Where's Your Messiah Now?

Andrew Sullivan has a valuable analysis of what some perceive to be Obama's messianic tendencies, centered around his line "We are the ones we've been waiting for." As Sullivan points out:

The phrase is actually a self-indictment as well as a self-congratulation. The point is surely that we shouldn't wait for someone else to save us, or lift us up, or fix our problems or address our fate. We are the only ones who can do this. And we're responsible for our own failure. The sentence is actually a criticism of Obama's own supporters.
What makes Obama's liberalism different from both the technocratic meliorism of the Clintons and the 1970s big government liberalism that preceded it is that it is an inclusive, self-help kind of liberalism. It is participatory, not passive. It is not about government saving us; it is about us saving the government.

I think its also worth looking at Obama's own website, in the section about Service:

I won't just ask for your vote as a candidate; I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am president of the United States. This will not be a call issued in one speech or program; this will be a cause of my presidency.

And breaks down his plans to help "Enable Americans to Serve to Meet the Nation's Challenges." Remember the guy did spend the beginning of his career as a community organizer - this is what he's about.

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You're the Inspiration

Robert Reich, a member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet and long time friend of the former President, posts on his blog about Obama, Clinton, JFK & RFK:

...[Obama's] appeal is for more civic engagement, not necessarily more government. He has the voice and wields the techniques of a community organizer (which he was on the streets of Chicago), asking people to join together, calling the nation to form a more perfect union. Not since the sixties has America been so starkly summoned to its ideals. Not since then has America-- including, especially, the nation's youth --been so inspired....
...Neither John F. Kennedy nor his brother Robert were idealists. They were realists who understood the importance of idealism in the service of realism. They grasped the central political fact that little can be achieved in Washington unless or until the public is energized and mobilized to push for it; the status quo is simply too powerful. The ideals they enunciated helped mobilized the nation politically. That mobilization contributed to the subsequent passage of civil rights and voting rights laws, Medicare, and environmental protection. For purposes of practical electoral strategy as well as high-minded moral aspiration, they never tired of reminding the nation of its founding principles -- most fundamentally, that all men are created equal.

Oh, and yes, the title of this post is a Chicago reference.

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Brain Trust

Great New Republic article, "The Audacity of Data," about Obama's main policy advisors with the crucial judgement:

Despite Obama's reputation for grandiose rhetoric and utopian hope-mongering, the Obamanauts aren't radicals--far from it. They're pragmatists--people who, when an existing paradigm clashes with reality, opt to tweak that paradigm rather than replace it wholesale. As Thaler puts it, "Physics with friction is not as beautiful. But you need it to get rockets off the ground." It might as well be the motto for Obama's entire policy shop.

Good especially for those who harbor some strange fear he is some ideological loose cannon - he's about pragmatic change. Keep Reading (if there's more)...

BREAKING: Saturday Night Live Was Actually Funny!

Funny takedown of media's Obama love, Hillary's "qualifications" and more. (LINK UPDATED UNTIL THEY TAKE IT DOWN AGAIN)


RIDICULOUSLY, Clinton is now saying SNL shows how biased the media is against them and that people should watch it! I guess they don't realize it makes fun of them too! ("It has been a lifelong dream of mine to lose to Barack Obama in Maryland"). Seems desperate. Keep Reading (if there's more)...

"Honorable" Lobbyists

Ok, so the NY Times publishes an iffy article implying and unproven affair between McCain and a lobbyist. Not sure about that one, but it has spurred some other reporting, including "The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists" detailing how many of McCain's top campaign staff are lobbyists, including one who conducts their business directly on the "Straight Talk Express."

McCain has at least 59 federal lobbyists raising money for his campaign, compared with 33 working for Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and 19 working for Democrat Clinton.

Interesting for a guy who was instrumental in investigating Jack Abramoff. Don't know what to make of it all. He says his lobbyists are "honorable." Keep Reading (if there's more)...

Ugh.

Don't think this is gonna help.

Hillary mocks obama
by dollarsandsense123
UPDATE: I should also note, magic wand excepted, special interests definitely won't disappear when they are funding and running your campaign. But I guess she's banking on people not finding that out.

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