Originally Posted By ecdc vbdad, as I reread your post, I'm worried we're talking past each other. I know you're not saying all Obama supporters are like this. I know you believe it's a minority, perhaps even a small minority. Nor am I asserting that all Obama supporters are level-headed and rational. I have no doubt that, somewhere in the country, a newborn child was named Barack Obama Anderson after his parents got swept up in the moment These things are beyond the point I'm trying to make. My issue remains the use of the label "messiah" or "second coming." My two assertions are: 1) If this term is being used literally, then those who use it need to show where some of Obama's supporters actually believe he is the literal second coming of Jesus, or the literal incarnation of the Messiah. I don't think those people exist, beyond perhaps a crazy homeless person somewhere. 2) If the term is meant as hyperbole, it's usefulness died away long ago. If you had said "a vocal minority believes he's the second coming" and it was the first time any of us had heard the label, it wouldn't be an issue. We might chuckle at the cleverness, or we might appreciate the use of hyperbole to make the point that some Obama supporters can be a little over the top in their adoration. But it's the millionth time it was used over the course of 18 months. It's used after Rush and Hannity have said it, after McCain used it in commercials in his campaign, after Hillary used it in her campaign, etc. It's completely lost its effectiveness as hyperbole, and like I said, IMO, it makes those who use it look like right-wing nuts. The only people still using the term Messiah to describe Obama supporters are the same people who said they wish Obama would fail. It's insulting to those of us who count ourselves as Obama supporters, who are energized by his Presidency, and who do believe he's genuinely a great leader.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>People are forgetting that both sides of the aisle EXAGGERATE. They do.<< And again, I call B.S. on "they're all the same" approach. Yes, there are nuts on both sides. Yes both sids are guilty at times of the same rhetoric and the same flaws. But there's also the issue of frequency, number of crazies, etc. Right now (and I truly hope the thumping they got in the election will change this) the GOP is much more right-winged than the Democrats are left-winged. More rank and file Republicans listen to Rush Limbaugh than rank and file Democrats listen to Air America. That doesn't mean all rank and file do, but a lot do. More fringe elements are in charge of the Republican party than are in charge of the Democratic party. Sarah Palin ended up as the vice-Presidential nominee; Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel didn't. So the question for me becomes, how long can a fringe be running a party or heavily influencing a party, before it's no longer referred to as "the fringe" and is just, "the party?" Is the GOP to that point yet? I'd argue in some ways it is, but that it remains pretty split.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <It's insulting to those of us who count ourselves as Obama supporters, who are energized by his Presidency, and who do believe he's genuinely a great leader.< I gave you the term last used I saw on the news -- as far as the term messiah or second coming...I have to tell you I've used that many times in my life to describe someone who either thought that much of themselves to believe they were the 'second coming' -- or the word Messiah in describing people who followed blindly a certain person. Maybe it's my upbringing -- raised in a very Catholic household - former altar boy- kids go to private school etc....it's terms that are part of the vernacular. I can't control what Rush or any of those other goofs say or use..(lucky for them) - nor do I pay any attention. If it happens to match - it matches but not because I am in any way linked to them. I've also called people Moses when they've tried to over control situations by choosing who does what and when -- I use the term BVM for the blessed virgin in describing some holier than thou mothers of friends of mine when I was a kid...etc.. ( let me be clear if any of these terms show up in radioland, I am not a writer for those shows) It's part of my life and verbage. so again, as I have stated over and over it is not to discredit those who are true supporters ( the very vast majority) but for those of us still waiting and watching and hoping they are right...it's hard to listen to the other stuff- and as mawnck said - yes, some of the way over the top stuff is occuring..why be so defensive about it - it's not you?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <Sorry vbdad, I posted 61 before I saw your latest post.< np -but I am hoping I am making myself clearer - it's not always easy in print...
Originally Posted By mawnck Come to think of it, I distinctly remember an interview on the news in which an elderly black lady was asked what it was like seeing Obama sworn in. Her response ... and I'm pretty sure this is a direct quote ... was "like Jesus is back on the throne!" So, uh, yeah. I hate to agree with Rush, but it was right there in high definition.
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin Like and is are different....semantics maybe...but I think the point is valid.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 if we're going to split hairs - breakdown that sentence - the like is referring to the situation, the Jesus would be Obama. Why is it so hard to admit some people are doing this..? That part I don't get at all. It doesn't change the main facts
Originally Posted By DAR <<More rank and file Republicans listen to Rush Limbaugh than rank and file Democrats listen to Air America>> Don't you have to be on the air to have people listening to you?
