"I had the courage and judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Sen. Obama would rather lose the war in order to win a political campaign." Emphasis mine-CK
OK, I get it.
After 7 years of a buffoon-in-chief in the form of GW, preceded by 8 years of Bill Clinton's tastes for both cheeseburgers and cheesy interns, the press has gotten used to an easily mock-able President.
So I suppose Maureen Dowd's lament over the lack of humor emanating from the Obama campaign is understandable. (Not that it's impossible to find. As Andy Borowitz demonstrates, even a lack of humor can be funny.)
But I don't see that Obama needs to be anything other than who and how he is, even at the risk of the "regular guy"-ness that people like Dowd insist we plebes crave. I, for one, don't want anyone approaching "regular" sitting in the Oval office come January. Nope, the person I want, and the country clearly needs as President should be exceptional, intelligent and, horror of horrors, serious.
The pundits and comedians are just going to have to work for their laughs this time around.
To all my compatriots on the left who are shaking their heads about Obama's latest "sell-out" I highly recommend Gail Collins' NYT column.
Think back. Why, exactly, did you prefer Obama over Hillary Clinton in the first place? Their policies were almost identical — except his health care proposal was more conservative. You liked Barack because you thought he could get us past the old brain-dead politics, right? He talked — and talked and talked — about how there were going to be no more red states and blue states, how he was going to bring Americans together, including Republicans and Democrats.
Exactly where did everybody think this gathering was going to take place? Left field?
When an extremely intelligent politician tells you over and over and over that he is tired of the take-no-prisoners politics of the last several decades, that he is going to get things done and build a “new consensus,” he is trying to explain that he is all about compromise. Even if he says it in that great Baracky way.
