Hey, everyone! It’s Backwards Day!
I wrote a little piece of satire. Tell me what you think.
Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn’t raise his standards, he will exceed Bush’s total before he is inaugurated.
Hilarious, right? Except wait — I didn’t write it. Blogger and pundit John Hinderaker wrote it, and not as satire. He was being completely serious.
What? Bush never gets sloppy when he speaks publicly? He almost never makes verbal blunders?! I’m living in a cuckoo clock! I thought even Bush’s supporters acknowledged that yeah, he ain’t the most eloquent speaker, heh heh. Part of his folksy charm and all that. Collecting examples of Bush’s mangling of the English language and general gaffes is a cottage industry. (Here’s a fun list of them!)
I understand supporting an unpopular leader until the bitter end, no matter what. But you’re supposed to do it by accentuating the leader’s positive aspects, not by pretending the negative ones — particularly the most famous ones — don’t exist. I mean, when people stick up for Bill Clinton, they focus on America’s strong economy and general prosperity during his administration. They don’t say, “It’s too bad more politicians don’t follow in Clinton’s footsteps by being morally upright family men who never cheat on their wives!”
The specific reason Hinderaker brought it up is a stretch, too. He was responding to an incident last week where president-elect Obama spoke with Polish president Lech Kaczynski on the telephone. Afterward, Kaczynski reported that Obama had told him the missile-defense project would continue. Obama’s people responded that actually, Kaczynski had raised the issue but Obama had made no commitment one way or the other on it. Hinderaker assumes that Obama spoke ambiguously to the Polish leader, not choosing his words carefully, and hence the confusion. There are several other equally plausible explanations, but Hinderaker disregards them. From there he goes to Obama being a poor speaker in general and not nearly as polished and eloquent as Bush. Whisky tango foxtrot?
November 19th, 2008 at 11:59 am
The explanation is the Kaczynski twins are ****s.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Um, what? At first I thought that the joke was going to be that the names were switched.
All you need to do is watch Letterman and see that when they need a funny Obama video clip, they have to scramble his words to make him say something funny, but when they need a funny Bush clip, all they need to do is get an ACTUAL CLIP.
This has to be a joke. “…it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed.” Are you kidding me?! Doesn’t he mean, “remarkable how MANY gaffes…he has committed?”
November 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
More partisan politics. Is Bush a terrible speaker? Yes, he’s worse than average, to be sure, and I’m sure people have compiled pages of his gaffes. For Hinderaker to pretend otherwise is ridiculous.
What is equally ridiculous is to not acknowledge the same problem is evident in a politician you personally admire. 57 states? Iran is “just a tiny country,” and not a threat to anyone? Tough questions are “above my pay grade”? “Clinging to their guns and religion”?
Obama is overall much more charismatic and polished than Bush, but he has his fair share of missteps when speaking. Yet you pretend he’s flawless by refusing to address this truth.
Are we in for eight years of (continued) incessant Obama-fawning from this blog? If so, I will most likely stop visiting and save myself the annoyance.
In before “good riddance.”
November 19th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Conservative Guy: So, you’re upset that Eric says Bush isn’t as polished a speaker as Obama, even though you agree with that statement? or are you just mad because Eric didn’t list all of Obama’s verbal gaffes to balance the Bush ones he didn’t list?
November 19th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I love how someone who calls himself “Conservative Guy” accuses Eric of partisan politics. Is this something that offends Conservative Guy? A commenter who identifies himself in his screen name as being very partisan himself? How does that make any sense whatsoever?
Oh, wait. It doesn’t. Just like stating that Bush has made few verbal gaffes during his presidency. I think I sense a pattern here….
November 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
When I think of Bush’s verbal blunders, I can think of “internets”, “nucular”, and his botched “fool me once” quote. Beyond that, it’s mostly caricatures of the way he looks or jokes concerning his general stupidity. That’s not to say he’s not gaffe-prone; I just can’t think of any recent examples.
However, I recall Obama saying that he had visited 57 states during his campaign, admitting that his own energy policies would cause economic disaster, explicitly claiming that American drivers would save as much money inflating their tires as drilling for oil on our native soil, flipping Hillary off during his remarks after a debate, and hilariously claiming that “a light will shine down… and you will say ‘I have to vote for Barack’”. He practically rode to the presidency by claiming that McCain would be nothing more than Bush v2.0 and uttering vacuous phrases such as “yes we can” and “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for”.
