Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Obama vs. The REAL Enemy



Last night, I listened to two very different speeches: the first, John McCain's speech in New Orleans, was chilling. Chilling because he was patronizing, arrogant and calm. He twisted Obama's theme of "Change" to a dark, shadow usage of it, in order to instill fear. Even in his opening remarks, congratulating Obama and Clinton, his congratulations were dismissive, as though they are just petulant children who should be patted on their heads and ignored.
Obama has impressed many Americans with his eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received. As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach.
Why do I find this dismissive? Because it doesn't speak to issues. It struck me that McCain was saying that they both gave it the old college try, isn't that cute?

Then he launched into his attack on "change," saying
The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. I have a few years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in to so many failed ideas.
As he continued, I thought for a minute he'd channelled Ronald Reagan and his attack on "big govimint". Oh, wait, he did:
Like others before him, he seems to think government is the answer to every problem; that government should take our resources and make our decisions for us. That type of change doesn't trust Americans to know what is right or what is in their own best interests. It's the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people. That attitude created the unresponsive bureaucracies of big government in the first place. And that's not change we can believe in.


Dismissive. We live in a "representative democracy" which means by definition that we elect our officials to represent us. That is the type of government we have. So McCain's dismissive attack on "change we can believe in" is based upon disinformation and innuendo. What does he really want? Anarchy? The way the Bush Administration has ignored existing government agencies and plunged forth, depleting all our resources, is the end result of the "small government" that McCain and his ilk like. Secret governments, with the Big Daddy making decisions for us all. This is NOT "leadership we can believe in" which is apparently McCain's new campaign slogan.

The other speech, delivered with passion and committment, belonged to Barack Obama. Yesterday, Obama clinched the Democratic Nomination for President - a Chicagoan who happens to be African-American. A Chicagoan who makes me believe that we can make a real difference. A Chicagoan who listens to people, and who is known in Chicago as someone who builds bridges and makes coalitions that work (not unlike Senator Edward M. Kennedy has done in his 40 years in the Senate.) I am not going to quote it here, nor am I going to put up the streaming video - lots of other bloggers have done so already.

Obama's ability to fire up a crowd is amazing. He makes me feel I can do more to heal America. He has inspired young people. He has inspired people who had become so jaded and tired that they no longer paid attention. He has done the very thing John F. Kennedy did in his Inaugural Address, when Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." He has asked us to commit to a better way of doing things.

McCain is the one who presents old and tired ideas. He's the "father who knows best" and we're the uninformed children. Obama trusts Americans to work for the greater good. He will end our involvement in Iraq - a war we should never have waged. He will probably make Hillary Clinton the point person to get Health Care for all Americans. He will re-instate environmental protections. He will encourage us, the citizens, to do our patriotic duty and ask the hard questions. And to act.

History was made last night. Let's help make history again in November.

16 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

Wonderful evisceration of McCain, Diva! I am again struck by his appropriation of the word "change", as if by saying the word he has somehow made himself the change candidate. And seriously, he yaks about smaller govt & being more personally responsible at the same time as he supports the biggest rip-off of american wallets in history?!?

I am soooo looking forward to the next few months. So much material to choose from, I feel like a kid in a candy store! The differences between the candidates are so stark, there should be none of this "oh they're all the same" crapola this election.

And then, coming up over the horizon, we have an excellent McCain antidote in Obama ... one who embodies the best of America, the likes of which I never thought I would see again in my lifetime.

DivaJood said...

DK, it really is exciting. I haven't felt this good about a campaign in eons. My god, did McCain piss me off last night, saying "Change" over 30 times. We will rock this election.

jmsjoin said...

I have been seeing McCain off and on all day and that sneering, grinning, smirk, or whatever he calls that sinister smile is getting down right alarming and he is sounding more and more like a mad man. I fully expect him to self destruct when he does get his wish for one on ones with Obama at town hall meetings.

Coffee Messiah said...

I felt like you, like attempting to listen to bush, had to turn his rhetoric off quick.

The good that may come out of this, and perhaps these old timers don't realize yet, but there are many of us are aware of how backwards that old thinking is, among other things, and now indeed is time to step forward.

