Summer CE Week #2: “Be Afraid. Please.”
Life is full of disappointments.
Early Friday, I went to the Real Clear Politics Web site, as I do every morning, for my fix of political news and commentary. I perked up when I saw the third entry on the list of that day’s notable articles — “No. 44 Has Spoken.”
“Hank Aaron has spoken? Wow,” I thought as I clicked through.
Nope. The article was by Gerhard Spörl, the chief editor of Der Spiegel’s foreign desk. “No. 44” didn’t refer to the uniform number of the man some of us still consider the true all-time major-league home-run champion. It referred to the next president of the United States. The article’s premise was that an Obama victory is a foregone conclusion: “Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States.”
So it wasn’t Hank Aaron speaking. It was just another journalist fawning over Obama. That was a disappointment. But disappointment was quickly replaced by the healthier emotion of annoyance.
“Nicht so schnell, Herr Spörl,” I thought, drawing on what Obama would consider my embarrassingly limited German. Not so fast.
Don’t the American people get a chance to weigh in on this in November? Maybe they’ll decide it’s more important to have John McCain as commander in chief than Barack Obama as orator in chief. Maybe they’ll further suspect that 200,000 Germans can’t be right.
I was cheered up by this notion.
But the next morning, as I drove around the Washington suburbs, I saw not one but two cars — rather nice cars, as it happens — festooned with the Obama campaign bumper sticker “got hope?” And I relapsed into moroseness.
Got hope? Are my own neighbors’ lives so bleak that they place their hopes in Barack Obama? Are they impressed by the cleverness of a political slogan that plays off a rather cheesy (sorry!) campaign to get people to drink milk?
And what is it the bumper-sticker affixers are trying to say? Do they really believe their fellow citizens who happen to prefer McCain are hopeless? After all, just because you haven’t swooned like Herr Spörl doesn’t mean you don’t hope for a better world. Don’t McCain backers also have hope — for an America that wins its wars, protects its unborn children and allows its citizens to keep more of their hard-earned income?
But what if all those “got hope?” bumper stickers spur a backlash? It might occur to undecided or swing voters that talk of hope is not a substantive plan. They might be further put off by the haughtiness of Obama’s claim to the mantle of hope. This hope restored my spirits.
Before they fell again. Later that day, I read a report of a fund-raising letter from Obama on behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, arguing that “We must have a deadlock-proof Democratic majority.”
Yikes.
But then it occurred to me that one man’s “deadlock-proof” Democratic majority is another’s unchecked Democratic majority. Given the unpopularity of the current Democratic Congress, given Americans’ tendency to prefer divided government, given the voters’ repudiations of the Republicans in 2006 and of the Democrats in 1994 — isn’t the prospect of across-the-board, one-party Democratic governance more likely to move votes to McCain than to Obama?
So I cheered up once again. For it will become increasingly obvious, as we approach November, that the Democrats will continue to control Congress for the next couple of years. But if the voters elect Obama as president, they’ll be putting Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in untrammeled control of our future.
In 1948, a Republican Congress, which had taken power two years before with great expectations after a decade and a half of Democratic control, had become unpopular. Harry Truman lambasted it as a no-good, do-nothing Congress — and he rode that assault to the White House. We’ll soon start hearing more from McCain about the deficiencies of today’s surge-opposing, drilling-blocking, earmark-loving Congress.
And McCain will then assert that if you don’t like the Congress in which Senator Obama serves in the majority right now, you really should be alarmed about a President Obama rubber-stamping the deeds of a Democratic Congress next year. A President McCain, on the other hand, could check Congressional appetites — as well as work across the aisle with a Democratic Congress in a bipartisan spirit where appropriate.
And so I drifted off into a pleasant daydream. It’s election night, and a victorious John McCain is waving around the Spiegel article, “No. 44 Has Spoken” — just as Harry Truman, 60 years ago, triumphantly held aloft the early edition of the Nov. 3, 1948, Chicago Tribune, with its banner headline, “Dewey Defeats Truman.”
Life may be full of disappointments. But it’s also full of surprises.
