Conffederate
Confederate

November 17, 2008

Dan Quayle with Good P.R.

WaPo's Howard Kurtz belatedly notices the mainstream media's bromance with President Elect Barack Obama and the utter lack of foundation for that relationship, and wonders how the impossible expectations people have developed for his Presidency will fare once it becomes obvious that he can't be what he has allowed people to fantasize.

For all the love and devotion he has inspired because of what he is, who he is still is still a largely unvetted, untested and inexperienced politician prone to exquisite gaffes when not following a prepared script. I jest in the headline that President Elect Obama is "Dan Quayle with Good P.R." but even that sadly over-inflates Obama's record.

By the time Quayle was Vice President, he'd been twice elected to the House of Representatives and twice elected to the Senate, and his ticket with George H.W. Bush won the 1992(no coffee today)88 Presidential election with a 53–46 percent popular vote margin by capturing 40 states and capturing 426 electoral votes.

But even worse that his insufficient record—and his associations with various radicals—is his utter foolishness in letting people create such high expectations of him when he knows they cannot be met.

In some ways I pity Obama for the unpopularity and outright hatred he is going to receive from his manic supporters when reality dashes their unrealistic hopes, but then I look at how Obama fed that mystique, encouraged unrealistic expectations, and made empty promises to everyone.

Barack Obama cannot be what he allowed the media, his own campaign, and his most ardent supporters built him into. No one can.

And he will have no one to blame but himself.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at November 17, 2008 04:24 PM
Comments

CY

Pretty sure that Bush 41 was elected in 1988.


Posted by: iconoclast at November 17, 2008 05:42 PM

I am not feeling sorry for Obama but for myself. This man is going to distroy the US. We have an unexperienced individual with no talent who is going to try and take on the worst global financial crisis in over 100 years. That plus the fact that every nation will try to test him with armed conflict. If we survive the next 4 years, we will be lucky.

Posted by: David Caskey at November 17, 2008 05:50 PM

We have experience individuals taking on the worst global financial crisis in over 100 years and I feel no more confident. They certainly have talent too, but their primary talents are for self preservation and venality. The thought that Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Fwank and Chris Dodd will be instrumental in directing the new Congress makes me want to puke.

Posted by: zhombre at November 17, 2008 06:12 PM

CY, there is one thing that gives me a little bit of hope.

Once the young kids who supported Obama--most of which never lived through the Carter years--discover what most of us learned during that administration, they will probably turn against leftism in large numbers. Not all of them, of course, but a good chunk, I suspect.

Posted by: ConservativeWanderer (formerly C-C-G) at November 17, 2008 06:49 PM

Is obamalamadingdong the new Elvis? I've never even heard him sing!

Posted by: Tonto (USA) at November 17, 2008 08:07 PM

Obama is the end product of Identity Politics.

They voted him in because he was black. End of story.

Posted by: DIAF at November 17, 2008 09:04 PM

DIAF - You don't know how so right you are. The election of Barry only showed how racist 95% of our black brothers and sisters can be. If I was ever to admit that I voted for a candidate ONLY because he was white - a racist I would be branded.

CY - I don't think Barry's minions will ever give up on him - no matter what he does or doesn't do. He will forever blame George and the "wrascally" Republicans for all the ills of his administration - and the drive buy media will give him a life long pass.

Sad to say, 62+ million of the naive, stupid and ignorant have unleashed a plague on the greatest nation on God's green earth. Call it the OBAMARIEDPILOSI pestilance. God help us all!!!

Posted by: mixitup at November 17, 2008 11:29 PM

Ignorance on the part of the electorate ...

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/11/shocker-obama-supporters-are-completely.html

Posted by: Adriane at November 18, 2008 04:16 AM

Today is the 30th anniversary of Jonestown. I just thought I'd throw that in along with this quote;

“a light will shine down from somewhere, it will light upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, ‘I have to vote for Barack’”

That mystikal light never did shine it's heavenly light upon myself. And for that I feel proud. Whenever a politician tries to link him/herself with the divine, a red flag should automatically go up…should. For some reason, people were allowed to project their highest visions of humanity onto this…figure. If someone on the political right had done anything remotely like this, they would have been ridiculed and then silenced immediately.

