Ok, I've seen Mortal Kombat numerous times but this just hits the spot! I was inspired and cracked up all at the same time. After all the crap he's had to put up with he deserves the Presidency. I'd like to as rather famously sent up in a Chappelle skit "choke a b*itch". How's about that for contrast with SNL?
This is a good column. I think that she was outclassed from beginning to end. This campaign will be studied. He will be studied. What he's on the cusp of doing is amazing.
What will also be studied is the nuclear fallout showered on the black political class. After watching Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union, I was surprised by Michael Steele's announcement that race supersedes political affiliation. It may mean the resuscitation of the political future of Steele and the end of career politicians like Stephanie Tubbs. If I'm a young person full of ambition, working on Barack's campaign, and living in the district of CBC advocates of Hillary Clinton then I'm seriously considering taking them on. The entrenched black political class has never been more vulnerable. And Tavis is about to become as relevant as Geraldo Rivera.
A year ago, Terry Smith of Blackprof.com hosted a discussion, "A Different Take on Obama's Prospects?," based on Earl Ofari Hutchinson's 29 January 2007 article for The Christian Science Monitor, "Why Blacks Won't Necessarily Back Obama: As recent history proves, political interests trump race." Hutchinson, was, of course, off the mark in his analysis. He grossly underestimated the power of Obama's rhetorical talent and skill. But I did not.
In the thread's seventh comment, I wrote:
I predict Obama will surprise even his supporters during show time, when he hits the campaign trail, begins to talk to people face-to-face, shakes more hands, gives more stump speeches, and debates his braver fellow candidates live. I think his rhetoric will be stronger. And, I think more people, especially Blacks, will learn more about why so many Blacks like me like him more than anyone else in the race or any Black or mixed-race candidate who came before him.
--07 February 2007
I doubt many people anticipated how much Obama's superior rhetorical mastery would influence this contest. As a student of rhetoric, especially African American rhetoric, I anticipated that the magnitude of his rhetoric's influence would surprise all of us. We have not had a presidential politician nearly as gifted rhetorically as Obama in many decades. But I have not been as surprised by his rhetorical skill and talent as I have been by his psychoanalytical powers, his cultural competence, and his wisdom.
The psychoanalytical intuition he demonstrated last night was superior to those of all other politicians I've ever watched debate. He knew when and how to concede. He knew when and how to praise or compliment. He intuitively knew when and how to deflect rhetorical attacks that would attempt to impeach his character (what he did to Clinton during the 'reject' vs. 'denounce' exchange last night was brilliant). In short, he feels and anticipates the audience and his opponents better than the politicians we've grown accustomed to. Bill Clinton, as good as he was as at intuitively psychoanalyzing and anticipating his audiences and opponents, was not as good as Obama.
Obama is also better across cultures and socioeconomic milieus than any politician I've ever seen. He is gifted at large group communication, small group communication, public debates of various formats, and one-on-one conversations. The size or background of the audience doesn't really matter. The format doesn't really matter. His rhetoric adapts to the context and to the audience. As a result, his popularity increases as he exposes himself and his ideas to more people.
Finally, Obama has proved himself to be very wise for a man of his years. As he skillfully asserts whenever Clinton attempts to persuade the audience to question his preparedness for the job, he made the right decision on the war. The audience has been more persuaded by Obama's wisdom and judgment arguments than by Clinton's "ready on day one" argument. Quintilian told us that wisdom and eloquence would be united in the "perfect orator." And Cicero told us in his De oratore that "Wisdom without eloquence does too little for the good of states, but...eloquence without wisdom is generally highly disadvantageous and is never helpful."
Obama's psychoanalytical powers, his superior cultural competence, and his wisdom when combined with his superior rhetorical powers will lead (or might have already led) to one of the most shocking political upsets our nation has ever witnessed. He's even got me chanting "si se puede" around the house and at my law school, trying to mimic the way he smoothly delivered the phrase during his Texas rallies.
Simmer down now ladies, simmer down...,
in your tremendous excitement, I sense a loss of properly jaded perspective - or have you forgotten that Washington DC is just Hollywood for ugly people?
y'all ackin like Denzel is not only the star of this production (and there can be no question that he is all of that) but that he also, wrote, directed, produced, marketed and distributed the production and that he will principally profit from its success.
This, I suspect, is very much at odds with the underlying facts of the matter. Obamamandius has a role to play, and he has been brilliantly cast in that role. "Jack Warner" and the other studio heads have really outdone themselves this time...,
cnulan:
Obama is playing and will continue to play a role not of his own design. However, some illusions, some masks, are more aesthetically pleasing than others. I like the Obama illusion, the Obama mask, more than the others that we've been forced to endure during the past decade. So, if my vote for U.S. President is basically a vote for which illusion/mask I like best, I'm voting for Obama. As I said earlier, the brother knows how to say "si se peude" better than the rest.
The power elite can and will continue to pull the strings in the background. I will continue to make due with the illusions and masks they will introduce to their sheep for our blissful consumption. Lucky for us, this year's catalog of illusions and masks is better than most.
I am in full agreement with you brother. I too, very much favor the soft landing paradigm that is embodied in Obamamandius....,
How is his role not of his own design? The man announced today that over one million people have contributed to his campaign. He launched his effort without taking money from registered lobbyists. He defied conventional wisdom and racial narcissists and sought the broadest possible support.
