Even Conservative Media Chorus Sings Obama's Praises (by Howards Kurtz)

[antiimperialist]

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 8, 2008; C01

Barack Obama, now the media's odds-on favorite to win the White House, is drawing effusive praise from the chattering classes.

"You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this. . . . This is a huge moment," one commentator wrote.

An unreconstructed liberal? An African American hungering for a racial breakthrough? No, it was David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, and he's got plenty of company on the right.

The media overall are being swept up by a wave of Obamamania, in which normally hard-bitten journalists watch the orator in action and come away dazzled by his gifts. A New York Times piece Saturday compared the Illinois senator to JFK and Martin Luther King in the same paragraph. A Newsweek cover story out yesterday gushed that Obama, "tall and handsome and blessed with a weighty baritone, knows how to bring along a crowd while seeming to stay slightly above it." The journalistic scrutiny usually visited on instant front-runners has been replaced by something akin to a standing ovation.

What's more, the applause extends even to pundits on the right, many of whom routinely denigrate Democratic politicians and yet are strikingly warm toward Obama. There is gratitude, to be sure, that he seems poised to knock off their longtime bete noire, Hillary Clinton -- especially if he wins today's New Hampshire primary -- but also admiration for his inclusive approach to politics and for his sheer talent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/07/AR2008010702939_pf.html

[begin_within]

1. If conservatives like Obama, that scares me.

[mac2]

5. Same ole same ole

liars and traitors.

[billbuckhead]

2. Will, Krystal, Kurtz, whose next? KKKarl Rove himself?

We are being set up for the greatest media ambush in history. The minute Barack Obama becomes the Dem nominee he immediately becomes " Barack Hussein Osama" the crack smoking Islamic sympathizer. And the oh so advanced American public that voted for Obama in the primaries become backwards racist rubes in the general.

[Demeter]

14. I Concur

The Right wants us to settle on one candidate quickly so that they have enough time to poison the public with their lies, innuendoes and dirty tricks. The best thing for us would be if this went unsettled right up to the convention. Three is a good balance, like 3 legged stools or tricycles.

[ihavenobias]

36. The conservative media has *already* been attacking Obama!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL--ms

[mac2]

3. Like Lieberman who lost us the 2000 election

The media loved Lieberman. When I turn the local RW stations on the first word in the news is how people are "flocking to see Obama". It's like he's a rock star (in their eyes).

I before the primary I used to hear Bush's name first on the news. It is because they knew if they didn't sneak it in first people would turn it off. I certainly didn't hear President Clinton's name much.

I'm worried Dems are once again choosing a same ole DC insider. Why didn't he work for change before this? Why did he sign the Patriot Act II...because he's a Republican not a Democrat? DCLer Rep. Emanuel (D-IL)and Senator Durbin (D-IL) recruited Republicans to run for public office as Democrats. Obama was also picked by our RW Chicago Tribune to be a "winner with great potential". All this made me very suspicious. I voted for him the first time since the man he ran against was ridiculous. I won't the second time with his voting record of paling with Republicans too much.

[Skittles]

9. the hard questions are not being asked

and too many DUers either do not notice this or do not care - either way it is very scary

[tom_paine]

13. As always, dear skittles, we stand alone on the "cutting edge"

Boy, it's fucking lonely here!

As I said below, I cannot help but remember the 2004 Democratic Conevtion, how the Bushies and their MSM Toadies told us to "play nice" because it would be an unmitigated disaster if we "went negative".

And like clueless idiots, we obeyed then, as I fear we are going to obey now.

With predictable results.

[Skittles]

27. I can't figure it out, tom

no one seems to learn from history any more - and it's not even ancient history. Doing the same thing and expecting different results - we all know what that is. This election has me very, very worried. I have completely turned off the "MSM" because it is obvious they are corporate-owned, er, "TOADIES" and we know where THEIR interests are. Lord my head hurts. :o

[tom_paine]

31. My head hurts, too, and my heart is breaking.

In a strong, healthy Republic, Obama would make a fine President, but we are NOT in a strong, healthy Republic, not even close.

