A new article which has an interesting view.
Why isn’t Barack Obama doing better? Why, after all that has happened, does he have only a slim two- or three-point lead over John McCain, according to an average of the recent polls? Why is he basically tied with his opponent when his party is so far ahead?
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The ConversationTimes columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins discuss the 2008 presidential race.
All Conversations »His age probably has something to do with it. So does his race. But the polls and focus groups suggest that people aren’t dismissive of Obama or hostile to him. Instead, they’re wary and uncertain.
And the root of it is probably this: Obama has been a sojourner. He opened his book “Dreams From My Father” with a quotation from Chronicles: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers.”
There is a sense that because of his unique background and temperament, Obama lives apart. He put one foot in the institutions he rose through on his journey but never fully engaged. As a result, voters have trouble placing him in his context, understanding the roots and values in which he is ineluctably embedded.
Last week Jodi Kantor of The Times described Obama’s 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School. “The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count,” Kantor wrote.
He was a popular and charismatic professor, but he rarely took part in faculty conversations or discussions about the future of the institution. He had a supple grasp of legal ideas, but he never committed those ideas to paper by publishing a piece of scholarship.
He was in the law school, but not of it.
This has been a consistent pattern throughout his odyssey. His childhood was a peripatetic journey through Kansas, Indonesia, Hawaii and beyond. He absorbed things from those diverse places but was not fully of them.
His college years were spent on both coasts. He was a community organizer for three years but left before he could be truly effective. He became a state legislator, but he was in the Legislature, not of it. He had some accomplishments, but as Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker wrote, he was famously bored by the institution and used it as a stepping stone to higher things.
He was in Trinity United Church of Christ, but not of it, not sharing the liberation theology that energized Jeremiah Wright Jr. He is in the United States Senate, but not of it. He has not had the time nor the inclination to throw himself into Senate mores, or really get to know more than a handful of his colleagues. His Democratic supporters there speak of him fondly, but vaguely.
And so it goes. He is a liberal, but not fully liberal. He has sometimes opposed the Chicago political establishment, but is also part of it. He spoke at a rally against the Iraq war, while distancing himself from many antiwar activists.
This ability to stand apart accounts for his fantastic powers of observation, and his skills as a writer and thinker. It means that people on almost all sides of any issue can see parts of themselves reflected in Obama’s eyes. But it does make him hard to place.
When we’re judging candidates (or friends), we don’t just judge the individuals but the milieus that produced them. We judge them by the connections that exist beyond choice and the ground where they will go home to be laid to rest. Andrew Jackson was a backwoodsman. John Kennedy had his clan. Ronald Reagan was forever associated with the small-town virtues of Dixon and Jimmy Carter with Plains.
It is hard to plant Obama. Both he and his opponent have written coming-of-age tales about their fathers, but they are different in important ways. McCain’s “Faith of My Fathers” is a story of a prodigal son. It is about an immature boy who suffers and discovers his place in the long line of warriors that produced him. Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” is a journey forward, about a man who took the disparate parts of his past and constructed an identity of his own.
If you grew up in the 1950s, you were inclined to regard your identity as something you were born with. If you grew up in the 1970s, you were more likely to regard your identity as something you created.
If Obama is fully a member of any club — and perhaps he isn’t — it is the club of smart post-boomer meritocrats. We now have a cohort of rising leaders, Obama’s age and younger, who climbed quickly through elite schools and now ascend from job to job. They are conscientious and idealistic while also being coldly clever and self-aware. It’s not clear what the rest of America makes of them.
So, cautiously, the country watches. This should be a Democratic wipeout. But voters seem to be slow to trust a sojourner they cannot place.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/opinion/05brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
However, another source states:
Obama is well on track to win with over 300 electoral votes (it takes 270), and this race hasn't changed since June.Obama is winning ALL the 2004 Kerry states plus Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico (just the Kerry states + Ohio = President Obama)
In addition, Obama has caught up to or passed McCain in Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado and Nevada. McCain has to win ALL of them, plus Ohio. This will most likely NOT happen.