It’s no surprise that Obama won over a candidate as boring as McCain was, though. Palin had some notable missteps as well, but Obama’s seem to have been largely ignored so far.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
You sir, do not have the RIGHT to talk about someone else’s verbal gaffes until you have personally gotten up in front a big crowd of people and said something so incredibly stupid that they wanted to shove you down and kick you! You don’t have the right to say things like that until you have written something really angry and incoherent on the interwebs while your other 75 brain cells stood by and did nothing!!
You have… I…no…blargh!!
November 19th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Wow, its funny to watch the Liberals band together in their “Obama never says ANYTHING wrong EVER” camp. You go Chris.
C.G.,
If you’re just now figuring out HOW very Liberal Eric has become, you must have missed the column right after the election where only people who had good things to say about Obama were allowed to post. Welcome to how Eric and the majority of the news media will act for the next 4-8 years.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Andrew: The tire inflation thing is no joke or verbal gaffe. Improperly inflated tires decrease a car’s fuel efficiency by 2-4 mpg, and we as Americans drive billions of miles each year. Also with properly inflated tires, cars handle better and the tire wear is more even, helping them last longer. Tire gauges are pretty cheap at wal-mart and air only costs a quarter at the gas station, or in some cases it’s free.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
B:
“Yet you pretend he’s flawless by refusing to address this truth.”
Does that help answer your question?
Adam:
Thank you for the utterly baseless attack on my post. Well-constructed, antagonistic, and complete with a non-sequitur AND a strawman. I award you a 9.5.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Speaking of gaffes, let me bring up Biden again…. That man has had 40+ gaffes in just the time since he was chosen for the vice presidency. Seriously. The ABC senior white house correspondent has been keeping track… here’s #11!
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/oh-that-joe-n-6.html
LoL @ the Bush has not had very many gaffes quote. Does that guy live under a rock?
November 19th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
CG: So, you think that every time Obama is mentioned, his flaws have to be enumerated, or else that implies the speaker considers him to be without flaws. Does this standard apply for everybody? Because I don’t know you well enough to list all your flaws, so I’ll need to do a lot more reasearch before commenting further.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
@B – The problem with Obama’s statement is that the point (to drilling in the US) wasn’t to necessarily save us money. The point of drilling here is to wean ourselves off our dependence of foreign oil. Saving ourselves 3-4 mpg each doesn’t help us only use our own oil and not the Middle East/Russia’s oil.
Not to mention, getting 4 more mpg is not going to save me near as much as gas dropping from $4 a gallon to $2 a gallon. That saves me at least $40-$60 a month. 4 mpg better mileage? That saves me around $8 per month. Not even close. Obama’s statement is ridiculous in either context.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Conservative Guy:
Thank you for playing martyr while not answering any of the questions I posed challenging your points. Does any questioning of your opinion constitute an “utterly baseless attack,” or is it only questioning for which you have no response?
I love it how you said this: “Are we in for eight years of (continued) incessant Obama-fawning from this blog? If so, I will most likely stop visiting and save myself the annoyance.” Yet, you are obviously checking for responses to your own inflammatory comment.
Feel free to paint yourself as a pitiful victim of this “utterly baseless attack” while not addressing any of my questions about your comments.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Speaking of gaffes, let me bring up Biden again….
To be fair, we could have speaking of anything and Christina D. would have brought up Joe Biden again.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Christina: This probably isn’t the best place for an energy policy debate, but lowering gas prices can be done one of two ways, either increasing the supply or decreasing the demand. Offshore drilling, naturally, will increase the supply. However, increased fuel efficiency of cars and other conservation efforts will decrease the demand. Which explains why gas is back down to ~2.50 a gallon despite the fact that we haven’t actually started any offshore drilling yet.
We are talking about offshore drilling, right? Because last I checked it’s still legal to drill for oil in Texas.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Obama’s Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/obamas-use-of-complete-se_b_144642.html
November 19th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
That’s some funny stuff. There have probably been 750,000 [poor] Frank Caliendo impersonations of Bush’s poor public speaking ability alone, and this guy somehow never caught on to the joke. I don’t think making fun of it is particularly funny anymore, but I thought it was at least common knowledge that he isn’t exactly a terrific speaker.