This is just another proof that the media is trying to elect Obama. This author brings up some great points. First of all, the fact that the media has given the presidency over to Obama because of his “trip around the world” does not mean he will win in November. He is trying to strengthen his foreign policy image because he had a very weak one to begin with. It doesn’t matter if every other leader in the world thinks he will be a good president, it matters what the American public believes. Obama is getting a lot of hype for his campaign because he is trying to bring about change and yet I have never heard what this plan of change will be. “Got Hope?” is a great slogan if the US was in a deep depression and losing tens of thousands of men and women in war, but we aren’t. At this moment, we are actually pretty well liked among the other nations of the world. We need a president that can advance us in the world and actually get stuff done. We don’t need a president that hides his agenda from the public and is wishy- washy on the issues. The media needs to get their act together and start supporting both candidates. It is ridiculous when every time I type “news” into Google and click on a site and 9 out of 10 stories and pictures are about Obama. I will laugh if or when McCain is elected president instead.
I really enjoyed this article. The line, “Maybe they’ll decide it’s more important to have John McCain as commander in chief than Barack Obama as orator in chief,” really stood out to me. Every time I ask someone why they are going to vote for Barack Obama, almost everyone comments on the fact that he is a good speaker. “His speeches are so much better then Bush’s,” or “He really knows what he is talking about.” Even though I would have to agree with this fact, I also wonder if we can really base our decision for the next president of the United States over the mere fact that he can develop a speech well. Also, this whole ‘got hope?’ thing is rather strange to me. People always say, “Barack Obama is for change and a nation of hope.” Well, don’t you think McCain wants change too? I highly doubt McCain is sitting there thinking that he doesn’t want to change ANYTHING about the way our country is going. And like the article says, just because someone doesn’t have a bumper sticker on their car or just because they don’t vote for Obama doesn’t mean that they don’t have hope in our country or that they don’t want change. Even though I personally do like Obama, some of these things really make me think again.
Not to point out the obvious but the reporter doesnt seem agree with with any of Obama’s well anything. In his attempt to back up McCain in this attack on Obama the only real thing he could pull up about McCain is that he would make a solid commander-in-chief. I do think there is more to being a president than being able to win a war. There are other ways to make peace than fearing them into what we want. Wars are costly as we have all seen and unless you support it your money is wasting. We can all be like Henry David Thoreau and not pay our taxes that go to the war and then either we would all end up in jail or the entire country would collapse.
And the reason reporters are “fawning over Obama” as Kristol had worded it, was because he has given hope and chance to what McCain probably wouldnt accomplish. So i think he is just bashing Obama out of the fact that McCain really doesnt have much except the war experience and that he is not willing to submit to the fact that unless something really changes around Obama is going to take the election easily.
Another obvious point Kristol is definitely a hard-core Republican. So anyone who would have taken the Democratic nomination would have been attacked in by this guy he is just attacking Obama more because he is popular not only in States but around the world. And if anyone else had taken the Republican nomination this columnist would have supported him. I think he is just implementing his Republican bias into this article to attempt to glorify McCain.
This is an interesting article indeed. i must agree with Bill that a bunch of German yay-hoos do not determine who our next president shall be. they should keep their snooty European noses out of our business anyways. sheesh. i also liked how William pointed out the “cheesiness” of Obama’s campaign all based off hope and change. i find myself asking hope for what? what change do we need mr. Obama? i have witnessed little change in our country thanks to you and the rest of our pathetic congressmen (who just happen to be mostly democrats) so why should i expect barack to take action as our new President? the only change i expect coming out of obama is a shift to the socialist ways of the again spawning USSR or SOviet Union for those who can’t read Russian. all this talk about free health care worries me. nothing is free in this life, not even our freedom and i expect our president to do whatever it takes to ensure our freedom, not our healthcare.
and another thing, just to make sure i have 200 words, why should i vote for a man who talks so pretty, but doesn’t mind the execution of unborn children? I’m refering to abortion now, which i believe is a complete sin, i don’t know mccain’s position on the crime, but i believe Obama’s is similar to that of the filthy liberals who legalized such terrorism. thats a fallcy of something, i can’t remember. instead of terrorism i should have said haneous acts of debauchery. anyways, methinks that obama is bad.