But the one thing Bushies excel at besides criminal enterprise is advertising, marketing, psychology and PR.

This is, once again, a no-win situation for us, and is it that THEY, the Bushies, excel at maneuvering us into them or is it WE who are to blame for being, to put it mildly, suckers to our own pride?

They have us trapped, in so many ways, and it is clear that with each passing year the hologram that is America pushes more and more of reality to the side. There isn't enough reality in the Imperial Amerikan life to fill a goddamned thimble, these days. Everything is self-referential these days, enclosed in it's own neat little bubble.

No history, no memory, no yesterday but what the MSM tells us, and that changes with every day and every story.

Just like it will change when Timmy Russert and the rest start getting their RNC e-mails and regurgitating them undigested.

And yes, since I am laying it all out and risking mega-flames, I am just going to screw the PC and say it. Liberal Pride. Our own Liberal Pride and yes, smug superiority (the Bushies have it in FAR greater abundance as befits their station as evil tyrants, their Goebbelsian mouthpieces, and their weak-minded followers, but we would be fools to dismiss that we do not have this most human of qualities, the pride that blinds) is being turned against us, with the gleeful help of the MSM.

We want it to be so badly, a nation where racism really isn't much of a factor, when the reality is that racism is skyrocketing back to unabashed prominence more than ever, albeit in code, and no votes are easier to suppress and destroy than African-American votes.

The sad truth is that is has been that way since the Union Army packed up and left the Bushies (who ironically, were Democrats then) to their own devices in 1877.

Now they do it with computers and caging, not torches and nooses. And even the African-Americans themselves don't seem to care much, and I secretly suspect because their TVs haven't told them to care. We Imperial Subjects of Amerika, the vast vast VAST majority of us, no matter what our color and creed, are all conditioned the same way. We respond to television hype and little else. Every day that "little else" that represents the whole real world shrinks a bit more.

But our own Liberal Pride won't let us see that. We're just doing what we always do, at least for the past decade, following wherever the MSM leads us, and the MSM follows wherever the Bushies lead THEM. Once again we stick our chins out high for the Bushies to smash it.

We want it to be so badly, in spite of all the evidence, that we are willing to condemn future generations to a "Fahrenheit 451" life at best, and likely a tyranny and "virtual slavery" much worse, for Bradbury could not imagine Peak Oil and Environmental Phase Shifts when he wrote his prophetic novel.

This thing is far from over, but the TV has spoken...and we will obey.

I hope I am wrong, I pray I am wrong.

[MISSDem]

33. So Black people don't care because television hasn't told them to.

How condescending. You don't give the black race credit for much intelligence.

[tom_paine]

35. That is a deliberate falsification of what I said. A disgusting lie! And I can PROVE it!

Hang on, double checking what I said:

Now they do it with computers and caging, not torches and nooses. And even the African-Americans themselves don't seem to care much, and I secretly suspect because their TVs haven't told them to care. We Imperial Subjects of Amerika, the vast vast VAST majority of us, no matter what our color and creed, are all conditioned the same way.

Way to quote me out of context and twist my words then LIE about it, feigning anger over something I didn't even say!

Nicely done.

Since shit doesn't sink into people's heads, my own included, without repetition, and tested advertising and marketing protocols, here goes:

We Imperial Subjects of Amerika, the vast vast VAST majority of us, no matter what our color and creed, are all conditioned the same way.
the vast vast VAST majority of us
no matter what our color and creed
all conditioned, ALL conditioned
VAST majority
VAST majority
no matter what our color and creed
no matter what our color and creed
We Imperial Subjects of Amerika...the VAST majority
all conditioned, ALL conditioned
vast VAST majority
all conditioned, ALL conditioned
no matter what our color and creed
no matter what our color and creed
no matter
no matter
no matter
what our color and creed
all conditioned, ALL conditioned
vast VAST majority
all conditioned, ALL conditioned

Now misquote THAT, you.......:argh: wonderful person, you!

