The Dallas Morning News has been the local propaganda wing for the Republican party for as long as I can remember. They will be sure to echo this over the rest of the year.

The only place for real news in Dallas is the Dallas Observer.

I remember that Mark Davis made news for saying something stupid and bombastic a few months ago, but I can't remember what it was. Do you?

Artappraiser:

This snippet from the article struck me:

"These voters see more than a different kind of politician – they see a transformational figure. Linda Coley, a college professor from Oxford, Ohio, said Mr. Obama is in tune with the mood of the country, and those who mock his message are behind the curve.

"'He's in touch with what's going on today," Ms. Coley said. "He understands the time for a positive message right now.'"

What the heck is that college professor talking about. She writes that "those who mock his message are behind the curve". Sounds like she is talking about seasonal styles. Juxtapose that with you were making last night, that Obama appears to shun ideology and is uncomfortable with single-issue groups (unless of course they give him an endorsement :)).

Point being, what is this message if it is devoid of ideological content? Is it really just all ya need is love, or come together right now? How will that play in Peoria in November? I'm having a little trouble grappling with it now, and I am a shoo-in showroom dummy type of Democratic voter. I don't even know where the GOP lever is!

As someone who got beyond call and response when I was a teen, I find the Obama campaign incredibly entertaining.

Hey Dan:

You appear to have calmed down now that you're guy appears to be on the way to the nomination. For a couple of days there you were reminding me of someone who gets a little crazed at times, namely me. :)

In any event, if I were heading the Obama camp I would highlight a series of addresses on policy matters: foreign policy, economics, etc. I would even make them a bit boring (not Dukakis like mind you but you know what I mean), a bit wonky. He's a brilliant guy, and I think he needs to take the presumption head on that loads of folks have, particularly when you're talking about the general election, that he's all hat and no cattle.

I think it's especially important that he take on McCain on economic issues, e.g., he should chide McCain without mercy for flip-flopping on Bush's tax cuts, and combine that with an explanation about how it is irresponsible in a macroeconomic sense to have waged war and cut taxes. And he needs to chide McCain for neglecting the middle class and the poor, and he needs to compare what he would do with healthcare as compared to the know-nothing approach of McCain, et al.

In short, we're in an election now and it's really about perception. If Obama sews it up quickly, I think he needs to play the wonk for a couple of weeks (in between a couple of rousing speeches here and there of course, which couldn't hurt).

Don't worry Dan, I'm with Obama as much as you will be if he's the one. But until that happens, I can't stand him!!! lol(kidding, sort of; you know what happens in a campaign and all).

Regards.

Bruce

If I were an art appraiser, I would say that Obama is a masterful political artist. He uses words and tones to paint [large canvas] a potential future which grabs the attention, the minds, the hearts and the aspirations of millions of Americans who had become turned off and tuned out by the bleakness and discordant slash-stroke product output they'd come to expect from politics.

If I were appraising him not for his artistry, but for his depth of intellect and capacity to synthesize huge amounts of data, and for the ability to hit the jugular with good and timely judgment, and for his ability to communicate that synthesis and judgment, or even just for his significant and successful production in his few years as a US Senator [the sunshine legislation with Coburn, the WMD proliferation legislation with Lugar, the ethics legislation with Feingold, etc] I would also call him a master.

I see no downside with a politically masterful artist who happens to also be a masterful hard-working wonk.

I temd to ignore the rhetoric when there are REAL Numbers to focus on

Obama and mccain nheld rallies in the same texas city 1 day apart

mccain drew a respectable 650 people

Obama filled a basketball arena to capacity, 13,000 people

call it what you like

it's DAMN effective

First, applause for DonnaG. I like your mind and vocabularies, verbal and intellectual.
artappraiser, I suggest from the evidence your SO has an agenda, apparently unsuited to an Obama presidency.

I haven’t seen a politician like him in my lifetime, and I include Kennedy, who I remember watching in Senate chambers conducting Mafia investigations. Bobby was on the committee too. I was really hot for, worked for Goldwater. I was excited and made hopeful by McGovern (it was a time of changes, eh?).
None. Not one.
Rules have changed along the way, but not persuasively.
Obama has changed The Rules, the way in which people and processes are engaged. Remember “They said it couldn’t be done,”? I assume you’ll recall it’s accuracy. Nor was he talking of deep-dyed cynics only. There were bunches of people wishing, but they expected inevitable disappointment, and valued their realism.
The way he’s brought in people from, as he says, all corners of the country? And that applies beyond simple geography. You hear him say these things in his speeches and you think, “Rhetoric’, it appears, and draw away, it again appears, from the thrill rising in your temples because it’s true.
Of course it’s a movement. An unprecedented moment, which is why only a few could regard it as more than wishful thinking.
It’s thrilling and it’s momentum is growing because of its respect for principles close to the romantic heart, the soul and passion of the nation; and because of it’s respect for truth.

Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to make you choke on your coffee.

But think about it. I too sometimes feel I’m being forced to cut him some slack. That’s not so much because he’s been caught out. It’s that it’s got to be expected. He’s a politician, after all; is the usual line. Corruption or at least deception is bound to surface, and cynics will gloat. But so far the darts don’t stick. The habit of suspicion will linger, for which we are grateful. But cynics both moral and immoral have yet to find much satisfaction.
New, different, and transformative rules.
‘Hack’ seems a serious misjudgment.

Now about the issue of religious involvement.
Of course, it’s a fraught issue. I doubt anyone who’s been drawn into religion’s orbit, and understanding the phrase in a broader sense
that includes everyone, doesn’t have scars to show for it. Mine, like most, go pretty deep.
At the same time many, including myself, find what we feel to be our truest roots there.
Also, in passing; religion is not confined to crazies. This
is a piece from The Nation elaborating on the point.
So there are a lot of people of low, normal, high, and exceptional intelligence, many of whom would willingly die rather than deny their faith. Not the ‘vaguely religious’ of course; but those are at least expressing respect for the possibility of faith.
And, this being a democracy, aspirationally speaking (was that an echo? Yes, and to the point) these are people to whom respect is due as fellow-citizens. The process of finding a way to work together with a common will and a common goal, together with our differences both small and vast, is the work of democracy.
Obama appears to be one of those people, exceptionally intelligent, who is likely to regard his personal safety as less important than the integrity of his faith; or his faithful allegiance to the Constitution. I like that in him. I think I love that in him.
The oratorical urging in his speeches is an urging towards what we want to be that we are not yet. An urging to transcendence. The cynical dislike of the claims of transcendence is not amused. But the rest feel they understand the necessity in the moment, of the fulfillment in struggling towards the light rather than sitting around stewing in bile or apathy, making faces as the fire dies.
So Obama’s oratory’s echoes of preaching arise from a shared task, to urge hearers towards a larger goodness.
Hmm.
All these words and I haven’t gotten to what I hoped to speak of, but that’s probably enough for now. If this proves a durable thread I’ll no doubt cast a couple of cents into the kitty later on.
Thanks.

I reflect on this call-response here:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/02/come-to-obama.php

I think it's frightening.

(Not to worry artappraiser; lotsa hot air lots of bubbles bubbles always burst. Enough times around the ring, you learn, and stupider just takes longer; I speak from personal experience. Hadn’t thought of it; lead item in my résumé: Bubble Blowing.)
So.