Wednesday 16 July 2008

Thoughts on Obama

IowaHawk says it all:

A Message to American Voters
By Senator Barack Obama (D-IL)

My Fellow Americans:

You may have read recent news reports that suggest I have modified my position regarding the redeployment of American military personnel in Iraq. Unfortunately, these reports have been the source of much confusion and anxiety among the millions of voters who have supported my campaign, and I would like to take this opportunity to address their concerns.

Let me be crystal clear: if elected president, my first act will be to call for the immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq....
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Or will I? As is obvious to all but the most deluded HuffPo retard, the surge in Iraq has produced dramatic improvements in security throughout Iraq, and the roots of a stable pro-American democracy....
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See what I mean? That previous paragraph should be a signal to all of you in the progressive community just how committed I am to an immediate troop withdrawal. If that's the kind of shameless bellicose jingoism it takes to temporarily fool the neocons and extra-chromosome Jebus tards, I will do it....
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And that there is exactly the kind of transparent commie crap that left wing lunatics eat up....
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In conclusion, this should make it clear to the broad moderate middle mainstream of independent American voters that I am willing to reach out to both sides of the contentious war debate, and forge a new national consensus based on unity. Together, we can build a new era of hope, and bring an end to politics of cynicism.


Obama's website on Iraq, before this weekend:


Currently:


Next Week:

?


Source : Gateway Pundit.

Now it's a mark of a reasonable person to change their mind when confronted with new facts, rather than ignore new evidence that conflicts with past beliefs. But it's the mark of a canny politician to be "all things to all men", tailoring what is said to become palatable to the audience at hand. Obama is a canny politician. I hope he's reasonable too. But if I shook his hand, I'd count my fingers afterwards.

Note that being a corrupt, unprincipled and utterly political animal is, contrary to popular belief, not a disqualification from performing a high office successfully. If it was, it's not just the USA that would have been in deep trouble before now. No, most of the damage has been done by those so convinced of their own righteousness that they become prisoners of dogma, ignoring facts and remaining uncompromising idealists. Give me a pragmatic scoundrel any day - as long as he doesn't have his fingers in the cookie jar too blatantly. Chicago politicians of all stripes tend to.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Concur. Unpricipled and pragmatic is fine with me. Chameleon-cloaked fanatic is what I'm worried about.

Lloyd Flack said...

Obama is a potential disaster on the economy and on the war against Islamism. On the other hand he is likely to be less zealous than the current administration and his rivals on America's great self inflicted disaster, the War on Drugs. It would be too much to expect fully rational behavior on this but any move in that direction would be good.

Rene Benthien said...

What was the actual change in position? I've been looking back over statements he made during the primaries and it seems he's consistently been saying that 'we should be careful getting out as we were careless getting in'.