The persistence of Obamalove
My new article is up at PJ: “The Persistence of Obama Love.”
[NOTE: Why the weird painting? It’s surrealist Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory,” his most famous work.
Plus, what we’re going through is starting to seem surreal, don’t you think? And time’s getting short on blocking Obama’s attempt at a radical transformation of American society into a Euro-style welfare state.]
Or you could go Jackson Pollack’s “Lavender Mist” – the one that has no lavender and no mist, just atmosphere.
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/painting3.shtm
Dali – strange guy- great artist – I’m not sure I have ever seen anyone with a better sense of light (in his early works before surrealism). Ever the Tampa area go see the museum devoted to him. Worth the time.
Obama and the liberals may be making HUGE mistake in thinking they have a mandate coupled with carte blanche. More and more very visible double standards are appearing and the public is taking notice. The most recent of course is the AFL-CIO shindig at L’hotel Fontainbleu. Biden in person and (apparently) Obama by video with NO press allowed. Transparency? I think not. Also Obama going to Columbus (couple of hundred thousand for AF One round trip) to make a speech about how his plan saved twenty-five police jobs. If he hadn’t taken the trip and gave them the money they could have hired a couple more.
It will be interesting to see how the college students who put Obama over the top will feel about him come June when they are looking for a job?
My partner and I were discussing the current state of affairs and both said simultaneously “unreal”. I feel like I’m in a bad dream,or watching a disaster movie. The really scary thing is that its only the beginning, we have 3 years and approx. 46 weeks more of Obama.
So, they finally did it, the left-wing have successfully poisoned the nation’s drinking water with their special formula for Kool-aid…
Just read your article over at PJ. Great job, as usual.
I have two thoughts to share:
1) It seems to me that there is a great deal of opportunity for changing the minds of a number of fairly marginal Obama supporters. I read through all 9 pages of the latest Fox News Opinion Poll. The questions seemed to be pretty well structured and the results showed a number of vulnerable areas. Other than reclaiming the fall away Republicans, the best opportunity seems to me to be to go after the independent voters. As a group, they seem to be more sympathetic to the cause of smaller government, lower taxes, support for and of the private sector. They also seem to be significantly skeptical of the chance for success of the government’s efforts with the stimulus and spending plans. The emphasis is important, because that same group seems to maintain a strong confidence in Obama personally. The target, therefore, is not Obama the man, but the Democrat government.
It doesn’t matter that they are the same thing, what matters is that the opposition not be perceived as fighting against Obama the popular President. Much better to be seen as struggling against the corrupt, crony ridden, inept, pork-loving Democrat government.
Isolate Obama and defeat his socialist agenda by defeating him in Congress and in public opinion. He just wants what is best for the country after all, right? He can only sign into law what gets out of Congress. The rest is executive decree that can be rolled back as quickly as he has nullified the Bush executive decrees.
2) The vast majority of the country sees and reads nothing bu their local newspaper and the local TV and/or radio news. They don’t have time or they don’t have the desire. Their opinions are formed from the soundbite news offered up to them in predigested form by Katie Couric or the anonymous AP staff writer.
The only way to shift the opinions of large numbers of these voters is to put hard, cold facts in front of them where it captures their attention. Paul Harvey could have done it. Everyone listened to him.
The internet is great, but it only involves us hard core political junkies. Everyone else is doing Facebook and YouTube, or something similar – social networking like crazy and looking for entertainment, not politics.
To change the political landscape, we have to get the real news out to lots more people. It needs to go to them. We can’t expect them to come looking for it. Putting it out there for people to read has not worked for our side. What has worked for all sides, when they have done it, is personal networking, phone calls, using those channels to communicate a consistent message. I truly believe that if you can put the truth in front of people, they will be shocked and enough of them will change sides to correct the course we are on.
Forgot something under point 1) – We have to be seen not just as struggling against (i.e., the opposition), but as presenting a more viable plan, with a stronger chance of producing the results that our target audience desires.
Great, great points, Dave-in-W-S. I too read neo’s post over at PJM and found her writing right up to her usual standards, which are excellent.
I agree that the only way to reach the Middle Muddle is through putting the cold, hard facts of reality right in front of them, if reality has not already smacked them hard in the face. Some people need that, you know.
We are not going to gain any significant converts from the Far Left or those close to it. Don’t even go there. People who come on over from that side (and I’m one of those, left Marxist thought in 1987) do so because their journey through the collectivist experience has left them disillusioned and aware. That’s a rare experience.
People in the Middle Muddle are too busy with their lives to be anchored hard to an ideological pier. They are typically tunnel-visioned into whatever is necessary for their careers and jobs, and then the rest of their time is for other responsibilities, comforts, and entertainments.
Unfortunately, this group has been easy to manipulate by the media, but we can’t blame it all on the media. If our experiment with the Republic is flagging it is because our citizens have dropped the ball. And our educational institutions have rotted out, thank you very much Antonio Gramsci and his followers.
Painting? That’s a photograph, where I live!
Foxnews polls show a consistent 60& support for Obama, but not support for things like raising taxes, etc. There is a serious disconnect between his approval rating (60%) and what he is actually doing. I wonder when it will change?
In terms of a Dali-like feeling… I definitely have that. All I have to do is think about what BHO is doing and then add to the mix a nuclear Iran, and a Dali meltdown ensues. I start seeing the true end of days. I feel I have to actually pull back from all this and in some sense ignore it in order not to become overly depressed with the future meltdown.
I think by the end of the year that 60% will fall to 50% or very close to it. Approval ratings for the Commander in Chief are very sticky and slow moving, but when they move in a direction it is very difficult to arrest that direction and reverse it quickly. I don’t put very much stock in those ratings in the short-run. We are only into March and he was sworn in (mostly, lol!) on Jan. 20.
It is policy where the rubber has to meet the road. That’s the true grist for the mill. I believe that eventually most sane people have to come to terms with reality, however painful that may be for them.
That is why I rarely listen to presidential speeches. Those are almost always a crafted occasion and I don’t think of myself as a person who is hooked by that. Given that is the case about me, I’ll pay attention to ACTIONS, which in this case boil down to specific policies carried out. Posturing and pretty speeches are, in my less kind parlance, for dopes.
I am wondering about the reception Obama will receive in Europe next month and whether it will perpetuate the myth that he can improve our image in the world. European leaders are struggling with their own financial problems, which can’t be helped by Obama’s amateur dilly-dallying. (For example, Germany can’t do much about Opel till Obama has done something about GM.) If he overdoes the hope and change rhetoric without concrete proposals, there may be a chill perceivable across the Atlantic. The British press has begun to awaken because of the DVDs. A bit of a screaming match in Prague would certainly shake Americans who believed Obama’s blame Bush campaign.
And then, of course, there are always the possible leaks from unnamed officials in the … department who aren’t going to be thrown under the bus without at least giving Obama a kick in the shins.
Will he be able to project a cool-headed but concerned image or will he continue his threats of disaster while dining elegantly at the WH?
Pollock? Art? I am fortunate in having my own private collection of Pollock paintings, in a somewhat “virtual” sense, in a museum in my garage. In order to view the Pollock “masterpieces,” I first consume an ice-cold fifth of Smirnoff’s vodka, then I go into the garage and spill several cans of paint of the floor. Ah, such technique and flourish! ‘Nuff said.
Part of it is just people feel bad about talking ill of such a new prez…
Dave in W-S should write more. Excellent analysis.