November 19th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
My favorites from the site Eric linked:
“I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office.”—Washington, D.C., June 26, 2008
“I’m going to try to see if I can remember as much to make it sound like I’m smart on the subject.”—answering a question concerning a possible flu pandemic, Cleveland, July 10, 2007
Granted, both of those are simple slips of the mind, but to slip so often and so comically… John Hinderaker is obviously missing out (looks like Conservative Guy might be too).
November 19th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I’m going to make my point simply one last time and be done.
For Eric to appear much less partisan, all he needed to do here was include a sentence like “Obama has had a few gaffes himself over the past two years on the campaign trail,” and move on.
I’m not asking him to list anything, but to ignore Obama’s speaking missteps in a blog post that mentions A.) Obama and B.) speaking missteps seems disingenuous at best.
That is all.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
to ignore Obama’s speaking missteps in a blog post that mentions A.) Obama and B.) speaking missteps seems disingenuous at best.
That is only true if you miss the entire point of the post. I didn’t say, or even imply, that Obama has never made a verbal mistake himself. The point was simply that the notion of Obama being MORE gaffe-prone than Bush is so outlandishly, outrageously backwards as to be laughable.
As long as I’m responding, I’ll reply to NotJoeKing, who is obsessed with the ONE time I reserved a thread solely for expressions of celebration. (Imagine! Someone limiting the scope of a discussion on his own blog!) (One time!) You overlook the dozens of other political posts I’ve written over the last few months in which everyone was welcome to say whatever they wanted. It’s particularly wacky that you should bring up my supposed intolerance for anti-Obama sentiment here, in a thread where people are freely expressing anti-Obama sentiment. Feel free to continue to be very upset about it, though, and I will continue not to care. I just wanted to set the record straight.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
CG: I don’t think it’s necessary for Eric to appear non-partisan. First of all, it’s HIS web site. You don’t like his point of view? Don’t come here. I think Eric has pointed that out MANY times. Personally, I don’t agree with everything he writes, but I find a majority of it to be hilarious, so I put up with the stuff I don’t like. And I think I’ve even learned a few things about the “other side” along the way. Second, he was merely pointing out an article someone else wrote about how great a public speaker Bush is, when obviously he is not. Nothing really needs to be said about Obama in that too.
I’m a Bush supporter and it pains me to see this stuff, but I take the good with the bad. We know the media will lean towards the left and to take it all with a grain of salt. Try laughing at it instead of getting upset and you’ll live longer. There’s not a document in the world that guarantees you life is fair.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hilarious. You actually had me going there for a moment, because literally if you switch every Obama for Bush you have a much more accurate statement.
November 19th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I get the feeling some people here (not naming any names) will eternally argue for the side they place themselves on, no matter what, with absolutely NO INTENTION, EVER, of actually scrutinizing an opposing argument before trying to shoot it down. Sometimes I wonder, how can someone be so sure they’re right if they never rationally considered the other options?
Note: Before anyone lashes out at me, realize that this critisicm applies to both left- and right-wing sides. I’m just making an observation.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
gaffe is just not a word i use in my daily speech. i see it and automatically my brain sees giraffe.
i do think Bush is more giraffe prone. INO I have heard Bush speak.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
B already set the record straight on the tire inflation thing, but I also wanted to point out that the thing with Obama allegedly flipping Hillary off happened when he was talking to a crowd and scratched his cheek with his middle finger (obviously not the best choice of digits, but he wasn’t intentionally giving her the bird), and the “light will shine down” quote was said sarcastically, but picked up by the McCain campaign and used in a commercial implying that Obama was serious when he said it. Just keepin’ it real here.
