Saturday, September 6, 2008

Obama will say Ouch! when he reads this

Over at Commentary Magazine's Contentions blog a poster took on the issue of why Barack Obama continues to trade punches with Sarah Palin even though his real opponent is John McCain.

I'm betting the writer is a graduate of a top notch college which has a Womyn's Studies Department. Alternatively, this is such a pitch perfect example of it's genre that the writer may even be Camille Paglia posting under a pseudonym.

"Joe NS Says: September 6th, 2008 at 2:50 PM

The Democratic campaign is not in a meltdown. The proper image, I believe, is that of a long metal chain the links of which are one by one sliding off the edge of a bench. One can see what is happening, very slowly at first and then accelerating, with horror or glee depending on party affiliation; but it’s very definitely underway.

It is nearly impossible to credit it, but the Palin pick has caught the Democrats so flat-footed that they have clearly decided the only counterpunch they have is to argue that Sarah Palin cannot be a mother and a vice-president at the same time. That is a flat-out incredible position for a Democrat to take. It is unvarnished surrealism. And I fear it might even work. The truth, however, is that they really have no other option at this point. Largely because of the psychology of BO himself, I believe.

In any sensible assessment of his current predicament, Obama MUST IGNORE Sarah Palin. To have the Democratic presidential nominee fencing on almost a daily basis with the Republicans nominee for vice-president is only a little short of insane. Palin was wrong on one matter: the longer the jousting between them continues, the more voters will notice that the proper level of comparison of Obama and Palin is not between Obama as community organizer and Palin as mayor, but between Obama as community organizer and Palin as a member of the Wasilla, Alaska, PTA. Obama should put Sarah Palin out of his head. So why can’t he?

It’s simple: She’s sexier than he is.

One of the things that has always seemed to me creepiest about the 2008 presidential campaign has been its erotic - I would even say homoerotic - atmospherics. Sheer celebrity, of course, tends to push things that way, to be sure; but with Obama something else has been going on, something that is often referred to as “narcissism” or “self-absorption” or, more honestly, as “seductiveness.” Though others may take offense, I think it was always more the self-fascination one sees in a young girl posing in front of a mirror. Edwards displayed the syndrome as well, but once he left the race, Obama had the enchantress slot all to himself. McCain? Hillary?? I don’t think so.

Now here is Sarah Palin, who directly threatens the male narcissist’s amour propre because she seems to be reorienting the eroticism in the campaign toward its “traditional” locus in ordinay life: toward the female. Sarah Palin is amazingly erotic. But even more amazing: It’s perhaps the least important thing about her? Like a belle who meets an unforeseen competitor for the title of most alluring, Obama has reacted badly and, let’s be honest, a little bit cattily.

In sum, hell hath no fury . . . ."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ever since his keynote speech, Obama been's considered the "wunderkind" of the Democratic Party.

Then, out of the blue, he finds he's been upstaged. Not only are the Dems having trouble with it, but a lot of the media as well. Some of liberal women have been particularly rabid; i.e. Gloria Steinem:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

The claws come out. MEOW!

My comments should not be construed as an endorsement for Palin, because I am considering voting the LP ticket. It's just that I find all this negative press about Palin to be quite amusing on one level but also quite hypocritical on another.

***

Sully said...

As long as you know that a vote for Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party is effectively a vote for The Great Oz.

I read that Steinem opinion piece the other day. It was typical Steinem. She's always been shameless.

Meanwhile, I've been watching O'Reilly talking to Obama about taxes. The guy is good, better than I expected him to be one on one with O'Reilly. Of course O'Reilly wasn't very sharp in that segment. He's been making so much for so long that he's out of touch with what common people care about on taxes.

Anonymous said...

Re voting for Barr...if it looks like the election is going to be a dead heat, I won't vote for the Wiz.

Sully said...

I've voted Libertarian in runaway elections in my day. And I voted for Perot in a non-runaway election. I'm still trying to decide whether that was a good idea.

We got Clinton, but we also got a pretty conservative Republican congress after he overreached. Of course the Repubs became hogs after feeding at the big trough for a while, but that's unfortunately the way things go as polities evolve from republics to bread and circuses empires ruled from the center.