After campaigning for over eighteen months as the candidate of “Hope and Change,” Barack Obama succumbed to the sucking, black hole of Washington politics and officially became the candidate of “Same ol’, same ol'” on Saturday. Rather than picking a VP nominee who would re-energize his claim for change in Washington, Obama chose a man who in all liklihood, will shortly have only six other Congressional members with longer tenure and be second only to Daniel Inouye in terms of Senatorial tenure.
How the heck did Obama end up here? How and when did “Hope and Change” get tossed under the Obamination bus?
There were inklings that Obama’s slogan of “Hope and Change” was never a vision but just, well, a campaign slogan. Inklings but not absolute confirmations. Inklings like:
- His South Chicago political heritage where he had significant involvement with ACORN, was vetted by the likes of William Ayers and defeated political opponents who mysteriously had sealed divorce documents opened by courts with coincidental timing that doesn’t pass the smell test of Barry’s repeated “I didn’t know!”
- His 20+ year association with Jeremiah Wright. An association which Obama says was created from a mutual love of Christ. However, the more we know of Wright and his teachings, an association that seems to have been more about attaining a gravitas designed to support his political aspirations.
- Even though it was people like Oprah and Nancy Pelosi who have anointed Obama with deity like status, Barack himself seemed overly comfortable in this suit provided to him. In particular was his speech in St. Paul where in referring to the day of his election he said:
…This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment when we ended a war, and secured our nation, and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.
While we had inklings, a large group, probably a majority of Americans, were still entranced by the message of “Hope and Change.” They really wanted to believe that Barack was something different than the remainder of Washington, whose public approval ratings, regardless of position, had dropped to levels rarely ever seen. This desire for something different is what Obama harnessed and rode for seventeen months. He rode it up until three recent events.
The first event started a little over a month ago. It was Obama’s “World Tour”. The tour was taken to give Barack a chance to say he’d been to Iraq and that things were still all screwed up. He also needed to spend time with heads of states in countries he previously couldn’t find on a map. In short, the “World Tour” was set up to directly address perceived shortcomings in Obama’s military/Iraq knowledge and foreign affairs.
Yeah, that was the plan. It’s got to suck when well laid plans don’t turn out like you want them to. Even Time Magazine recognized that, rather than reinforcing his ability to handle foreign and military affairs, Barack’s “World Tour” left many Americans with the impression that he was ignoring domestic issues. The “World Tour” left people with the impression that in fact, “The One” had become presumptuous. The net result of the “World Tour” is that Barack Obama lost several points in the national polls. A secondary but I believe more impacting cause of the loss of “Hope,” is that the resulting drop by Obama in national polls started questioning, particularly in the MSM, about why Barack wasn’t smoking McCain in the polls.
The second event leading to the loss of “Hope,” was the Russian invasion of Georgia. The Russian invasion was a test of Obama’s ability to answer the 3 A.M. call. While McCain immediately recognized and called the parties what they were, i.e. Russia = aggressor, Georgia = ally, Obama tried several times to nuance his position. To people who were watching, it appeared that Obama needed a program to be able to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
The resulting failing grade of Obama’s 3 A.M. test reinforced concerns that he lacked foreign affairs experience. I believe it was this experience that forced Barack Obama to abandon his personal “Hope and Change” and caused him to choose Joe Biden for his VP.
The final event in the series was the Saddleback Civil Forum. While getting specific questions, Obama’s responses were attempts at nuance and avoided specificity. The most talked about example was when asked whether he believed that life began at conception, he responded by saying it was “above his paygrade” to make that determination.
Saddleback was the first time that Americans got a chance to see Obama and McCain in a (nearly) head to head debate. No one, not even Obama apologists could say that Obama had the better evening. The feedback from Saddleback was that when compared head to head, people believed McCain had answers. They did not believe that Mr. “Dance and Nuance” actually had answers that let them continue to “Hope for Change.”
I believe Team Obama came to a painful realization following Saddleback. Team Obama recognized that nuance was not going to let them win the three actual head to head debates coming against McCain and in turn the election. Team Obama realized after Saddleback that to win the election, the path forward would require one of two choices; either get specific with answers or attack McCain fiercely to move the discussion off of Obama’s policy and put McCain on the defensive. They would need someone on the ticket who could hit McCain and let Obama “stay above the fray.”
Enter Joe Biden.
As I said earlier, I believe Biden became the front runner in Obama’s mind following the response he received from Russian/Georgia incident. However, I also believe that each of the three incidents lead to confirm in Obama’s mind the need to abandon “Hope” and return to South Side Chicago politics. “Hope and Change” was a great way to get win an affirmative action cause disguised as a popularity contest (Democrat primaries), but not all American voters were only using their emotions. As Barack is finding out some of America’s voters, even some registered Democrats, use their brains in voting for a President and those folks want answers.
So Barack got Joe who:
- Is amongst the longest serving of any Congress member
- Has staff and family members who are or are tied to Washington lobbyists
- Voted against the first Gulf War and for the Iraq invasion
- Voted to give babies born after botched abortions, protection
- Has no experience acheiving success outside of politics.
and with that choice became the candidate of “Same ol’, Same ol’.”
You see in the end, the only “Hope and Change” that Obama was or is, about is the “Hope” that he becomes President and the “Change” he wants to impose on you. In the end, Obama has the same self focused, it’s all about me perspective that is more the rule than the exception in elected leadership.
Hey, you Obamamanicas, don’t worry, Barack will still talk about “Hope and Change.” He’ll need to pass out additional hits to get you through the dimming of his election hopes.
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alt=”Price for 2008 Republican VP Nominee (others upon request)(expired at convention) at intrade.com”