Obama is crushing McCain. It's not even close despite how it appears through meaningless national polls.
So...is Obama falling short or is he really on the course for victory?
Originally posted by Robtard
You know, being a conspiracy theorist supporter yet saying "probably" doesn't jive well.If you don't really believe your own conspiracies, how do you expect to convince others?
Because I am not All-Knowing like yourself, and I know it. Besides, who said I am trying to "convince" people... why would I waste my time trying to convince salivating easily-fooled sheep?
As long as you know you're inferior, it's all good.
Your actions said it. How sad for you though, you claim people are "salivating easily-fooled sheep", yet you can't convince them of your conspiracies. Then again as noted, you don't really believe them yourself, maybe you're just one of those "sheep"? Chance?
Originally posted by Robtard
As long as you know you're inferior, it's all good.Your actions said it. How sad for you though, you claim people are "salivating easily-fooled sheep", yet you can't convince them of your conspiracies. Then again as noted, you don't really believe them yourself, maybe you're just one of those "sheep"? Chance?
Well since you can't see the simple fact that I have no desire to "convince", that says "it all" to me. You can't read, apparently... you do silly flips for me... FOR FREE. Thank yew.
BTW: Yes I know I am inferior to you. Happy, Good? Now go get your ****ing shine box.
Originally posted by inimalist
didn't you try to give me shit for saying "almost"?Don't assume you know the reason I did either.
😉
Yeah? So? Do you want a cup-cake?
Originally posted by Heat_Vision
If you look in Nostradamus Quatrains you will find Barrack Obama's name six hundred and sixty six times just before the end of the world part in the last pages of the book. Look it up. Barrack Obama is the Devil. devil2
Oh really? 😱 💃 ! It's about time the Apocalypse started 😛.
Originally posted by Blinky
Oh really? 😱 💃 ! It's about time the Apocalypse started 😛.
I found Obama's other alias on YouTube!
Originally posted by Blinky
Well since you can't see the simple fact that I have no desire to "convince", that says "it all" to me. You can't read, apparently... you do silly flips for me... FOR FREE. Thank yew.BTW: Yes I know I am inferior to you. Happy, Good? Now go get your ****ing shine box.
Must suck not being smart enough to keep your bulshit in order, eh? I do find it funny how you sodomize yourself with each post though, thanks for that laugh and do keep it up.
Ah, a 'Good Fellas' quote , good movie that.
Originally posted by KidRock
I just read that our Messiah Sir Barack Obama has solved Americans oil problem.."Keep your tired inflated and your cars tuned properly".*bow down*
The messiah has solved another American problem!
Like I said, instead of foolishly trying to demonize Obama with things he didn't actually say/mean, you should look harder at the candidate you're voting for.
Originally posted by Robtard
Must suck not being smart enough to keep your bulshit in order, eh? I do find it funny how you sodomize yourself with each post though, thanks for that laugh and do keep it up.Ah, a 'Good Fellas' quote , good movie that.
Ok... you accused me of self-sodomy, while you yourself have a gaping arse and d*ck covered in your own shit. Read this carefully and understand it : I Never tried to convince anybody of my views, that is why when you asked for "proof", I chose not to provide you or anybody with any. Now, you must have me confused with somebody who played into your little games of silly flips and tap-dancing.
Maybe you should take the advice you gave me: Stop shoving your Vienna sausage between your Christmas hams & read your post before you puke them out.
Originally posted by Blinky
Ok... you accused me of self-sodomy, while you yourself have a gaping arse and d*ck covered in your own shit. Read this carefully and understand it : I Never tried to convince anybody of my views, that is why when you asked for "proof", I chose not to provide you or anybody with any. Now, you must have me confused with somebody who played into your little games of silly flips and tap-dancing.Maybe you should take the advice you gave me: Stop shoving your Vienna sausage between your Christmas hams & read your post before you puke them out.
Ah, the troll is now accusing others of trolling, funny. Do run off now.