In what I can only call calculating moves Obama sought out the right church, the right friends and the right neighborhood to further his political career.
Obama is portrayed in the New Yorker article as a cocky (but smart) opportunist who not only knows how to use people but also recognizes the importance of timing. When Obama ran for the Illinois Senate in 2004, the Illinois Republican Party was mired down in corruption and scandals and the timing was right for the message of hope and change. And Obama realized that the conditions were much the same for the presidential election of 2008 as Bush's popularity plummets and Republicans in Washington deal with scandals of their own - thus, the “fierce urgency of now.”
While Obama often condemns politics as usual he doesn't fore go politics as usual, and it's this practice that has stunned some of his supporters. His yes vote on the FISA bill infuriated and stunned many of his more liberal supporters, but had they just done a bit of research they wouldn't have been surprised.
I finished the New Yorker article feeling disgusted that once again millions of American voters were taken in by empty words of hope and change and a promise for a new kind of politics. One would think that by the year 2008 most voters would realize they have heard this all before and that Obama is in fact just another politician selling snake oil.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Notyoursweetie
My second to initial impression to him was: another Bush. The more I read and see , the more this impression is cemented. Arrogance, ignorance, sense of entitlement - and political machines, media carrying water for both....
2 - bluemorning
This article hits the nail on the head.
Obama is marketed as "new" while he actually uses
all the political strategies of the past and quite ruthlessly
at that.
3 - jlake
I think you nailed it!
Obama represents no change. He is just a second rate con man with a worldclass PR machine.
4 - Saracat
Brilliant. I couldn't agree more. Strage to say , many think it is a "sin" to andmit Obama is a poltician and a product of "machine politics, but that is what he is. People should "know" what they are voting for " love him or hate him" Just be informed.
5 - Tellurian
It would be nice to know at some point in time...Who IS Obama? I was banned from a forum for asking to see his Birth Certificate.
We need more articles like yours BV getting out there to the mainstream..
Thanks..
Tell
6 - Moo
Excellent article BV, meet the new style politician, same as the old style politician. That is Obama. I too see Obama far too similar to Bush in far too many ways.
7 - catchawave
Mr. Hopechangery hasn't convinced me yet that his actions match his rhetoric. I think the American public will understand this when he throws that big party, formerly known as the Democratic Convention, for himself :(
McCain may be boring, but at least I'll sleep better at night.
8 - Shakespeare
Barack Obama is a David Axlerod production, as George W. Bush was a Cheney/Rove product. Axelrod rolled out Deval Patrick as a prototype candidate in Massachusetts, attacking all other Democrats as racists, promising progressive reforms, and preaching hope and change.
Barack is proving to be just as much a fraud as Deval has been turned out to be. We had a chance to run a Progressive against McCain, but Axlerod turned out to be much smarter than the average Democrat. Now we're left with a two-bit Elmer Gantry, and all we can do is Hope he'll Change.
9 - Dr Dreadful
You appear to have brought your fan club to Blogcritics with you, Sage. It's interesting that no-one who's commented on this piece has ever posted here before...
I'm just saying.
10 - IowaGirl
"I have come to believe that Obama sees people through a filter of "what can they do for me" and chooses his associates accordingly." I think this explains so much about Obama's actions. How he can sit in a church and listen to a racist minister year after year. He was only focusing on what the minister and that church would do for him. With Rezko, he didn't really care about knowing how Tony got the money, just that Obama got his cut. Ayers was never questioned about his past, just that he could help him attain new connections. It isn't that he necessarily is a terrible judge of character, he just doesn't CARE about their character--it's only about their usefulness. Good insights, MountainSage.
11 - MountainSage
Dr. Dreadful - I'm fairly confident Blogcritics likes getting new readers.
12 - Dr Dreadful
Oh, we do. I'm not trying to discourage folks. This just isn't a phenomenon we see very often.
Carry on!
13 - zingzing
wait, so your big point is that obama is a politician? of course he is. and this is the damn PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, the part of being a politician that brings out the most bullshit in politics. it's once you're president that you get to actually do what you want (to some degree) (just ask senor bush).
every politician knows that the way to the presidency is getting the swing voters, the swing states, the independents, the middle of the road. YOU HAVE TO DO THIS STUFF. (unless you want to waste the hundreds of billions of dollars you've been given.) (although that would be some joke to pull.)
that said, i'm not all that impressed with obama right now. and i want him to be his own independent mind as well, not just another politician. but, you can't win the presidency unless you are a damn good politician (or have some backing you up). if it takes giving a little to get what you want, that's what has to be done. i see more presidential potential in obama than i've seen in a while.
but still, if you're going to knock a politician for being a politician, you might as well knock a door for being a door.
14 - Dan Miller
Doc,
I've posted an occasional comment on BC, and think that MountainSage has hit the nail just about right on the head -- which is exactly what I would wish for someone living in the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to do. Having often visited my maternal grandparents there more years ago than I care to remember, and often having wished that I lived there, I know that there is something about the place which simply can't be experienced elsewhere.
As to MountainSage, keep up the good work!
Dan
15 - Golddigger
Your article is spot on. He reminds me of new repackaged Bush. What has this man DONE in this country? Nothing! What I see is a clever marketing candidate who can't get by without his teleprompter. Why? Because he's afraid to say where he really stands. He knows that will finish him. Just who is Obama? He's a Axelrod, Deval Patrick fraud. It's so sad that Americans really have become so uninformed and ill-educated that we can't get a viable presidential candidate. The Democratic party is riddled with "Sure Thing" candidates who lost.