That’s not to say that Obama’s never said anything stupid. The quote about bitter people clinging to their guns and religion was a pretty dumb one. But to say that Obama’s said more stupid things than George W. “Is our children learning” Bush? Ludicrous.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
seems you cant make fun of any republican without people getting fake-outraged and making themselves a victim even though the post had nothing to do with them to begin with
eric made fun of a conservative blogger who made a statement so out of touch with reality as to deserve derision, somehow this makes him part of the liberal media fawning over obama in the logic of some people
nobody takes joe biden seriously I dont think, and obama has any number of speechwriters and vocal coaches/therapists/what have you to make him sound good, it isn’t necessarily one of his natural qualities
the reason nobody has made a big deal of obama/biden gaffes is because they WEREN’T THE PRESIDENT when they made them, whereas bush has had 8 years of being in the most visible office in the land to paint himself as a retard, where are all the bush gaffes from 1995-2000 when he was governor of texas? nowhere to be found it seems, or maybe they just never happened
and no we shouldn’t replace our addiction to foreign oil with an addiction to our own, either way it’s going to disappear eventually and the sooner we develop alternatives the better, people who say “drill here, drill now” are no different than jackals reacting to a piece of meat hung above their heads but out of reach, it would take at least 20 years for any domestic oil to appear in our tanks and thats if we start tomorrow, not to mention creating ever more pollution
November 19th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Joe:
Quick question re: oil… I agree that one day we’ll run out of the stuff. Problem is, there is no viable alternative available. I suggest we build a bunch of nuke plants and use the electric car (the Volt and/or Tesla) when the technology is ready.
Do you agree? If not, what do you suggest?
(/hijack)
November 19th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Meh, I’m not going to fight about the oil thing beyond this next statement, but I still think Obama’s statement about that was really a stupid thing to say considering what the topic was. Of course we should move to renewable energy sources, but do you forget that in a recession, research and development pretty much die? They’ll take at least 20 years to get anything up and running, and more likely it’ll be 50 or more before we can entirely move away from oil. So in the meantime, lets get off our dependence on foreign oil and rely on the stuff from us instead. And not just offshore drilling, but alaskan oil and natural gas too.
Good luck to Obama of course, he’s in charge of what we’re going to do now as a country and anything I say won’t change it, but from campaign statements, I think he’s not going the right direction (“energy prices would necessarily rise during his administration”). We’ll see what he really does though.
@Eric – Of course! One should never forget about Biden, or one would surely lose one’s sense of humor.
I’m not sayin’ that you should have made fun of Biden in your column, or Obama. I just had to bring it up again. I seriously think that columnist must be clinically insane.
November 19th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Crap. I only found out about Backwards Day at 8 in the evening. I coulda totally gotten some people.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I’m only going to point out two things.
(1) Captain Teleprompter and First Mate Biden are gaffe-tastic. They may not be as bad as Bush but they are going to get plenty of honorable mentions.
(2) I have no idea what Hinderaker was smoking when he wrote what he wrote; I stopped reading PowerLineBlog years ago when it stopped being relevant or interesting. But liberal bloggers say crazy, stupid stuff all the time. You guys still have Andrew “WHO IS THE REAL MOTHER OF TRIG??” Sullivan in your camp. If Eric wanted to shine the spotlight on liberal bloggers and make fun of them, he could.
Now seems like a good time for the obligatory “it’s my blog/web site and I can write about whatever the hell I want” post.
November 19th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
RIdiculous blog post (Hinderaker’s, not Eric’s). Even the most ardent Bush supporters wouldn’t say speaking is a strong point.
However, I am surprised at how much of a difference there is between Obama reading off a teleprompter in his preacher voice versus Obama off-the-cuff. For me, he is surprisingly weak when speaking off the top of his head on topics that he doesn’t know much about. It’s inevitable that there will be areas in which he is still learning–no one can be an expert in all things. And unfortunately, candidate for President, President-elect, and President are all positions in which you just can’t say “I don’t know” (or “I’ll have to look ‘em up and get back to ya! (wink!)”).
I was equally surprised a few years ago when I was in a relatively small group of people where Bush spoke, and then allowed some pretty intimate Q&A afterwards. I guess because of everything I had seen and read, I assumed him to be the bumbling cowboy we all knew–except he wasn’t. I was blown away by his intelligenct, breadth of knowledge, compassion. Sure, maybe I was only blown away compared to my expectations, but just know that I still scratch my head about that one. It was like someone else had a latex face of Bush, like in Mission Impossible.
