Hugh Downs prediction from Its from Onion on 2008-09-28 (file.mbox)

From: Its from Onion <areda..._at_msn.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:53:41 -0500

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Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:23:14 -0400
From: "Jordan Ulery" <jordan.ulri..._at_verizon.net>
Subject: RE: [TSCM-L] {2933} Hugh Downs prediction
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Per Snopes:

Attribution is incorrect.

Article is by J. R. Dunn and appeared on/in American Thinker web site
immediately adjacent to and surrounding an advert of the Hugh Downs Report.

=20

The article is spot on, however!

Jordan Ulery

=20

From: TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com [mailto:TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Its from Onion
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2008 9:54 PM
Subject: [TSCM-L] {2933} Hugh Downs prediction

=20

=20

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
house.

=20

If you have never voted, vote now. We cannot let the media glaze over thes=
e
short comings of a person who would lead us. US the most powerful nation in
the world.

=20

Onion

=20

Please forward.

=20

=20

=20

At 87, Downs has offered us his thoughts regarding November 2008. The
following insightful analysis is well-worth reading and forwarding:=20

OBAMA WILL LOSE E-mail | Hugh Downs Posted on Tuesday, August 26, 2008=20

=20

=20

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 analysis that I've yet seen.=20

=20

Barack Obama will lose because he is a flake.=20

=20

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
Russian proverb puts it. ('A fool is a terrible thing to have around, but a
fool with energy is a nightmare'.)=20

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 impossibl=
e
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.=20

The flake has a genius for discovering 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 the laws are slightly but distinctl=
y
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 o=
f
rationalization, there's never a logical reason for any of it. After awhile=
,
people stop asking.=20

Obama's rise has been widely portrayed as a kind of millennial Horatio Alge=
r
story -- young lad from a new state on the outskirts of the American 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.=20

But what has been overlooked 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 effort 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 open trapdoor in his path. And we, the
onlookers, the voters who are being asked to put this man in the White
House, are supposed to take this as the normal career path for a successful
chief executive.=20

What are these incidents? I'm sure many of you are way ahead of me, but
let's go to the videotape.=20

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 generall=
y
held to be a close match to Paradise. One, furthermore, that can be
characterized 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?=20

To Chicago. One of the windiest, coldest, 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 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 thes=
e
aspects most attracted young Obama to the city. But if you'd asked at the
beginning of the campaign, you'd still be waiting.=20

And what does he do when he reaches the city? Why, he joins a cult. Jeremia=
h
Wright's Trinity United Church has been turned inside out since the
videotaped sermons appeared early this year, without anyone ever quite
explaining exactly what Obama was thinking of when he joined up in the firs=
t
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.=20

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 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.=20

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.=20

=20

But then... he writes nothing for the journal.=20

Now, let's get this straight: here we have one of the leading university la=
w
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 courts in the country. Yet
here'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. And 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 sense.=20

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'.=20

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 unusual
circumstances, vote '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 bosses? Echo answered not.=20

(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.)=20

We turn eagerly to learn what his term in the U.S. Senate will reveal, only
to be disappointed. But it's not surprising, really. After all, he was only
there for 143 days.=20

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.=20

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
candidate has had reason to learn. If Obama is a flake in the classic mode,
now is when it would come out. And has it?=20

The case could be made. Here we have a campaign with everything going for i=
t
-- 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
little more than one fumble after another.=20

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
twenty years) did little to settle the crisis, which instead guttered out o=
n
its own after nearly crippling his campaign. Even months afterward it
threatens to pop back up at any time.=20

=20

The latest word is that Wright -- now a deadly enemy of his onetime prot=E9=
g=E9
-- has written a book. I can't wait.=20

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.=20

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
original) was allowed to explode into a major issue.=20

=20

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.=20

Almost simultaneously, the birth certificate saga was unfolding. On no
reasonable grounds, the campaign blew off requests 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 anything could be read int=
o
it -- and was.=20

=20

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. Well
played.=20

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 the
campaign hoping to avoid John Kerry's 'error' in not challenging Corsi's
2004 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 veteran, 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 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.=20

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
wound up appearing frightened of the opponent he'd just beaten. Allowing
Hillary (and 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 entire affair into BillandHillarycon, with th=
e
nominee winding up as a footnote. But it's all of a piece with the campaign
Obama has waged up until now.=20

