Iowahawk says that Barack Obama is totally ready for his foreign-policy challenge:
"Mark my words," Biden promised at the Seattle fundraiser Sunday. "There will be an international crisis. The world will be looking. They'll say, hey, here is this handsome, clean, ar-ti-cu-late young president, not unlike a very, very tanned John Fitzgerald Kennedy, dancing at his inaugural ball with his beautiful wife who is not unlike a very very very extremely tanned Jackie. And our enemies will think, 'ba ha ha, look at how thees seely new Amerikanski preseedent dances so! Such skeels can only be from many years in zee dancing school, where theys do not teaching the toughness! Launch zee meesiles!' But these enemies are in for a big surprise. America's foes must never confuse Barack Obama's terrific dance floor moves with weakness -- because as an Afro-American African, Barack is a natural dancer."
..."Ching chow pow!" added Biden, demonstrating his point with several pantomime karate chops. He also issued a pointed warning to the government of Spain.
"Let me be blunt: if you think we will sit idly by while you land your mighty galleons at Boca Raton, and unleash your gleaming-helmeted conqustadores to enslave and convert our whiny retired Jewish-Florida-Americans - well, think again, Cortes. Hey mang, say helloo to my leetle fren'!" said Biden, spraying the room with pantomime machine gun fire.
As a current resident of Rat Mouth of Jewish ancestry, I'll be ever confident with him holding the nucular football.
Say what you will, it's hard not to be impressed by the organization that the community organizer has built:
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-northern-virginia.html
...it's hard not to be impressed by the organization that the community organizer has built...
Yes, fascists do build impressive organizations...
Organizational skills, when it comes to getting people in lock step, following orders, toeing the party line etc., is that really a quality we want in a president?
Not necessarily.
Rand,
Frankly, you've made a ridiculous statement.
I spend part of my time in NoVa. I know a few Obama volunteers. They are not fascists. They are pleasant normal everyday folks. They are simply utterly determined and dedicated to electing a Democratic President.
I don't think you have any idea what you are talking about.
I still think Obama can lose. But I am very impressed with his campaign. If he wins and that organizational capacity is reflected in governance, I think America will be very well served.
I spend part of my time in NoVa. I know a few Obama volunteers. They are not fascists. They are pleasant normal everyday folks.
Of course they are. Do you think that the Hitler Youth thought they were fascists (in the ignorant sense of the word that you understand)?
Much like the crew in the "Candidate" they are well motivated, but what they are motivated about is an open question. A candidate who has no energy policy, a foreign policy based on 'hopes and dreams', a tax policy that still makes so sense. It's the "West Wing" level of delusion, except Josiah Bartlett isn't real.
A better analogy than fascism would be cultist. Mindless devotion and swooning over vague, meaningless yet hypnotic slogans like "Hope" and "Change". Abject worship of The Messiah. No criticism allowed; it's heretical. Those who do are relentlesly shunned and persecuted. Like Scientology, this Obama cult is adept at raising money.
Cultism is a key element of fascism.
"If he wins and that organizational capacity is reflected in governance
Of course, as long as Obama has the cash to crash each and every process he will be able to make all his projects look seemingly brilliant. Problem is, a process can look impressive with multitudes of people rushing around using the latest newest shiny resource but is their effectiveness really all that much better in the end. Look to the invention of the airplane and I think you will find an example of how this is not necessarily the case.
If he wins and that organizational capacity is reflected in governance, I think America will be very well served.
Ah. So he'll make the trains run on time, then?
> If he wins and that organizational capacity is reflected in governance, I think America will be very well served.
Leadership isn't about getting folks who agree with you to march in step, it's about getting things done with people who disagree with you.
Obama's campaign consists of like-minded people with a common goal. Governing is very different. For one, the other side gets a vote. (In that, governing is like war.)
I've heard Obama supporters say that Bush divided the country and that if Obama wins the US will be united. Why do they believe that Obama's election will change how his opponents feel about him and his policies?
To put it another way, remember how the left sabotaged Bush? The right can return the favor.