Besides, what good has come from any of these people up to now?

And really, other than words and labels, what has he really done to change anything up to now?

Some maverick! ; (

DivaJood said...

Jim, my brother and I, at dinner tonight, talked about the possibility of a McCain/Lieberman ticket, then we burst out laughing - the two geriatric egomaniacs!

Coffee, some maverick indeed. He talks out of both sides of his mouth, he lies, he patronizes - and last night, his cadence reminded me so much of Ronald Reagan that I nearly lost it. Then to contrast McCain's speech with the fire of Obama, it was incredible!

D.K. Raed said...

Colbert just showed pics of Obama's crowd last night, juxtaposed with McCain's "throngs of dozens"!

I know McC uses Lieberman & Lindsay to prop him up, but I keep thinking he'll try to get Jeb for VP, maybe even Condi. We'd probably know for sure if any news leaked from the secret Bush fundraiser last week.

jmsjoin said...

Diva
That would be funny. I think that young Indian would be more like it. Visually and energetically he reminds me of JFK. I just read a thread at Lydia's I wish I didn't delete it but it was about Obama confronting Lieberman rather forcefully on the Senate floor after Lieberman started the4 asinine rhetoric about Obama being a danger to Israel and the middle east. it was pretty good I wish I saved it!

DrDon said...

Diva - Thanks for stopping by my blog. Hope you keeping popping in every now and then. I'll add you to my scant roll as well.

McCain is a pretty frightening guy but I think that's the Republican m.o. Think of these past 8 years. It's all been fear- mongering. They've tried to make us see threats everywhere in the world. I've said it before but while there's no doubt that some people hate the U.S. and want to see us fall, most people in the world are just trying to get by, feed families, and have a decent life. Everyone is not out to get us. McCain is more of the same paranoid rhetoric, though I give him a bit more slack than W because McCain's life experiences would certainly have made me a bit xenophobic.

DivaJood said...

DK, I missed Colbert last night - "throng of dozens" indeed. And the very idea of anyone using Joe Lieberman to prop them up is hilarious - enough speeches by Lieberman and Ambien is out of business.

Jim, the lies and innuendo that will be shunted about in re: Obama are only just beginning. One of my favorites is the lie that Obama is Muslim. He is not. But he's got a heap of dignity and I think will rise way above that.

drdon, Welcome to Diva Land. The Republican M.O. has been finely honed since Nixon - it is a politics of hate and lies, wound together into a club of fear. They bludgeon us with fear. And while I acknowledge McCain's Vietnam experiences, I have a whole heap of friends who served in Nam who do not share his xenophobia. I just think he's a bad man.

Blueberry said...

I am looking forward to the MCain/Obama debates! It's about time!

DivaJood said...

Blueberry, no kidding. Game ON.

robin andrea said...

I listened to Obama's speech Tuesday night and had tears in my eyes. He will be a great candidate and president. While I listened I thought how John Kerry never sounded like this. It is such an exciting time. John McCain stands as the old man trying to stop the earth from revolving. His time has past, and when he opens his mouth, it's obvious. Yes, let the games begin.

DivaJood said...

Robin, John Kerry didn't sound like Obama, nor did Al Gore. Nor did Bill Clinton. Obama has a passion I've not seen in 40 years. I also had tears in my eyes. My daughter thought that was a bit peculiar, but, at 35, she'd not experienced the murders of JFK, MLK, or Bobby Kennedy. To have hope restored, what a miracle.

Unknown said...

I don't watch Fix News unless I am at my Ortho Surgeons office..but last night I watched a clip of the talking heads over there and everyone of them said McCain looked and sounded like pure bat guano up against Obama Tuesday evening.

That gives me hope that the rest of Amerika will see the huge difference too..

Randal Graves said...

Obama vs. The REAL Enemy, his black muslim past! Good job, Jood!

Oh, you meant McCain. John Sidney? Really? Even with that hat?

DivaJood said...

Dusty, McCain was actually so much like Ronnie Raygun, it was astonishing.

Randal, Obama is black? Holy guacamole.