Anyway–I don’t get the controversy here. Eric rightly pointed out a ridiculous blog post, which was good for a chuckle, or an eye roll, or whatever. So he is a little overboard in his denigration of Bush or his lauding of Obama in explaining why he thought it was ridiculous–so what? It’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it.
Other random thoughts:
- That’s funny that the Polish president’s last name is Kaczynski, because, you know, the Unabomber.
- @AdamOndi: Having ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ in your screen name is not the same thing as being partisan. If you see as much in a “ConservativeGuy” screen name, maybe you’re the one who is partisan?
- @B: No one is saying tire pressure is unrelated to gas mileage. They’re saying that such an answer, in context, was a stupid answer by Obama…and it was.
- @Eric: Bringing up Biden is not appropriate? Honestly, that is the biggest head scratcher of this whole election. It was a HORRIBLE choice on Obama’s part, and he won despite him, not because of him. It was interesting to watch the Obama folks try to justify the pick and talk themselves into him. And I really don’t like Palin, so don’t take this wrong, but I was confused by the demonization of Palin and the insistence that she wasn’t prepared without comparing her to Biden, which would have been the correct comparison. Really? A drunk with bad hair plugs who makes up anything he wants to answer a question? He’s the guy you’re comfortable with being second in line? Later in the comments someone said “nobody takes joe biden seriously.” Ladies and gentlemen, your new Vice President!!! Biden is always fair game.
- We’re not really going to talk about balance here again, are we? Haven’t we done that to death? Eric isn’t balance, and doesn’t need to be. At the same time, those who disagree with him should be free to point it out. Ugh.
- I thought the request for pro-Obama comments only on the Obama victory post was pretty bush.
I think it’s interesting that only the most rabid liberals are talking much about Obama’s steps since the election (and it’s because they’re pissed). I have the think there are a ton of Obama supporters scratching their heads at his choices thus far. Biden for Veep, Podesta to run the transition, Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, Greg Craig as WH counsel, and Holder as AG. So much for changing politics in Washington!
November 19th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I gladly and willingly admit that Bush has made some amazing verbal blunders. What gets conservatives upset is that Eric’s blog is always making fun of conservatives these days. Where are the outrageous liberal blogs/comments that need lampooning? Where is the mocking of the crazy Obama supporters? The ultra-wacko liberals that shame the rational ones?
I’ve yet to see it. It’s Eric’s site, and he can do what he wants. But he mocked a BYU site claiming his site was lightly liberal, and then tells people to get lost if they don’t like the conservative mocking. If there was more of a balance, then I’d be more understanding. Show me the blogs mocking crazy liberals like Rev. Wright and I’ll concede that Eric has been fair and balanced.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I’m just going to point out that you’re comparing Bush’s 9 years of intense public scrutiny to Obama/Biden’s 1 year (at the longest).
I will also point out that the media was quick to broadcast Bush’s gaffes while they seem determined to hide Obama’s.
I think a comparison of the two is almost impossible. Especially given the length of time difference.
I will point out that Bush shredded Gore in his debates. Obama, at best, tied McCain in his. And that’s McCain we’re talking about.
November 20th, 2008 at 2:07 am
Okay okay okay. Lots of people here have brought up the oil crisis, for whatever completely random and off topic reason. I have one thing to say to those people.
DRAAAAAAINAAAAGE.
That is all.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I can say I’m firmly in the “it’s Eric’s blog for him to do with as he please” camp. Seriously people, as many have said before, if you don’t like it, don’t read the blog, especially if it’s obvious early on that it is a political/liberal post. Just a reminder, blogs are spaces for personal thoughts and reactions to the world. This is not a news site. It is not meant to be balanced. I can understand complaining if this was CNN.com and this was listed as a news story, but it is a blog and thus subject to Eric’s outlook on life. If you are upset that he is not conservative enough for you, please feel free to read one of the many conservative blogs out there to get your “unbiased” reaction to the world around you. Or if you choose to keep reading this blog, if you see that the subject is liberal leaning, please stop reading (no one requires you to keep reading after you’ve started) and move on with life. Continuing to read the blog and then hijack the comments to complain about how liberal Eric has become and bash Obama is kind of… juvenile. We get it, you don’t agree. I’m not saying you can’t agree, but it seems silly to keep posting the same comments on every political blog entry about how terrible Obama is and how he’s going to destroy our country, etc, especially when the topic isn’t even supposed to be devisive. Please calm yourselves and realize that you aren’t going to make Eric a conservative pundit by constantly attacking his blog either telling him not to talk about politics, or that he should make fun of other people that you don’t like. You are entitled to your opinions and your free speech, but I don’t see the purpose of continuing these arguments on someone’s personal blog. He is allowed to post whatever he wants, and while you are free to disagree, I don’t think that telling him not to post these topics or that he should spend equal amounts of time with anti-liberal posts is fair to him or the other readers of this blog who still find him amusing and, perhaps, even agree with him. So please think about that before you go ripping on the author because he has different political leanings than you do.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:15 am
@Thoughtful: You’re missing the point. Eric is free to write whatever he wants. Poeple are free to agree or disagree with him. It seems like you are saying that only the poeple who agree with what Eric writes should read his blog and comment on it. Should there really be no discussion in the comments?
