afterward it=
threatens to pop back up at any time. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The latest word is that Wright -- now a deadly enemy of his onetime=
protégé -- has written a book. I can't wait. <BR><BR><FONT colo=
r=#ff0000>Obama
learned his lesson, and confronted the next threat immediately, tackling =
The
New Yorker cover with the avidity of a man having discovered zombies in t=
he
basement.</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>A development that could have been defused with a chuckle and a quip=
(the
customary method is for the politician to ask the cartoonist for the orig=
inal)
was allowed to explode into a major issue. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The campaign's relentless attacks on one of the oldest liberal magaz=
ines
extant merely perplexed the country at large. After all, any Republican h=
as
had to endure far worse. <BR><BR>Almost simultaneously, the birth certifi=
cate
saga was unfolding. On no reasonable grounds, the campaign blew off reque=
sts
for a copy of the document, at last releasing it through one of the least=
reputable sites on the Internet, and so badly copied that literally anyth=
ing
could be read into it -- and was. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm not one of those who believes that Obama was actually born in
Indonesia/Kenya/Moscow/the moon, but I still have plenty in the way of
questions, almost all of them arising from how the matter was handled. We=
ll
played. <BR><BR>The latest pothole (or one of them, anyway) involves Jero=
me
Corsi's 'The Obama Nation'. Corsi has been given the full New Yorker
treatment, with the campaign hoping to avoid John Kerry's 'error' in not=
challenging Corsi's 2004 book, Unfit for Command. What Obama missed was t=
he
fact that Kerry's major problem was not with Corsi but with the Swift Boa=
t
Veterans for Truth, who were disgusted with Kerry's hypocrisy in running =
as an
experienced military veteran, and set out to take him down. Corsi's effor=
t
dovetailed with the veteran's campaign and to a large extent was swept up=
with
it. No such campaign is in operation against Obama. The smart method of=
answering Corsi would have been to allow the media to handle it, instead =
of
drawing attention to the book and raising it to level of an issue. This=
appears to be a real talent for the Obama campaign. <BR><BR>We could go o=
n.
The victory tour of Europe, and the speech in which Obama declared himsel=
f
'citizen of the world', a trope guaranteed to focus the attention of Midd=
le
America. His inept handling of Hillary, in which he wound up appearing
frightened of the opponent he'd just beaten. Allowing Hillary (and her hu=
sband
there, what's-his-name) a starring role in the Democratic convention is n=
ot a
solution any sane individual would be comfortable with -- much less a
roll-call vote. This threatens the near-certainty of turning the entire a=
ffair
into BillandHillarycon, with the nominee winding up as a footnote. But it=
's
all of a piece with the campaign Obama has waged up until now. <BR><BR>We=
've
never had a flake as president. We've had drunks, neurotics, cripples, lo=
uts,
and fools, but never a career screwup. (I except Jimmy Carter, whose erro=
rs
arose from sincere, misguided goodwill.) And I don't think we're going to=
get
one now. Another three months of flailing, incompetence, and a collapsing=
image will do little to assure voters concerned with terrorism, the oil=
crunch, a gyrating economy, and a bellicose Russia. (Anyone doubting that=
Obama will go exactly this route can consider the Saddleback church fiasc=
o,
which unfolded as this piece was being wrapped up. Evidently, the campaig=
n
goaded NBC news personality Andrea Mitchell into all but accusing John Mc=
Cain
of 'cheating' by failing to take his place within the 'cone of silence' d=
uring
Obama's part of the program. The grotesque element here is that Obama's p=
eople
and much of the liberal commentariat -- including Mitchell -- apparently=
believe that the 'cone of silence', a gag prop for the old Get Smart! com=
edy
series, actually exists and was in use at Saddleback.) <BR><BR>Many of us=
have
dealt with flakes at one time or another, often in settings involving job=
s and
careers, and not uncommonly in positions of some authority. We all know o=
f the
nephew, the fiancé, the boyfriend, whose whims must be catered to, w=
hose
reputation must be protected, who must be constantly worked around if any=
thing
at all is to be accomplished, always at the cost of time, money, efficien=
cy,
and personal stress. <BR><BR>In the fullness of time, we will inevitably =
see
such a figure in the White House. But not this year, and not this candida=
te.
Such acts of national flakery occur only when there's no real alternative=
. In
this election, an alternative exists. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Whatever his shortcomings, nobody ever called John McCain a
flake.</FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana color=#000000 size=3 PTSIZ=
E="12"
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"></B></I> <BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE=
></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font:=
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:18 CST