:puke:

[Skittles]

38. whoa Tom

I understand your gist but your original words could easily be read in different ways so I don't think that DUer was being ridiculous in their interpretation.......in my mind it's the vast majority of AMERICANS who don't seem to care much about what is going on because, yes, it's not being reported and alas the vast majority of them still get their news from the corporate media.

[tom_paine]

39. Sorry, skittles, but I have had ENOUGH of this Bushie bullshit, and our side is now doing it, too!

Plus, that's what I said, the vast majority of we Imperial Subjects of Amerika, regardless of color or creed, so we are saying exactly the same thing. 100% agreement.

As with all Bushie-style bullshit, we are left with two choices for the poster I angrily flamed: incompetent or malicious.

Which is it? :argh:

Down to my last f*cking nerve with all of this hopelessness and ruin. YET ANOTHER "greatest political upset of all time" last night (and it doesn't even have to do with my candidate, so I don't even "have a dog in this fight", not that it will stop people from telling me that I say this out of bias)!

Ever since the Bushies privatized the voting system it's Truman versus Dewey almost every time people sit down to vote.

Funny how that started as soon as the voting "went dark" to the public.

When's the next big Truman versus Dewey "biggest political upset of all time" swing of 10% or more? We won't have to wait long, I imagine. That's what happens when the voting "goes dark".

Anyway, it is far too late in the game for me to worried about the niceties. So I won't.

Harsh, you say? That's nothing compared to what's coming for us over the next 20 years. Maybe I'm just practicing my hard-heartedness for the day the Bushstapo comes.

I've got no tolerance left for Bushie-style "mistakes", especially when they come from OUR side. I'm just a little :grr:, as you might notice.

[LibDemAlways]

4. They're all "strikingly warm" now. Wait until

Rove comes out of hiding this fall and gives them their marching orders. No matter who the Dems nominate, expect to see vicious personal attacks that will make the swiftboaters look like a bunch of Sunday school teachers.

[mac2]

6. Build them up to tear them down once the primary leader

has been picked.

[Cobalt-60]

7. Tune the fascists out

It doesn't matter what they say.
Because everything that spills out of their lie holes is false.
They speak only to lie, cover a prior lie, or frame a new lie.
The best thing to do is ignore them.

[depakid]

8. If that doesn't clue people in that somethings up

I don't know what will....

And coming from the Post, no less.

[tom_paine]

11. Yep. Exactly so. They very much want Obama to be the Dem Nominee, for obvious reasons

in spite of all the media blather showing that Iowa means "racism is dying or dead".

:rofl:

Racism is stronger than it's been since the 60s, I think. Bushies can't lynch African-Americans with impunity anymore, but they can steal and suppress their votes with impunity, as the last four elections showed and continue to show.

Plus self-selected caucus goers may have very little racism when compared to the populace at large, but there is a substantial minority, perhaps as high as 45% of Whites who WILL NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA.

That's why the Bushies love him now. He's even better than running against Sen. Clinton, in terms of the White vote.

I am not endorsing any of this, but merely pointing out the reality of "life on the ground" in Imperial Amerika, no matter what lying hologram the Corporate Infoganda wishes to sell us today.

As you say, depakid, we are blinded by the way we wish things were. So blinded, that watching the Bushies falling all over themselves drooling about how great Obama is doesn't raise a single eyebrow.

Oh well, it will all play out as it's going to play out. The Bushes and their MSM Toadies are hoping they can bandwagon Obama to victory than laugh all the way to four more years of the Imperial Throne, while (as usual) the clueless liberals are patting themselves/ourselves on the back at HOW FAR we've come and how NOBLE we are.

Meanwhile, the Bushies cut our guts out and leave them on the floor. As usual.

