{"id":4666,"date":"2008-02-09T11:30:48","date_gmt":"2008-02-09T11:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/is-joe-klein-calling-obamas-ca.html"},"modified":"2008-02-09T11:30:48","modified_gmt":"2008-02-09T11:30:48","slug":"is-joe-klein-calling-obamas-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/is-joe-klein-calling-obamas-ca.html","title":{"rendered":"Is Joe Klein calling Obama’s campaign fluffy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It certainly sounds like it<\/a>. Pretty amazing that a lefty would admit that there is no substance to Obama’s campaign speeches. He must be a Clinton supporter.<\/p>\n

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Barack Obama said in yet another memorable election-night speech on Super-Confusing Tuesday. “We are the change that we seek.” Waiting to hear what Obama has to say \u2014 win, lose or tie \u2014 has become the most anticipated event of any given primary night. The man’s use of pronouns (never I), of inspirational language and of poetic meter \u2014 “WE are the CHANGE that we SEEK” \u2014 is unprecedented in recent memory. Yes, Ronald Reagan could give great set-piece speeches on grand occasions, and so could John F. Kennedy, but Obama’s ability to toss one off, different each week, is simply breathtaking. His New Hampshire concession speech, with the refrain “Yes, We Can,” was turned into a brilliant music video featuring an array of young, hip, talented and beautiful celebrities. The video, stark in black-and-white, raised an existential question for Democrats: How can you not be moved by this? How can you vote against the future?
\nAnd yet there was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism \u2014 “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for<\/strong>” \u2014 of the Super Tuesday speech and the recent turn of the Obama campaign. “This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It’s different not because of me. It’s different because of you.” That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause \u2014 other than an amorphous desire for change \u2014 the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.
\n[…]
\nThen again, one of Obama’s most effective lines is about the “craziness” of trying the same old thing in Washington “over and over and over again, and somehow expecting a different result.” The first politician I ever heard use that line \u2014 weirdly attributed to everyone from Benjamin Franklin to Albert Einstein \u2014 was Bill Clinton. It is a sad but inescapable fact of this election that Bill and Hillary Clinton have now become “the same old thing” they once railed against. In a country where freshness is fetishized \u2014 and where a staggering 70% of the public is upset with the way things are today \u2014 the “same old thing” is not the place to be. Unless, of course, the next new thing turns out to be a mirage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Looks like Obama has tapped into the ethos of our times: it’s all about me — I’m the agent of change that I’ve been looking for and I can make it happen through Obama.
\nBut then Obama gets in and it’s the same old socialism that has failed in every country it’s tried and has lead to enormous debt in CA, NJ and the federal budget. And then it will be all about me and you paying more in taxes. Thanks, but no thanks! That kind of “change” I don’t need.
\n(via<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It certainly sounds like it. Pretty amazing that a lefty would admit that there is no substance to Obama’s campaign speeches. He must be a Clinton supporter. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Barack Obama said in yet another memorable election-night speech on Super-Confusing Tuesday. “We are the change that we seek.” Waiting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[399],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-2"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Joe Klein calling Obama's campaign fluffy? - Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/reformedchicksblabbing\/2008\/02\/is-joe-klein-calling-obamas-ca.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Joe Klein calling Obama's campaign fluffy? - Reformed Chicks Blabbing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It certainly sounds like it. Pretty amazing that a lefty would admit that there is no substance to Obama’s campaign speeches. 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