We've never had a flake as president. We've had drunks, neurotics, cripples=
,
louts, and fools, but never a career screwup. (I except Jimmy Carter, whose
errors 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 doubtin=
g
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 McCain 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 people and much of the liberal commentariat -- including
Mitchell -- apparently believe that the 'cone of silence', a gag prop for
the old Get Smart! comedy series, actually exists and was in use at
Saddleback.)=20

Many of us have dealt with flakes at one time or another, often in settings
involving jobs and careers, and not uncommonly in positions of some
authority. We all know of the nephew, the fianc=E9, the boyfriend, whose wh=
ims
must be catered to, whose reputation must be protected, who must be
constantly worked around if anything at all is to be accomplished, always a=
t
the cost of time, money, efficiency, and personal stress.=20

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.=20

=20

Whatever his shortcomings, nobody ever called John McCain a flake.=20

=20

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<div class=3DSection1>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'>Per Snopes:<o:p></o:p></sp=
an></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'>Attribution is incorrect.<=
o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'>Article is by J. R. Dunn a=
nd
appeared on/in <i>American Thinker</i> web site immediately adjacent to and=
surrounding
an advert of the Hugh Downs Report.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></=
p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'>The article is spot on, ho=
wever!<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'>Jordan Ulery<o:p></o:p></s=
pan></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></=
p>

<div>

<div style=3D'border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in =
0in 0in'>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma=
","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com [mailto:TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com] <b>On Behalf
Of </b>Its from Onion<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, September 28, 2008 9:54 PM<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [TSCM-L] {2933} Hugh Downs prediction<o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

</div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>

<div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:=
black'>No
one can honestly say Hugh Downs is not qualified to make a prediction.&nbsp=
;
This has summed up the whole scandal that is the Obama run for the white ho=
use.</span><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><=
o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:=
black'>If
you have never voted, vote now.  We cannot let the media glaze over th=
ese
short comings of a person who would lead us. US the most powerful nation in=
the
world.</span><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-se=
rif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:=
black'>Onion</span><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><=
o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:=
black'>Please
forward.</span><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-=
serif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'><br>
</span><i><span style=3D'font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif=
";
color:blue'>At 87, Downs has offered us his thoughts regarding November 200=
8.
 The following insightful analysis is well-worth reading and forwardin=
g: <br>
</span></i><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-seri=
f";
color:black'><br>
</span><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:blue'><br>
</span><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-se=
rif";
color:black'>OBAMA WILL LOSE E-mail | Hugh Downs Posted on Tuesday, August =
26,
2008 </span></i></b><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sa=
ns-serif";
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","s=
ans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'><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 reaction=
,
not even due to Karl Rove sending out mind rays over the national cable sys=
tem.
He will lose for one reason above all, one that has been overlooked in any
analysis that I've yet seen. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>Barack Obama will lose because he is a flake. <o:p></o:p></spa=
n></i></b></p>

