Tuesday, November 25, 2008

promises, promises

"Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be."
- Marshall McLuhan
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Not even inaugurated yet and Mr. Obama is already starting to backpedal on campaign promises he made to his hopeychangey hippie dippie fanclub.
The promise to bring a new "tone" to Washington? Nope, not so much.

The promise to end the military's ban on openly gay servicemen? He might get around to it someday. Maybe.

The promise to end torture and wiretapping? Uh, maybe not.

The promise to cut missile defense programs? Not so fast!

The promise to repeal the Bush tax cuts? He's now "considering" it.
Just drink his particular brand of snake oil and the oceans will recede, the planet will begin to heal and St. Barack will fix your soul. Believe! All you have to do is have the audacity to hope for change because yes, we can!

None of this will surprise the 48% of us who didn't vote for Mr. Obama, because we've always known he's just an eloquent, polished con man; an empty suit who will lie about anything to get elected. We may not even be bothered that he might break promises to those in his base. It's politics, we say, no big deal, that's what politicians do. There might even be a decent amount of "haha, we told you so" aimed at the Left.

But while you savor your schadenfreude - and it is delicious - never ever forget that Barack Obama made a promise to us too...

"If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.

So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said.
...and it wasn't exactly a solemn vow.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did something today I never do, which is go out to work with my coworkers.

I assume they were all Obama voters, because all of them were royally pissed that they're not getting the Change they voted for.

Suckers.

Jay G said...

Boy, all those Obamabots, desperately waiting for their unicorns and rainbows, are going to be mighty unhappy when Obama can't pay their mortgages and fill their cars with gas.

They might just be as upset as us bitter and clingy gun owners...

JD said...

Ah yes, but the question JayG is how do we turn this buyers remorse around and make them into bitter and clingy gun owners. . .

BobG said...

Obama always reminds me of an ethically-challenged used car salesman.

Sigivald said...

Well, hell, he can't "end the military's ban on openly gay servicemen".

Because it's not "the military's ban", it's Congress's.

10 USC 654 was, after all, enacted by Congress, and is outside of the President's power to ignore simply because he (notionally) wants to.

He can't even "delay" repealing it (as the story suggests) - all he can do is ask Nancy Pelosi to not push it.

That he won't "ask Congress" to do it for a while means nothing in terms of getting it done, if Congress wanted it done. They don't need his permission, nor would his asking them compel them to take action.

Democrats in Congress obviously don't want DADT to be removed, or they'd have been trying to remove it since 2006. They haven't even attempted it as a symbolic gesture.

The Captain said...

I'm pretty sure the phenomenon of politicians going back on campaign promises has a long and distinguished history. Not that I'm unhappy to see the Change changing, but I can't say I'm too surprised.

Anonymous said...

There is still hope...

Obama Names Bill Clinton to Presidential Post

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jana said...

re: The Captain's comment earlier about politicians going back on campaign promises...

Usually, voters don't find out they've been used, abused and tossed aside until AFTER the Inauguration... The One just got right to screwing over his base on Nov. 5...

CaptainAttila said...

As has been said elsewhere, all of Barack Obama's statements come with an expiration date. ALL. OF. THEM.

Old NFO said...

Sigi beat me to it... I do believe the ONE thing Obama will do is come after our guns... between he and Biden, they are both scared S**tless of us bitter clingy types!

ASM826 said...

Breda,

The banner in your sidebar that says "BROWNCOAT" in the center, is it referencing Firefly?

ASM826

Mike W. said...

All the folks who've been fawning over Obama are going to be seriously dissilusioned in the next few years when he doesn't fix the world, walk on water, and make money grow on trees.

Of course those of us with some common sense knew he was full of shit all along.

breda said...

ASM826 - yup!

mike's spot said...

I love marshall McLuhan- His son Eric still teaches at U of Toronto-

I just hope people don't say 'well of course he couldn't fix it in 4 years! ' and give President Obama a free pass for getting nothing accomplished.

Anniee451 said...

I just found you through TheLibertyZone (which I in turn found through Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.) Good stuff, I'm enjoying it!

eb said...

Many of us Obama voters are much more realistic than you give us credit for. We don't think he can fix the world or walk on water...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADYkP-mvI40

breda said...

...and now begins the excuses and justification. Its gonna be a looooooooong 4 years for you. Haha.

Anniee451 said...

If you were realistic, eb, you wouldn't buy into the economic lie of redistribution (as a helpful practice). I for one hope he keeps his promises. The resulting economic and foreign relations nightmare will be enough for even the dumbest/most naive among us to scream from the rooftops for something different. If he doesn't keep his promises, the left will continue their whinging that if only someone would REALLY enact a properly socialist policy, we would all be living in sugar candy land. Better that they find out what such economics really do, since they're bound and determined to ignore the genocide and poverty of socialism that has already been practiced elsewhere. *One* example