I feel no need to comment, but I will excerpt some of my favorite sections. Like:
A smart, highly knowledgeable, highly accomplished friend lit into Obama and pulled no punches. Obama's corrupt economic appointees, the consequent lack of any serious financial reform, the failure to take advantage of an historic moment to change the country. Obama was an incredible disappointment.Or:
I couldn't help but disagree but I don't understand exactly why. Maybe it was simple ornery contrarianism, or maybe, having missed the first part of the discussion where he said that he was glad that the health bill passed, I felt that the very real, very obvious distinctions between Obama and Bush were being minimized.
In fact, I said, the most plausible historic opportunity available on Election Day was the potential for an immediate, and heavily- armed/funded, rightwing revolt. (Obama seems to have delayed the full onset of that, thank whatever gods or avatars you care to invoke, but it's arguable whether The Big Crazy can be avoided for much longer; certain loud voices on the right have made it abundantly clear that there will be blood, the sooner the better. Whether cooler heads exist anymore within the GOP to rein in these thugs is more the shadow of a wish than much of a hope ). I said I was glad that Obama refused to exploit his charisma back then, that it showed strength of character on his part, not a failure to lead. Charisma is not an unalloyed virtue; after all, highly charismatic leaders share at least one thing: they get people killed. Lots of them.Or, finally:
Off went my email and good, oh! it felt good.
By all means, feel free to argue that there is no essential difference between Bush's and Obama's administration and politics. Just don't ask me to discuss it with you. Not because I agree but because it would be at best as futile as explaining the sonic differences between the "grand piano" patch on a cheap Casio keyboard and a perfectly-tuned Bosendorfer to someone who was born without hearing.EVERY SENTENCE a punchline.
Put another way, to argue that there is no essential difference between Obama and Bush is as ludicrous as arguing that there was no difference between Gore and Bush. And we all know how very astute and informed and clever an observation that was.
5 comments:
...and next Diggly will pluck an ace from up her shirtsleeve, playing it to a cheater's applause.
Never mind Barack's falling bombs, Sarah Palin presents the real threat of violence.
Cuz, y'know - scared white liberals always rate above broken bodied Afghan chilluns...
The spectacle of a liberal rising out of the fog of...well, liberalism, just enough to achieve the self-awareness to understand that he is defending Obama for no good reason even though Obama fucking sucks, but no further than that, while simultaneously apparently comparing Obama to beautiful beautiful music that people like you and me are just too sorrowfully deaf to hear, is...weird.
"Weird" is a kind and generous assessment.
I stand in awe of your restraint.
I read that blog (Digby) sporadically. Digby has had moments of similarly perplexing self-awareness.
I think what it comes down to is that no matter how badly the party they support behaves, they imagine that the other party is going to behave much worse. (ZOMG! MCCAIN WOULD HAVE INVADED IRAN!!)
Which is funny, because Obama has invaded Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia, hasn't left Iraq or Afghanistan, and still is very likely to invade Iran, too.
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