</div>

<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>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 Russian proverb puts it. ('A fool is a terrible thing to have around, b=
ut a
fool with energy is a nightmare'.) <br>
<br>
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 impossibl=
e 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 discovering solutions at perfect right angles to=
the
ordinary world. It's as if he's the product of a totally different evolutio=
nary
chain, in a universe where the 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 ask=
ing.
<br>
<br>
Obama's rise has been widely portrayed as a kind of millennial Horatio Alge=
r
story -- young lad from a new state on the outskirts of the American polity=
, a
member of once-despised minority, works his way by slow degrees to within a=
rm's
length of the presidency itself. That's all well and good -- we need nation=
al
myths of exactly that type. <br>
<br>
But what has been overlooked 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 effort at explanation, through such efforts have rar=
ely
been offered. It's as if the new Horatio made it to the top by stepping int=
o
every last manhole and open trapdoor in his path. And we, the onlookers, th=
e
voters who are being asked 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 high marks, with a choi=
ce
of positions anywhere in the country. He comes from a state generally held =
to
be a close match to Paradise. One, furthermore, that can be characterized a=
s
the most successful multiracial society in the world, with harmonious relat=
ions
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, coldest, 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 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 thes=
e
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 joins a cult. Jeremia=
h
Wright's Trinity United Church has been turned inside out since the videota=
ped
sermons appeared early this year, without anyone ever quite explaining exac=
tly
what Obama was thinking of when he joined up in the first place. Street cre=
d,
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 swear an oath of belief in 'black liberation theolo=
gy'
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 cr=
oss
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 idea=
s
eventually? We can ask -- but we won't get an answer. <br>
<br>
Back at school, </span></i></b><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-f=
amily:
"Verdana","sans-serif";color:red'>Obama got himself named editor of the Har=
vard
Law Review</span></i></b><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:=
"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:black'>. 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 h=
as
been the case with Obama. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><u><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"=
Verdana","sans-serif";
color:red'>But then... he writes nothing for the journal. </span></u></i></=
b><b><i><span
style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'><=
br>
<br>
Now, let's get this straight: here we have one of the leading university la=
w
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 courts in the country. Yet here=
's
an individual who, as editor, could easily place his own work in the journa=
l --
standard practice, nothing at all wrong with it. But he fails to do so. <u>=
And
the explanation? There's none that I've heard.</u> We can go even farther t=
han
that, to say that there is no explanation that makes the least rational sen=
se. <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 'n=
o'. <br>
<br>
Now, statehouses work very simply: a member approaches his colleagues and a=
sks
them to vote for his bill. Some comply, some do not. Some ask, 'Is it a goo=
d
bill?' and some don't. Either way, they customarily, except in unusual
circumstances, vote '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 wit=
h
the party bosses? Echo answered not. <br>
<br>
<u>(A good slogan could be made of this: 'You can't vote present in the Ova=
l
Office.' I hereby commend it to the McCain campaign.) </u><br>
<br>
We turn eagerly to learn what his term in the U.S. Senate will reveal, only=
to
be disappointed. But it's not surprising, really. After all, he was only th=
ere
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 an=
d
strange behavior to catch up with him. <br>
<br>
But a presidential campaign is a different matter. A man running for presid=
ent
is under the microscope, and can't duck anything, as many a candidate has h=
ad
reason to learn. If Obama is a flake in the classic mode, now is when it wo=
uld
come out. And has it? <br>
<br>
The case could be made. Here we have a campaign with everything going for i=
t --
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 little more t=
han
one fumble after another. <br>
<br>
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 an=
d
convincing explanation (that he hadn't been listening for twenty years) did
little to settle the crisis, which instead guttered out on its own after ne=
arly
crippling his campaign. Even months afterward it threatens to pop back up a=
t
any time. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>The latest word is that Wright -- now a deadly enemy of his
onetime prot=E9g=E9 -- has written a book. I can't wait. <br>
<br>
</span></i></b><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:red'>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.</span></i></b><b><i><span style=3D'font=
-size:
13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span><=
/i></b></p>

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<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>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
original) was allowed to explode into a major issue. <o:p></o:p></span></i>=
</b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>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. <br>
<br>
Almost simultaneously, the birth certificate saga was unfolding. On no
reasonable grounds, the campaign blew off requests for a copy of the docume=
nt,
at last releasing it through one of the least reputable sites on the Intern=
et,
and so badly copied that literally anything could be read into it -- and wa=
s. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'>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. Well
played. <br>
<br>
The latest pothole (or one of them, anyway) involves Jerome Corsi's 'The Ob=
ama
Nation'. Corsi has been given the full New Yorker treatment, with the campa=
ign
hoping to avoid John Kerry's 'error' in not challenging Corsi's 2004 book,
Unfit for Command. What Obama missed was the fact that Kerry's major proble=
m
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 vete=
ran,
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 in
operation against Obama. The smart method of answering Corsi would have bee=
n 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 O=
bama
campaign. <br>
<br>
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 wou=
nd
up appearing frightened of the opponent he'd just beaten. Allowing Hillary =
(and
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 th=
e
entire affair into BillandHillarycon, with the nominee winding up as a foot=
note.
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=
,
louts, and fools, but never a career screwup. (I except Jimmy Carter, whose
errors arose from sincere, misguided goodwill.) And I don't think we're goi=
ng
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 th=
at
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.) <br>
<br>
Many of us have dealt with flakes at one time or another, often in settings
involving jobs and careers, and not uncommonly in positions of some authori=
ty.
We all know of the nephew, the fianc=E9, the boyfriend, whose whims must be
catered to, whose reputation must be protected, who must be constantly work=
ed
around if anything at all is to be accomplished, always at the cost of time=
,
money, efficiency, 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 candidate. Such acts of national fla=
kery
occur only when there's no real alternative. In this election, an alternati=
ve exists.
<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><i><span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Ver=
dana","sans-serif";
color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>

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<div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'margin-bottom:12.0pt'><b><i><span style=3D'fo=
nt-size:
13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>Whatever his
shortcomings, nobody ever called John McCain a flake.</span></i></b><span
style=3D'font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'> <o:p></o:p></span=
></p>

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<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",=
"sans-serif";
color:black'><br>

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