16 - Dan Miller
Zingzing,
you can't win the presidency unless you are a damn good politician (or have some backing you up). if it takes giving a little to get what you want, that's what has to be done.
But, but, I mean, you know, I thought Senator Obama was bringing change we could believe in.
if you're going to knock a politician for being a politician, you might as well knock a door for being a door.
My poor old memory may be faulty, but I seem to remember that Senator Obama knocked a few doors for being doors himself.
Dan
17 - KayC
Great article-sums up Obama pretty good. When it serves his purpose he is White, otherwise he is preaching to the Black community. Obama has flip flopped so many times that he isn't sure just where he stands on certain issues, but just wait awhile, he will come up with a new neocon idea and swear be-damn that's where he stood all along. Confront him on his ideas-you're a racist.A bigger bus might more appropriately suit Obama in the near future as dissenters are going under at a rapid pace.
18 - MountainSage
zingzing...I think you missed the point.
When one packages oneself as different, new and improved and a change, one should actually be those things. Obama isn't.
19 - Hoofy
Well. You learn something new every day don't you? I had heard that Obama was supposed to be some kind of money machine but I had no idea he HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of dollars to waste. Has Carl Sagan been overseeing his fundraisers from the other side?
How many times did we hear that Obama was some kind of "new" politician who didn't play the game? "I'm asking you to believe" Obama says. Indeed. Only idiots and suckers ever believed that shit.
I'm encouraged to know that just over half of the Democratic party - the ones who voted for Clinton - are not idiots. Disparaged as bitter, old, stupid, racist, FEMALE (the ultimate insult in our society) we were dismissed and told that we were not needed. We heard that message loud and clear.
Good job Obama. Great job Dean. Way to go Pelosi. Have a nice party without us.
GO PUMA! GO PUMAPAC!
I hope you don't mind that I'm new Dr. Dreadful. Is there some secret knock I should be made aware of or something? I wanna play in the tree house too.
20 - zingzing
"different," "new," "improved" and "a change" don't necessarily mean that the basic composition of the thing is going to change. what are you electing, a president or a banana muffin?
obama promised to be a different kind of politician, a new kind of politician, an improved kind of politician and a change from previous politicians. he's been that most of his career, methinks. to get to where he is, he had to appeal to a certain constituency, and he did that.
campaigning in the presidential election is a totally different ballgame. you have to appeal to EVERYBODY. or at least some part of those you wouldn't normally appeal to. it takes some bending. isn't this what every politician does? isn't this what every politican HAS TO DO?
if you thought obama was going to be different in this way, well you're just fooling yourself. it's called political survival, and when you're fighting at the highest level, the fighting gets more nasty. he's in a fight right now. he's gonna do things he normally wouldn't do, he's gonna get dirty. or else he'll lose.
if you thought it would happen any other way, you're just naive. ever seen a presidential campaign actually won on principals?
obama is different. from the surface qualities on down to his frank honesty (some of the time). he is new, he will be a change, and he is an improvement. he's all those things. he's just not ENOUGH of those things to satisfy you.
21 - MountainSage
zingzing....what surface qualities? He reads a teleprompter well?
He's not new, he's not nor will he be a change or an improvement and if you think so you are the one who is naive.
22 - Sam weaver
Regardless of the office, no one ever knows what a politician actually stands for. We only know their talking points on a position and not the reason for it. Flip flopping is fine. What I can not stand is someone who knows their original idea needs to be adjusted, but continues to be stubborn and stay the course regardless. Politics is an art form. If you do not play the game, no one can be elected to attempt to change anything. There are very few true conservatives or liberals. Just like business and organized religion, there is always a game.
23 - Hoofy
His frank honesty?
That is the most accidentally hilarious things I've read today.
24 - Dan Miller
Hoofy,
Ich bin ein Berliner? No, wait a minute.
Ich bin ein Hamburger? No, that's not it either. Ah, I have it.
Ich bin ein Frankfurter.
Dan
25 - Lee Richards
This is a strange piece, with plenty of innuendo and not much to support it. It seems that MountainSage read an article in The New Yorker and was given deep and rare insights into a complete stranger's mind and soul.
"Throwing people under the bus is an art form with Obama." Is this from the NYer piece or do you have firsthand knowledge? Either way some specific examples would make this more than an uninformed opinion.
"Obama has stated on a number of occasions that the person he now finds no more use for isn't the person he knew." Reference from magazine, or can you list some of those "number of Occasions"?
"In what I can only call calculating moves Obama sought out the right church, the right friends and the right neighborhood to further his political career." What criteria are you using to judge his motivations, actions and choices since you know they are "calculating"? Do you have any facts or just hearsay and personal judgements?
"I finished The New Yorker article feeling disgusted that once again millions of American voters were taken in by empty words of hope and change and a promise for a new kind of politics."
ONE magazine article completely blighted your optimism? A single job of feature-writing makes you give up all expectations? That's either naive, a little gullible, or else the rationale you've been hoping to find somewhere for dumping on Obama. Interesting that he's taken in millions, but not MountainSage, a New Yorker reader!
Sure, he's a crafty politician--you don't get to run for POTUS otherwise. Yes, he changes some of his positions and views;doesn't every president?Don't you? This is not news, or even, at this stage, significant. Candidates and campaigns evolve and change. Most political observers realize this, and don't go to pieces over it.
If you have some facts, knowledge, information or sound reasons for opposing Obama by all means write them. But gossip, rumor, and some magazine writer's opinions that you've filtered for us don't make a case for abandoning any candidate.