Obama Nailed

Barack Obama is a man of promise.

But it is not his promise that we are emotionally and politically being appealed to to fulfil; it is the promise of all those who stood, sacrificed and suffered before him in the name of racial equality.

It is the promise of the sacrifice of Martin Luthur King Jr, and the promise of Robert Kennedy. It is the promise of the sacrifice of brave individuals like Rosa Parks.

The emotional and political message of Obama’s acceptance speech, from the stage setting of the Lincoln Memorial from which King made his “I have a dream” speech, to the incantation of King and Kennedy in his speech, was that this is the man to fulfil the dream of giants.

It was the subliminal emotional message of Obama’s speech and preceeding speakers and video that it is only through electing Obama to the presidency of the United States that the promise of King, Kennedy and Parks will be realised.

Obama himself is a man of no promise of his own. He says he promises to change the way politics is engaged in, yet day by day adopts more and more of the same old politics that he foreswears.

He is a man who will benefit from the sacrifice of the giants and brave individuals before him, at no cost to himself. He wants us to see in him King and Kennedy, so that we don’t notice that the man he would have us believe is ordained by history and the legacy of others to deliver the promise of equality is an empty shell.

victoria3220 of Geelong
Mon 01 Sep 08 (12:44pm)

Stolen with love from the Andrew Bolt thread “Vote For The Black Guy To Prove You’re Not Racist”.

The overall message that Obama is riding on the coattails of great achievements such as that of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Mildred Loving and a host of other great Americans is quite true. He’s receiving the benefits of their work and achievement, yet the policies he’s proposing to introduce will reverse all the work these people achieved. His policies are those of reverse-racism, whereas their work was all done to work towards true equality.

Change for Change’s Sake

Number of times each Democrat said “change” or “changes” during Saturday’s televised debates

Democrats

Hillary Rodham Clinton	25 times	“I embody change. I think having the first woman president is a huge change.”
John Edwards	14 times	” I believe deeply in change.”
Barack Obama	14 times .	“We’re going to bring about real change”
Bill Richardson	8 times	“I love change. We all are for change.

Source: USA TODAY

Is “change” going to be the buzzword of the 2008 US Elections, much as “working families” was here in Oz? It’s certainly just as empty a phrase.

“I embody change!” “I believe deeply in change!” “We are all for change!” “I love change!”

Change, change, change-y change-ness. Change-ified change-ocity.

Sorry to go off on a tangent there, but hearing Hillary repeat that word 25 times has affected me. Or maybe my problem was in trying to renovate the “Working Families” Drinking Game into the “Change-y Change-ness” Drinking Game.

Is this the best buzzword y’all could come up with? What’s the deal? Don’t you all have “Working Families” in America?

……………………………………………………

UPDATE: I now have the transcript of the 5 January 2008 Democratic Debate. I count more than 90 utterances of “change” words. But is Hillary channelling Woody from “Cheers”? You be the judge:

“I want to make change, but I’ve already made change. I will continue to make change. I’m not just running on a promise of change. I’m running on 35 years of change. I’m running on having taken on the drug companies and the health insurance companies, taking on the oil companies. So, you know, I think it is clear that what we need is somebody who can deliver change. And we don’t need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. The best way to know what change I will produce is to look at the changes that I’ve already made.”–Hillary Clinton, Jan. 5, 2008

Woody: “I believe I was elected to the city council as an agent of change, and I fully intend to live up to that pledge. I will make change.” Frasier: “No, change ‘change’ to ‘a change.’ ” Woody: “What?” Frasier: “No, see in here, you make change. There you make a change, so just make the change–change ‘make change’ to ‘make a change’–OH, JUST CHANGE IT!!” [storms out of the bar] Woody: “I think I see why Dr. Crane never cures anybody.”–dialogue from “Cheers,” May 20, 1993

–HT: opinionjournal.com for the Cheers ref.

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