Question: whats moderation?
Answer: In this context, it is when I read your posts and responses to grade them before they will appear on the Blog. If they are not appropriate, they will be deleted. Think of it as “Big Brother” looking over your shoulder as quality control.
On a slightly related note, try using appropriate conventions within your posts, this is not supposed to be an exercise in text messaging and when your sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and use of slang looks like it was done by my 2nd grade son, you need to apply yourself a little more – just an observation.
Kautzman
In response to roywilkes.
That whole post was completely ridiculous. All major countries are all looking at how the other is ran and all of these major countries need to be able to tolerate the others leaders in case of another world war or something we wont all annhilate eachother. The reason for no change with our Democratic congress is because we kind of have a Republican president and that doesnt tend to work out. If you get a president and a Congress on the same page you will see something.
Honestly, where did you come up with that ludacris statement of Obama shifting our country into a socialist country?
You are in fact correct nothing is free. And this “free health care” you speak of isnt going to be able to be free to all. I’m sure they are talking about maybe a switch to socialized medicine where everyone is able to get same basic coverage by paying higher taxes. Especially right now our nation could not afford to do anything for free.
Honestly, the author of this article reminded me of Holden Caulfield in “Catcher in the Rye.” While the author isn’t the issue, he is so up and down in his mood, that it distracts the reader from the actual point of the article. Just because his neighbors have a bumper sticker supporting Obama doesn’t mean that the world is going to hell. My perception of the author is that he is a republican, and his comments against Obama and his slogans prove that. I wouldn’t have a problem with the author criticizing Obamas slogan “Got Hope?” if the author had mentioned that Obama’s book is titled “The Audacity of HOPE.” This is a legitimate reason to be using such a slogan and it isn’t saying that McCain supporters don’t have any hope.
The article states that McCain may try and criticize congress to work his way to the top. In “Hardball,” Chris Matthews recounts a story where one man is elected president (I don’t remember who) through making his campaign against the “corrupt” government. While it got him elected, the new president didn’t do a very good job of making friends in the government since he criticized them. The same is likely to happen to McCain.
In response to Rachel’s comment, I definitely agree with a few of your points. Perhaps media is becoming too sure about who the next president will be. Simply because Obama has traveled in these past days, does not put him higher, than McCain, on the charts. However, the fact that he did, and if he is elected, the America will have more foreign ties and support. From my experience, European people do believe that Obama is a better choice for America, for he could bring change to our government. As far as McCain goes, foreigners believe that our government would stay exactly the same, we would never get out of Iraq, and domestically our country would wither away. Thus, other leaders, seeing the change that Obama might bring, could perhaps learn from it and improve their own.
No. 44 has spoken
If the Germans love Barrack Obama so much why don’t they marry him, or vote him president of Germany. That’s just great and dandy that Obama gave a good speech in Berlin, maybe if I’d heard it I would agree in saying that he will be the next president. Too bad I missed the speech because I was in another country you know the U.S.. I know, I know I probably could have watched the speech on CNN or Der Her Snichzel news but really what is Obama doing in Germany when he is campaigning in the United States of America. John McCain needs to take advantage of this departure to rev up his campaign. While the political cat, or possibly fat cat?, is away the mouse should definitely be playing. There is no argument that Obama has a way with words but talk is cheap. Lets see some actions people. I’m not trying to be one sided but it seems to me that Obama only talks about the future. What about his past? I have no idea about his policies and very little knowledge on his political aspirations. I know he wants everybody to love everybody but so does barney. Not everyone agrees, that’s why we have a need for a government in the first place.
Responding to Rachel’s comment, I too believe that our country needs a strong leader who clearly states his agenda. We need a president who will speak what he believes he can do, not what he knows the people want to hear. I’m slightly intimidated that if Obama is our “no. 44″ we will be all too shocked with what he really is planning on doing. However, when you say that we are actually pretty well liked among the other nations of the world, I would have to disagree. Having just arrived home from three weeks in Germany, I realized that at least some of the Germans don’t have a friendly attitude towards America at all. They see America as a pushy country who is sticking its too long nose into the affairs of countries who really don’t want their help. Personally, I don’t agree with this sentiment but could see glimpses of truth in it. What is the border line of genuinely using our vast resources to help other countries in need and conversely, thinking that because we have so many resources we can just stick our noses into other countries’ business?