If the elites have sanctioned him it's because they know he can deliver and are caught in a tsunami. Obama certainly wasn't hand picked. If E.C. decided to use his entrepeneurial energies in the political arena and became a modestly successful US Senator but still maintained his moral compass I wouldn't call him an illusion.
Obamamandius is the star of a brilliant elite production. Credit given where credit due.
I'm frankly surprised and relieved at the demonstrated psychological depth and sophistication of the folks who orchestrated his public ascendancy.
It's most refreshing when compared and contrasted with the thugs who've run the SHOW for the past several electoral cycles.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them...,
is about where I'd start my guessing game to identify the production company responsible for the phenomenon.
I'm scratching my head in curiosity as to why cnulan and EC would think that there's elaborate scheming at play in the Obama camp. When running an election campain one tends to employ an overall strategy to deflect attacks from competitors. The man is employing a campaign tactic where he remains somewhat passive when attacked in order to make his weaker opponent look desperate.
Doesn't look like a master plan to me... looks like the kind of common sense a Harvard trained attorney would employ.
I wouldn't presume to speak for E.C., but cnulan harbors no illusions about the magnitude of the enterprise involved with acquiring control of the most powerful public office in the world.
It wasn't a meritocratic competitive endeavor when Mr. Smith went to Washington - how much deeper do you suppose things have gotten since Ike warned about the inherent dangers of the Iron Triangle?
No one's questioning the brother's talent, just the realities of the system in which and by which that talent has been harnessed.
Obamamandius is the very appealing and very gifted face of a much, much larger enterprise....,
Mario & Sub:
I'm a power elite theorist whose beliefs concerning the overt and covert actions of the most influential interest groups, institutions, and cultures have been heavily influenced by sociologists such as Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, C. Wright Mills, and Pierre Bourdieu. As a power elite theorist, I believe Obama is at best quite circumscribed by and at worst hand-selected by the power elite. I've shared my beliefs about the power elite and how they create and control capital in numerous blog posts and comments. A good, but not complete, summary of my beliefs is available in "Our Rulers Will Use Their Tools," a brief blog essay our friend cnulan inspired me to write extemporaneously in November 2007.
Lev Tolstoy communicated my sentiments more philosophically in Book IX, Chapter 1 of his lamentably under-read masterpiece War and Peace, "every action of theirs, that seems to them an act of their own free will, is in an historical sense not free at all, but in bondage to the whole course of previous history." That “previous history” stretches back thousands of years to the beginning stages of the suzerain-vassal covenant. And the suzerain-vassal covenant, which has guided the development of Western Civilization across the ages, changing only in form but not in substance, stretches back even further than the writings of Deuteronomy (The Second Law). In Deuteronomy you'll find the vassal’s oath of loyalty to the suzerain. It is written as “thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
Those who are not members of the ruling elite are subjects. Some subjects get more wealth, power, and prestige than others. Some subjects get ranked higher than others. Usually the highest ranking subjects are the ones who inherit or accumulate the most power-elite-pleasing cultural capital, symbolic capital, and social capital. These subjects tend to behave and think in ways that would do the most to help the power elite maintain their political, economic, and cultural rule across the ages. The power elite, aka the ruling elite, aka TPTB, aka the suzerains act as social engineers, puppetmasters, or stage directors of sorts. And Obama wouldn't be on the stage they built and control if he threatened their will or their rule.
That Obama, or any charismatic and inspiring politician, could significantly or permanently change the subject-vassal relationship is a romantic notion. Romantic notions are fine. Indeed, they are the romantic notions that draw me to great creative literature and belles lettres. But my affection for romantic notions has painfully failed to override my beliefs concerning the world as it is, as it has been across the ages, and how it will be for many more centuries to come. Obama merely offers us subjects a new and attractive mask in a familiar play that is being performed on an old, old stage. And the stage on which Obama will play his leading role is not of Obama's or our design.
After the Honorable E.C. Hopkins, there will be no more prophets;
And the suzerain-vassal covenant, which has guided the development of Western Civilization across the ages, changing only in form but not in substance, stretches back even further than the writings of Deuteronomy (The Second Law). In Deuteronomy you'll find the vassal’s oath of loyalty to the suzerain. It is written as “thou shalt have no other gods before me.”The whole depraved mess is going to implode...,
Here it is again...A reminder...
The purpose of the Police and military is to protect the top from the bottom...
To protect cause from consequence...
The easiest prey of the hunter gatherer is the farmer and the simplest operation is the protection scheme...[...]
All money is decreed money...fiat...
The top says this is money...Or else...period end of story....
You Farmer are on the Land owned by the LORD of the land and will pay tribute to the LORD of 1 Gold coin a year...
Where do I get this GOLD coin?
You can take one short ton of grain to the grainery of the LORD and there you will be given a GOLD coin for it and then you can give the gold coin to the servant of the LORD...
What if I refuse?
Then the LORD will drive you from the Land that the LORD is the LORD of...
There you go an abundant supply of free food to power your wildest hopes and dreams...Lies and delusions...[...]
Well what is done with all that Food the tillers of the LORD's land give the LORD as Tribute? It powers the Absolute capitalist Hierarchial food powered make work enterprise...
The city state...Or Civilization...The thing you all popped into existence within...and are in now...
If we look at Clinton's tactics objectively one thing is clear. It's about 2012.
Commenting by HaloScan