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "So I am an American too - no need to wave the flag at me -- you can continue your hunt for the evil conservatives elsewhere - you missed here....it is not VBdad55 in the conservatory with the candlestick...check your cards" Hunting for evil conservatives is so 2007.
Originally Posted By mawnck Let's put an end to all this right now. "The CNN Digital Network was the no. 1 online destination among current events and global news sites, according to the research firm Nielsen Online. It had 11 million unique visitors on Tuesday when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president. The MSNBC Digital Network followed with 10 million unique visitors and Yahoo! News took the No. 3 spot with 9.1 million. Rounding out the top five was the Fox News Digital Network and AOL News. For its webcast, CNN partnered with Facebook to supply status updates from one's friends on the social networking site. CNN.com earlier said it served more than 21.3 million streams globally that day between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. EST. _ the most in its history by far. The Associated Press provided 8 million live video streams through its online video services. The AP launched its ad-supported Online Video Network in late 2006. Traffic also soared on Whitehouse.gov, which debuted a redesign at the time Obama took the oath of office. It drew 1.3 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen Online.<< Any way you slice it, Reagan LOSES! Neener neener neeeeeener! <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/cnncom-inauguration-day-w_n_160367.html" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...367.html</a>
Originally Posted By Mr X ***On January 20, 1981, there was actual *news* going on. Didn't the networks have the inauguration and the release of the American hostages in Iran on split screens?*** This just occurred to me as well. It was too long ago to remember why I was home that day (I would assume I should've been in school, but I skipped alot lol), but I remember watching with far greater interest the hostages coming home story..though the Reagan speech was interesting as well (fwiw, I'm pretty sure I didn't bother watching any of the events in 85 and 89, but again I was probably in school anyway).
Originally Posted By Mr X ***More rank and file Republicans listen to Rush Limbaugh than rank and file Democrats listen to Air America.*** What do you expect, when their number two leader actually does interviews with the guy (I don't recall if McCain did any)? That's an endorsement of his views right there. It goes right to the top.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt It's really a shame what has happened to the conservatives. The hard core fringe remind me of the Miss America Pageant - all pretty and dressed up for the show but nobody is watching. Just so out of touch. Any psychics out there care to tell us what they think the Republican Party will look like in four years? Surely they won't be trotting Governor Palin out in front of the masses to run for President, will they?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 ^^^^^^^^^^ if they do I hope they are not calling themselves the GOP any more.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Lets see, from a Google search.... From an Melbourne, Australia newspaper. <a href="http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24945058-24218,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.news.com.au/heralds...,00.html</a> >>America has its messiah NEVER was a kingdom so celebrated might have been the first impression as a multitude gathered at the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. There was a chant of, Oh-bar-mah, Oh-bar-mah, Oh-bar-mah, as a worldwide audience of billions saw signs raised proclaiming, We HAVE overcome. But any cult of personality built on the election of the republic's first African-American president was in turn overcome by his message of still darker days. Barack Obama was within sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the statue of the president who abolished slavery. The face of the new president was set in the enormity of the moment. There was a sense here of a great civil rights rally as he proclaimed that people "from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born" should know that America was a friend of each nation and ready to lead once more. The achievement of President Obama's election was simply put. His father might not have been served in a restaurant less than 60 years ago, said the President. But his son could now stand before the American people to take a most sacred oath. They were deeply moving words and exemplified a change that has come to the United States after bitter decades of segregation and racial conflict. 'Nothing is impossible if people work together' is a message for troubled times. The soaring rhetoric expected from a politician who has arrived almost as a messiah was preceded by a human moment as Senator Obama misplaced a word in taking the oath of office. There was a smile and while America needs a president, the country also needs an everyman. There was another moment. America wraps its politics in religion, but not always humour. Unexpectedly, the civil rights leader Rev Joseph Lowery provided it when he called on God to help America work for the day "when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man and when white will embrace what is right." It was a time to smile as heavy clouds gather. America is embattled, not just by foreign wars but within its economic borders. The toll is rising rapidly as millions find themselves out of work and institutions crumble with only deep government intervention left to save them. Americans steep themselves in often awkward political sentiments when heard through Australian ears. We are not used to our leaders wearing their hearts on their sleeves. Nevertheless President Obama's heartfelt emotions recognise some of the darkest economic times to blight America and the world.