The ‘balance’ issue is done to death–the people calling for it are wrong. But like Eric said about the SSM issue: you are entitled to take a stand on something, but not entitled to decide what other people’s reactions to that stand will be. I think Eric understands that and does a pretty good job allowing all opinions, no matter how stupid (except for the Obama victory post).
When I disagree with someone, I don’t do it because I want them to change. I do it to express my opinion, and discuss.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Ha!
It’s clear that John Hinderaker is smoking crack, or something like it.
November 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am
To be fair, here is a rather lengthy list of Obamaisms…
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama-isms.htm
November 20th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Here in Philly the local NPR station carries a show called News & Notes. There was a segment on “multiracialism” (Click Here) on November 12 where one of the commentators felt that Obama’s use of the word “mutts” to describe people of his own racial background “wasn’t helpful” and DID go on to say that Obama needed to be careful & think two or three times before he says something now that the whole world is listening. But that advice could probably be given to any president-elect. . . (and not a few presidents).
Unfortunately, most people who offer advice like that tend to do so in such an arrogant way that it’s no wonder nobody takes it. . .(the breathy & “outraged” “Well. . .HE. . .needs to REALIZE. . .that. . .he. . . JUST. . .CAN’T . .SAY. . .the first thing. . .that. . .POPS. . .into his HEAD.”)
November 20th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I’m not surprised that Obama made no comment to Kacznski about the missles. How many times did he make a basically “no comment” by voting “present” in the Senate? I’m afraid Obama has no real opinions of his own- that he will be swayed by whomever has the strongest opinion of those that are advising him. I hope I am wrong.
McCain didn’t have a prayer. Obama was a great speaker. He was the media darling. He’s young, black and ultra liberal. So many young people voted for him without even knowing what he stood for. Everyone got caught up in the “Obama Wave.” The blacks and ultra liberals thought we had to show how far we had come as a nation. If you didn’t vote for Obama you were a bigot. Add to all that the hate so many people have for Bush. Ok- Ok, I know not everyone voted for Obama fot these reasons-but many did. Race should not have been a issue -pro or con.
He may be a great president. He came a little more to the center at the end of the campaign. If he stays there, there’s hope. He’s got to do a lot more than just be “present.”
Yes Eric can write what he wants but isn’t a blog there for dicussion? Can’t you agree to disagree?
November 21st, 2008 at 9:40 am
@Q: I’m not saying there shouldn’t be discussion in the comments about the issue. I’m just getting tired of reading the same “Eric is too liberal, should bash liberals more, isn’t balanced” vs “it’s his blog to do with as he pleases” discussion. If the discussion were limited to the topic on hand – namely the statement quoted in the blog, I wouldn’t care. I just am tired of reading the same discussion every time Eric posts a political blog. That is my real point, not that discussing the topic is bad, but that discussing whether or not Eric should be posting anything liberal-leaning or political has been done to death.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am
@Thoughtful: I thought that’s what I said. You, on the other hand, seemed to be saying that people shouldn’t disagree with Eric. Indeed, you said that they should find another blog, or immediately stop reading a post if they felt they disagreed with Eric. If that’s not what you mean, than yes, we agree. My bottom line is that having a right to your own opinion doesn’t mean people can’t disagree with you–even if you have a fancy website.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot….. classic.