Posted by: xerocky at November 18, 2008 06:29 AM

Every time I try to laugh this whole Obama thing off I am reminded that in 1934, a democratic Germany elected Adolph Hitler in the midst of an economic collapse. Hitler, a mesmerizing speaker, was their "hope and change" candidate. The SA were his ACORN.

Hitler imposed strict gun control, nationalized industry, initiated an internal security force, abrogated treaties, built a personality cult & a welfare state, altered education, made youth serve their communities and took over the media. If you read the Nazi Party's 25 point platform, Obama would support at least 12. Last week his staff told him he could do whatever he wanted by executive order.

We are in big trouble.

Posted by: arch at November 18, 2008 07:09 AM

Combine Obambi with the culture war fronts: Illegal Drug use made legal, gay marriage, shortened prison sentencing, the elimination of the death penalty, illegal aliens made legal, the dumbing down of our educational system, financial irresponsibility made socially acceptable, free medical care regardless of ability to pay anything, the trying of US troops for combat related "crimes", the prosecution of US executive branch officials on ginned up "charges", the slaughter of millions of unborn babies, und so wieter, we are heading for 1860 all over again. Just like the last time it's R's vs. D's.

Posted by: torabora at November 18, 2008 07:40 AM

At this point, I'm willing to let events play out, for better or worse.

What choice do we have, really? Obama won the election fair and square, and the last person I want to sound like is some disgruntled DemLib whining about 2000 or 2004.

Betsy's page has a very good assessment on this point:

http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2008/11/refusing-to-accept-defeat.html

Does it mean I will stand idly by while a Dem-majority Congress pushes the Stalinist Fairness Doctrine or an anarchic Open Borders policy?

No it doesn't. Not by a long shot. But time will tell if President Obama is just another fumbling Jimmy Carter or Michael Dukakis, particularly vis-a-vis Iraq and Afghanistan (or any future terrorist attack on American soil, God forbid).

If that is the case, it will be a long time before another liberal Democrat wins the White House, I can guarantee you that.

But people underestimated Harry Truman as just a haberdasher from Missouri, and he proved to be far more than that. Not that Obama is Harry Truman by any stretch, mind you, but persons considered ineffective or insignificant that have occupied the White House have surprised in the past.

See what happens.

Posted by: Johnny Simpson at November 18, 2008 08:38 AM

With the election of Obama The Republic died, welcome to the world of dictatorship!

Posted by: Fearless at November 18, 2008 08:40 AM

I agree with the above..when all those young idiots which voted for Obama experience 11% unemployment, the turn is going to be ugly like for the Carter debacle. That is if we can weather the storm?

What is going to be amazing to watch is that after talking about the pending recession every quarter since President Bush was elected only to be refuted with growth and lower employment, we are now actually going into a recession, if not a depression, and the MSM is going to have to spin that 10% unemployment and a negative economic growth is actually proof of Obama's superior judgement and is good for America.

Even now, for the 1st time history, the stock market has CRASHED beginning the morning after the election results became a certainly. The MSM has avoided the obvious explanation in search of ever more complex explanations and today I saw several articles which said: "Experts are just bewildered, unable to explain why the crash".

Clue: Election of a full-fledged marxist who has constantly shown his ineptness along with the disaster of Pelosi\Reid and people are running for the hills.

Posted by: LogicalUS at November 18, 2008 08:50 AM

Yes the media environment, if not the investment environment has staged an amazing reversal. Is it not astounding how the collapsing Dow of today is a much cheerier prospect (going by the MSM accounts) than the lofty rise of yesterday? We saw the media types fail in their efforts to talk down the economy under Bush. It is unlikely they will succeed in talking it UP for O. But they will try while they can. Given the financials of their own companies, this may not be long. But phooey on predictions of the American demise. If you really believe the tenets of "conservatism" you must know that Obamanomics have only one end: disaster. We may well hit the brick wall but not at full speed. We will recover. All it will take is for Barry to abandon some of the more lunatic bromides of the Dem base. Two weeks since the election and the undercarriage of the bus is already jammed with the detritus of the Primary Obama. By Christmas this guy could be a simulcrum of Bush 41 which I would not much like on the merits but think of the joys the Left's gnashing teeth will bring. That's tasty stuff. It might not be worth the $40k I've lost to date but hey, silver linings don't find themselves.

Posted by: megapotamus at November 18, 2008 11:54 AM