<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/23/MNKF15FUK5.DTL&type=politics" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/...politics</a> >>The Obama brand is a red-hot commodity Barack Obama, the new leader of the free world, has become red-hot commodity - in the free market. The Obama "brand" has become the one of the hottest pitches in the advertising and marketing universe. From Pepsi to Ikea to Beanie Babies, advertisers are riffing off Obama campaigns and Obama-inspired themes to sell commemorative plates, TV show plots, Sasha and Malia-inspired dolls and cute kid clothes and Michelle's olive J. Crew leather gloves. Bottom line: Obama - and everything associated with him - has gone platinum on Madison Avenue. "He's the new messiah ... everyone is wondering if he's red, white and blue with a cape," laughs marketing expert Dean Donaldson, a digital strategist with Eyeblaster, the New York- and London-based leader in digital and new media advertising. "It's quite amusing."<<
Originally Posted By Darkbeer Interesting comments over at Mother Jones, a liberal website. <a href="http://academic.udayton.edu/race/2008ElectionandRacism/Obama/Obama57.htm" target="_blank">http://academic.udayton.edu/ra...ma57.htm</a> >> Barack Obama has a messiah complex and no one will convince me otherwise. You can find the prepared version of last night's victory speech here, and you can video of his delivery here. Comparing the two reveals that Obama improvises quite a bit, and does so impressively. But what he improvises is some awfully heady, almost messianic, stuff. Follow me after the jump. Here's a lengthy improvised section that I transcribed off the video. It's gorgeous, especially when you hear the crowd respond to it. But Obama puts himself in some exclusive company. _______________ >Nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody, somewhere is willing to hope. Somebody is willing to stand up. Somebody who is willing to stand up when they are told "No you can't" and instead they say, "Yes we can." That's how this country was founded. A group of patriots declaring independence against a mighty British empire—nobody gave them a chance—but they said, "Yes we can." That's how slaves and abolitionists resisted that wicked system, and how a new president charted a course to ensure we would not remain half slave and half free. That's how the greatest generation—my grandfather fighting in Patton's Army, my grandmother staying at home with a baby and still working on a Bomber assembly line—how that greatest generation overcame Hitler and fascism, and also lifted themselves up out of a Great Depression. That's how pioneers went West when people told them it was dangerous, they said, "Yes we can." That's how immigrants traveled from distant shores when people said their fates would be uncertain, "Yes we can." That's how women won the right to vote, how workers won the right to organize, how young people like you traveled down South to march and sit in and go to jail, and some were beaten and some died for freedom's cause. That's what hope is. That's what hope is. That's what hope is, Madison. That moment when we shed our fears and our doubts. When we don't settle for what the cynics tell us we have to accept. Because cynicism is a sorry sort of wisdom. When we instead join arm in arm and decide we are going to remake this country, block by block, precinct by precinct, county by county, state by state. That's what hope is. There's a moment in the life of every generation, when that spirit has to come through if we are to make our mark on history. And this is our moment. This is our time.< __________ This is our moment to do what? To march? To organize? No. To vote for Obama. As if simply by voting for one man, we make a mark upon this country as indelibly as those who fought the Nazis or sat at lunch counters. But the easiness of Obama's movement isn't what bothers me most. I am profoundly troubled that any candidate would chart the course of American history as follows (and I'm rearranging Obama's history here to make it more chronological): American Revolutionaries -> Manifest Destiny -> Slaves/Abolitionists -> Suffragettes -> the Labor Movement -> the Greatest Generation -> the Civil Rights Movement -> Himself. Does this post play unhelpfully into the pernicious and growing Obamaism-as-cult meme that we'll likely see repeated over and over by the right wing if Obama gets the nomination? It does. Sorry. But Obama's rhetoric makes an undeniable suggestion: that his election, not an eight-year administration that successfully implements his vision for America, would represent a moment in America of the grandest, most transformative kind. And that's a bit much.<<
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "if they do I hope they are not calling themselves the GOP any more." Right. Honestly, I believe wholeheartedly in a two party system. Once upon a time I was a conservative Democrat, and I actually voted for Reagan for his first term. I'm sincerely hoping that for the sake of our nation the GOP will learn from its mistakes, become more inclusive, and let go of the childlike PETTINESS. Darkbeer, are you listening?
Originally Posted By Darkbeer From today's news.... <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232009/news/politics/prez_zings_gop_foe_in_a_timulating_talk_151572.htm" target="_blank">http://www.nypost.com/seven/01...1572.htm</a> >>President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration. "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package. One White House official confirmed the comment but said he was simply trying to make a larger point about bipartisan efforts. "There are big things that unify Republicans and Democrats," the official said. "We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done." That wasn't Obama's only jab at Republicans today. In an exchange with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the proposal, the president shot back: "I won," according to aides briefed on the meeting. "I will trump you on that." <<
