There is no there, there. He is whatever he thinks his audience thinks they want him to think they think.

Sorry about the recursive statement but that is the only way I know that it can be expressed. Its nothing but a demented hall of mirrors. The only existence they have is in the reflected reflections.
A. Rational Human | Email | Homepage | 04.13.08 - 8:20 pm | #

Yeah, Obama kinda sounds like ARH sometimes...
The Machine | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 3:01 am | #

The more I listen to Obama the more convinced I become that he is deliberately misleading most of the American public about what he really believes. If you read his book, you get a somewhat different picture of this "uniter".
anonymous | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 7:20 am | #

Men that wear dresses never sleep, they pontificate themselves into oblivion.
Oracle of Delaware | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 8:51 am | #

There's an old movie starring Burt Lancaster and a young boy. While traveling they come across a man selling items wherein Burt says to the kid: "He's a wind talker." Snake oil salesmen have always been around. At some point we will learn more of what Obama learned while sitting in those church pews for 20 years listening to another "wind talker" pronounce his discovered truths.

He put a spell on me! Just remember this know it all ladies' man still can't seem to quit smoking cigarettes.
We'll enter into his world through this smoke of addiction...
RJ | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 9:25 am | #

Yep, he's a lyin' sack of equine excrement.

No surprise, really, he's a far-Left tool -- as well as a politician, and has always been.

Bill Clinton Lite.

.
OBloody Hell | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 9:43 am | #

OBH,

I thought "black John Kerry" is a better description.

The man is clearly out of his league and definitely Not Ready at this point. The scary part is the Dem establishment and their elite (media and academia) both decided to shove him down the electorates' throats. After failing to push through the John Kerry ticket, they thought by push forward a younger guy "with color" this time will do the trick.

Why didn't these guys change their attitute from "LEAD" to "SERVE" the public? And a true leader will emerge from the public servants. If you set out to be the "LEADER of all", the elitist mentra is just unavoidable.
always right | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 10:46 am | #

The true elitists here ARE the Press, et al, who are hellbent (literally) to prove that they can get anyone whom they sell, elected.

Obama is just the tool of the moment.


!
The Machine | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 11:17 am | #

At first, I thought Obama was just another empty suit. Now I understand that he really has drunk the Kool-Aid of the extreme left. There was never a chance I'd vote for him, and there still isn't.

Along the same lines as the Doc's article regarding the postmodern left's use of language: they use the same vocabulary that other people do, but a very different dictionary, one similar to what the commies used. Such as, a "war for national liberation" can only be one undertaken by communist terrorists like the VC or the FARC, according to their definition. It can never be one by a group such as the Contras or Sons of Iraq, because those groups are backed by the U.S., which by definition is "oppressive" and "reactionary". So you may be using the same words, but keep the different definitions in mind.
waltj | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 11:28 am | #

I've wondered how much (percentage) SF depends on tourism. In fact, what else does SF produce?
always right | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 12:48 pm | #

OBloody Hell,

You insult the useful properties of equine excrement. When composted, it greatly improves a garden or can be used to grow mushrooms. Obamma is not nearly that useful or productive.
A. Rational Human | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 12:51 pm | #

Obama is one of those 95% of lawyers that give the other 5% a bad name.
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 12:54 pm | #

waltj
I'm with you all the way. The political left is more concerned with their own self interests than the best interests of our country. And, they are less interested in protecting democracy than rationalizing their own demagoguery.
Bob Reed | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 1:10 pm | #

Another thing he seems to excell at is blaming other people for things and then not giving HIS alternative course to correct the problem other than vague calls for "hope and change" as though he, Barack Obama has a magical economical solution for manufacturing jobs going overseas.

But we've learned by our and the world's experience that government cannot spend its way to a healthy economy - those jobs in manufacturing were lost the moment foreign countries' industrial base plus ocean going cargo vessels combined to drop the overall cost of labor, production and shipping to below what we could produce domestically. No amount of government handouts or laws are going to change this.

The only way for domestic industries to survive is to go the quality route - a better product at a reasonable price, delievered quicker than the competition can ship it to market from China. But that is something a million businessmen are working on and are best suited to solve than bureaucrats and socialists running for office.
John | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 2:05 pm | #

""But we've learned by our and the world's experience that government cannot spend its way to a healthy economy
John""

I believe it was Winston Churchill who said...
"A country trying to tax its way into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and then trying to lift it by the handle"
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 2:54 pm | #

John,

They should not give up the ship.
The weak dollar and increasingly expensive shipping costs may just conspire to make U.S. production more viable.

There are still a few (but unfortunately less everyday) engineers in the U.S. who can make good products at reasonable prices.

At some level it must make sense to produce and deliver in the U.S.

Maybe I'm just an optimist!
Wr_guy | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 3:29 pm | #

The writing was on the wall 40 years ago that America would suffer through downsizing pain as the rest of the world aquired the technology to compete.

We can either spit and throw fits at this unstoppable reality or embrace its challenge and forge ahead.

There will be a global leveling off as the years pass. The big concern being whether idiots are in charge and pointing to an impoverished lifestyle as if its a "solution".
SteveH | Email | Homepage | 04.14.08 - 5:04 pm | #

Actually there is a realistic approach to revitalizing our declining production. By eliminating restrictive government regulation and taxation, (govt. gets outa the friggin way), our domestic production would skyrocket.

Most of our manufacting jobs have not left due to wages, but to idiotic regulations, starting with the construction of plants and up to the day-to-day operations. These add far more to the cost of production than do the wages of the workers.

Lowering the tax rates on manufacturers would allow them to expand easier and would lower the cost of their products so they could be more competitive in the global market.

If you wonder why medicine costs are so high, investigate the stupid rules demoncraps put into place in the '70's that govern how new meds are produced and the associated costs of just developing them under these insane laws. You will be amazed!
peedoffamerican | Email | Homepage | 04.15.08 - 4:09 am | #

ARH,
See post at http://www.haloscan.com/comments...64837991780090/
peedoffamerican | Email | Homepage | 04.15.08 - 5:23 am | #

Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom, which seems to be down at the moment, used to be a frequent commenter on intentionalism. He doesn't blog much anymore, which is a shame in this instance: I'm sure he would've had lots to say. His usual blogfodder would have been anti-intentionalism (for MY lack of a better word) as a means of obscuring meaning in one's opponents; this here is an example of anti-intentionalism as a means of obscuring one's own meaning. Interesting...
Jamie | Email | Homepage | 04.15.08 - 6:32 pm | #