Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Obama's Broken Promise



What a difference a few months and a lot of desperation can make in a person's character and behavior. The lastest evidence that Obama's slick facade of "change" is crumbling is his comment that putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change it from being a pig. Well, it is an obvious reference to Palin's joke about lipstick on a Pit Bull, and if he thinks that he's fooling anyone then he's sorely mistaken. He just keeps on offending those whose votes he really needs to win. And if you think that it wasn't an intentional insult, then why did he hesitate after, "you can put lipstick on a pig," in order to let the audience "get it" and applaud and laugh? If he's as smart as people think, he'd have known better.

Let's look at a New York Times article from January of this year:

At the start of the campaign, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had believed that Mr. Obama’s promise of a different kind of politics — free of the sharp elbows and attacks of the past generation — would handcuff him from running an effective campaign. As she leaves New Hampshire, the reverse appears to be true: it is the Clinton campaign that is handcuffed by the aura that surrounds Mr. Obama. Every time either Clinton or one of their surrogates attack Mr. Obama, they stand as reminders of the kind of politics that Mr. Obama has vowed to transcend.


That Obama vowed to transcend. Yeah. I guess we can see that he's really no different from any of the old white guys that he wants to replace. I don't see how his broken promise is any kind of reassurance that he really can be different. I mean really. If you think I am wrong, then please show me some real evidence to the contrary of my conclusion that Obama is just another talking head whose motives and intentions aren't any more pure or benevolent than his opponents'. Change we can believe in, my ass. Obama is getting really close to being put on my list of Pitchforks. ;-)

Update: Okay, now he's completely denying that he meant anything by the lipstick comment, of course. Just more evidence that he just more of the same, or even worse. I really hate to reveal my dark side, but it really tempts me to say something like, 'you can put a suit on a ______, but he's still a ______.' If he was really and truly interested in sticking to the real issues and "transcending" these inflammatory things then his best response would have NOT blamed the McCain campaign for being upset. His best, positive and gentlemanly response would have been to say something like:

Wow, I'm really sorry that some people took my statements wrong and got upset. That was not my intention at all, and I would very much like to get beyond this unfortunate misunderstanding and focus on the real issues...


But no, his response was to accuse them of a "made-up controversy." Yeah, blame the victim. That's an old ploy, just like the old bags who justified their attacks on Sarah Palin's motherhood by the fact that she is a mother. (No, it doesn't make any real sense, but that doesn't stop them.) Oh, yeah, just blow it off as some women being oversensitive or something, like we women have been hearing all our lives when men try to excuse their insulting us. And how many women have had to endure sexual harrassment that is explained by the men as "innocent comments"? Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting that these sensitive rules don't apply to conservative women.

He goes on to say:

What their campaign has done this morning is the same game that has made people sick and tired of politics in this country," Obama said. "They seize on an innocent remark, try to take it out of context, throw up an outrageous ad, because they know that it’s catnip for the media.


You don't fool me, Obama, because you knew exactly what you were doing when you first made the pig comment. I know you, and all of your advisors, can't really be so dumb as to not have anticipated the natural, negative response to your statement. Come on. Wow. Talk about catnip for the media? You baited the McCain campaign with something much worse than catnip. All in order to turn it against them and try to make yourself look like the victim. Blah, blah, blah. Just more of that same old political garbage. And the real truth is that Sarah Palin has been the one suffering through two weeks of "made up controversy".

Really now, how hard would it have been for you to be man enough to just say, "Hey, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," instead of discounting and disrespecting the real feelings of so many people by telling them their feelings were a "made up controversy"? If you really want to "transcend" the old crap and to represent a positive change, then ACT LIKE IT!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama wasn't referring to Palin or to her quip about pitbulls and lipstick--his use of one identical word doesn't connect the two.

The old "lipstick on a pig" remark has been commonly used for a long time (by Democrats, Republicans, and those who aren't politicians at all) to describe someone dressing up something and trying to say that it is then something else--what Obama was referring to was his opinion that the policy intentions of the McCain campaign are really just the same as the Bush administration's, and I have a hard time seeing how even supporters of Bush and/or McCain could think that their stances are substantially different.

There are, of course, people who wouldn't characterize the Republicans' policies by comparing them to a pig (personally I find the simile insulting to creatures of the porcine persuasion, but hey, I'm not a Republican!).

Obviously, we disagree on this, and we both will perceive things differently because of our markedly different political leanings. But it seems to me that, at the Republican convention at least (yes, I listened to much of it on the radio), those who spoke made many direct attacks on Barack Obama personally--a number of which were either based on untruths or were pure, insubstantial rhetoric.

Just the way I see it...

ellen

Rae Ann said...

Hey! Thanks for commenting! Your opinion is always important to me and I hope that you never take my "vicious momma" rants personally at all. I wouldn't want you to avoid talking about things just because our politics are different. And as I've tried to explain to some people on another blog, most of us can overlook those differences because politics aren't the basis of our friendships. I actually didn't listen to all of the stuff on the RNC because those things are generally full of overblown hoopla anyway. But you're right that somehow people can read and hear the exact same things are see them completely differently. But that's what makes life interesting and truly good friends, like you, so important. :-)

Rae Ann said...

Just one more thing. I think I was more offended by Obama's response to people "mistaking" his comment than to the comment itself. It just isn't very transcendent to make fun of people's emotional responses. The more transcendent thing would have been to do like I said and apologize for the misunderstanding and leave it at that instead of inflaming emotions even more. And those appearances like the one where the comment was made are not spontaneous speeches. They are rehearsed just like anything else. So I really do think he should have had the foresight to know that his comment would be taken badly in the context of the recent events. Aren't Presidents supposed to be diplomatic? How is it diplomatic to tell people that their concerns are "made up"?

You know, maybe it is all just much ado about nothing, but his response to it all just doesn't look too consistent with his message of positive change. It's just my own personal feeling that I would have respected him much more if he'd have owned it and apologized for the misunderstanding.

Anonymous said...

Are you fucking kidding me with that comment "'you can put a suit on a ______, but he's still a ______.'" Um, the last time I checked, that is a racist comment from a person who is obviously some right wing, racist, homophobic quack who seriously needs an education to rid him/her of their ignorance. Seriously, you are a loser. I HATE YOU.

Rae Ann said...

LOL, I'm absolutely not bothered by being hated by some cowardly anonymous dipshit at IP cpe-24-193-31-24.nyc.res.rr.com. I'm no more racist than Obama himself, and if people like you can go around calling Sarah Palin a c*nt, then I can call Obama a n*gger. Tit for tat, dumbass. At least I have the balls/ovaries to own my statements whether people like them or not.