A comment on Bryce Follet’s post. The president you’re thinking of is Jimmy Carter, who ran against the establishment to win the Presidency. The reason he failed to do a good job was because he wasn’t a friend behind the scenes, as well as in the public eye. He sold the Presidential Yacht, a great friend maker in it’s own right, as well as not truly socializing with potential opponents. I do agree with your sentiment about the author’s supposed mood, my mind immediately switched on a depression medication jingle after about the 3rd swing downward. If the author is so depressed by any support of Obama, perhaps they should try and educate their local “bumper stick affixers” rather than just falling into such a supposed slump. While the author was probably being exaggerated over their mood, it still did what you said and detracted from the point. However, the sillyness the author finds in it isn’t that he’s forgetting about the title of Obama’s book, but the fact that the Obama campaign rolls it out like he’s the only one providing it, like McCain was born without the gland that makes him look to the positive side. I think it’s the pinch of Obama’s “Only I’m good enough to give this” arrogance that bother’s the author about that slogan, but who knows? I could be projecting!
Commenting on Zack Wilkes:
First of all, I do agree that the 200,000 Germans have nothing to do with the determination of the elections this upcoming year. I do want to point out, however, that it does show that Obama is making an effort to establish a strong foreign policy that is noticable, which I can not say about Mr. McCain. i would also like to point out from the line: “they should keep their snooty European noses out of our business.” is exactly why Americans are looked down upon by other countries. That remark was very disrespectful and I believe you were stereotyping and being unprofessional. This is not an attack, I am just saying that Europeans do tend to not likes us and its no question that its because people here think that way. Your remark about abortion I somewhat agree with because I also do not agree with Obama’s ideas on abortion, but you make a point by saying you don’t know about McCain’s position. That is exactly the point, McCain is not making enough effort to put out his ideas and to get himself known in comparision to Obama.
Recently I traveled to Europe and when I was in England we had a conversation on their free health care policies. Too me, it honestly seems like they are doing fine, atleast better then we are. Their policy seems like it works very well from what the people we stayed with explained. This is just an option we have yet to explore greatly.
In response to Rachel: First of all, the American people are well liked by other nations of the world, however George Bush is incredibly unpopular, we have a terrible foreign policy. Obama has shown that he has tremendous foreign support, 200,000 people turned out in Berlin the last president to draw foreign crowds like that was JFK. And you have to be joking me when you say there is nothing wrong with this country. Over 4,000 Americans have died in the war on Iraq so yes thousands of Americans have died at war. Obama hasn’t hid his issues either. He plans to end U.S military involvement in Iraq and provide economic aid from here on out. He also plans to spend over 10x as much money on the energy crisis then McCain. Obama also wants to have a massive global cut down on nuclear weapons and plans to spend money on improving the environment. He isn’t hiding anything he has legitimate plans to institute change so you before you criticize him for not having an agenda you better have proof. Obama 08’
Johanna Stafford
Now this article does prove that the media is trying to promote Obama, but at the same time the media wants a close race all the way up to Election Day. But of course promoting a black man over an old white man would be a better selling story as we have seen. I have to say, this author was extremley funny and also brought up a few good points. The “got hope” sticker probably wasn’t the best idea. Some people are going to say, yes, I do have have hope, and Obama is going to realize, wow, I better live up to a bumper sticker. Obama must realize that for some, that is a very powerful bumper sticker and those people will take him seriously. Two words on a bumper sticker are going to make one heavy load for this politician. The only thing that I would like to find out is what kind of “hope” Obama intends to bring to the United States. We can all hope, but hope doesn’t mean getting things done. I think Obama needs to rethink a new bumper sticker because a President needs to open up new jobs, slash the nations debt, lower gas prices, improve our environment… not give a nation hope. Yeah hope gets us through tough times, but that’s not always enough.
I have to say this author switches subjects so often that it is almost confusing to read. When the author is talking about the article by Herr Spörl, he makes it sound like this sole person’s opinion is the deciding factor of what will happen in the future. I do realize that the media is giving Obama more attention, but I don’t understand why it is such a big deal. Obama is doing more to get attention. It doesn’t have to be that way, and I hope that McCain does something to get the attention he deserves soon.
About the “Got Hope?” slogan, I have to agree that it is kind of cheesy. But for the undecided voters that really don’t pay much attention to politics, that slogan may just be a deciding factor. I agree with the author about the fact that Obama obviously doesn’t understand that most of us do have hope already, and by electing him, the few who didn’t have hope probably wouldn’t gain it.
Seeing as I don’t really know who I want to win, it would be neat to see McCain holding up that article just as Harry Truman did with the Chicago Tribune 60 years ago, as it says in the article.
This article is hilarious, so hilarious that I feel obligated imitate the journalist’s ridiculous bias strategy.
Early Saturday, I turned on my computer and traveled to Mr. Kautzman’s government blog, as I do occasionally, to get my fix on the summer assignment. I was overly enthused when I saw the article “Be Afraid Please” for I thought the title seemed pathetically frisky fierce. I thought, “Wow, I should be afraid?” “For what reason should I be afraid?” As I was reading the article, the facts became apparent. Fear carried no relevancy. The article was merely another bias conservative journalist attempting to shove Obama’s illegitimacy down my throat. I was also hugely disappointed when I found out that Hank Aaron was purely a floppy distraction to the point…Poor Hank Aaron, you deserve better than that.
Honestly, William Kristol barely even compromised Obama’s political views; instead, he attacked the idea of the bumper sticker: a miscellaneous piece Obama’s political campaign.
“And what is it the bumper-sticker affixers are trying to say? Do they really believe their fellow citizens who happen to prefer McCain are hopeless?”
Obviously the idea of hope is universal; however, if William Kristol, or anyone else, longs to make the idea contradictory, they are allowed (individual moral freedom). Obama’s perspective is not that of a split nation, the hopeful vs. the hopeless, it is that of a united people to accurately represent the United States.
I do agree that a dominate house is a legitimate concern. A dominant house would undoubtedly lack the efficiency of a split house.
” Life may be full of disappointments. But it’s also full of surprises.” Did anyone else laugh out loud after reading this line?? It ain’t easy bein cheesy.
In response to Caleb:
I understand and somewhat agree with what you said about Obama appealing to the Germans. Just because the Germans liked his speech doesn’t mean we would, maybe if it had been broadcasted better we would know.
On a side note; about your comment about Der Her Snichzel news, I don’t know if you were just trying to be funny, but seeing as I’ve taken German, that would most likely be directly translated as “The Mr. Schnitzel” (Schnitzel is a breaded meat).
I really think it would be hard for Obama to be president of Germany, seeing as he doesn’t speak the language, but I guess that wasn’t a huge hurdle in his speech.
I do agree with the fact that McCain should take some action while Obama is wooing the Germans, but from what I’ve heard so far I don’t think he has.
This whole election in my opinion is kind of screwed up, we have the media essentially electing Obama into the White House and most of what I hear about McCain has not been positive speaking about the fact that he isn’t all that great when it comes to speeches. This is no reason why McCain should be ignored. He should be given the same respect they are sharing with Obama. The whole issue I have with Obama is the fact he is all about change within the country but do we ever hear what his hope and his plans with change are? No, all we see is the “got hope?” bumper sticker and the continual commercials promoting Obama’s voice with change and bashing of McCain as being another Bush. Have we ever thought of what kind of change he is wishing for the country? Could it ever have occurred to us that McCain might want change too? Just because this isn’t his presidential slogan doesn’t mean that it isn’t plausible to suggest a similar hope of change that is within McCain. I think we underestimate the strength in McCain’s candidacy because we don’t ever hear about him. McCain was chosen to be the Republican candidate for a reason. Now, Obama could be a great president but shouldn’t we give McCain a chance too?