I can't shake the memory of Obama's "nice guy" speech at the 2004 convention, which he sanitized of ALL negative references of Bushler because the Bushie Lie Machine and the Toadying Corporate Cable TV Infoganda created one of their famous Bushie False Realities and convinced him (and all the clueless Democratic Leadership, for that matter) that to say anything BAD about Bushler would cause DISASTER.

I can't shake it, because it's happening all over again. Why should this time be any different than the last time or the last two hundred times, eh?

And people wonder why I give the Old American Republic less than a 5% chance of ever being restored...

[mac2]

17. I don't see a candidate like Obama winning

It is hard to believe the media, book and magazine publishers have made Obama a "rock star" candidate for President. I've been seen the promo on the shelves here in the Midwest for months now.

I expect Obama to be making fishes and loaves of bread for his followers any day now. It's like he walks on water.

As a Progressive I'm angry at Democrats for picking three candidates who voted for the Patriot Act II. None of them talk about negating it or the torture. They are the people Americans disapprove of in Congress. Their agenda not ours.

We demanded the end to the wars, our troops home and cared for, the end of these bad trade deals, accountability for the disasters and lies, National Health care, and our debt lowered. Since 2006 none of these problems have not been solved by either party. Instead they go along with same bad path. Americans are suffering yet they call for "hope". That it seems is all we have left.

[depakid]

20. Yep- the thing that gets me is that it's so transparent

While I don't discount the racism angle, seems to me that much of what Obama does with his collaborative rhetoric is legitimize the far right's positions and policies, mkaing it very hard for people to draw a line between the parties- and what they stand for.

That approach invariably favors Republicans- and one thing you and I aren't fooled about is their ruthlessness and savvy when it comes to setting naive progressives up for a loss.

And people wonder why I give the Old American Republic less than a 5% chance of ever being restored...

Well, I surely don't. Too much of what would have (not so long ago) been considered outrageous- off the deep end, has become ingrained as the status quo.

[tom_paine]

26. So was that bullshit about "being nice" at the 2004 Convention.

And Obama, he was the nicest and sweetest of all, obligingly going down his speech and removing the "negativity" from it because the MSM toadies told him it was bad bad BAD and would be a disaster if we spoke "negatively" about war crimes, torture, serial lying, demonstarble felonies, etc. etc. etc.

How'd that work out again for us, I forget?

Living inside the Bushie-Generated False Reality Bubble and being aware of it is bad enough, but watching people who should damn well know better falling for it AGAIN (what's this, the fiftieth time? hundredth? two hundredth? I have lost count) is simply gut-wrenching and heart-breaking.

Oh well, this thing is far from over. That's our only hope and solace.

[Rageneau]

10. Thank goodness I found a thread where people can see what's going on.

Obama may be a fine fellow, but it is obvious that he is being foisted upon us by the mainstream media, with the collusion of many prominent conservative spokesmen. That ought to raise some neck hairs.

I fear we are being sold a bill of goods. The unprecedented -- UNPRECEDENTED -- swings in recent poll numbers strike me as being fishy. In 2004, the media colluded to destroy Howard Dean in Iowa. They congregated behind Kerry, whom they later did their best to destroy once he became the nominee.

Edwards and Hillary both want and expect to fight. Obama seems to want to play nice.

Republicans NEVER play nice.

And they always strive to have the weakest challenger.

Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football.

[tom_paine]

12. Yeah, we see it, Rageneau, but even in DU we are in the tiniest of minorities.

In the end, THAT is what will matter, not our lonely voices howling amidst a cacophony of calliope music.

Perhaps watching our Democratic Charlie Browns take one more run at that ol' football for the umpteenth time has made me cynical and despairing.

I have my own way of describing it, which is that we walk in chin first to every right uppercut the Bushies throw at us.

Either way, it's the same, and we are getting ready to do it again.

:puke:

[indimuse]

15. The RW will win again!

Thanks people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU JUST DON"T GET IT!

[libbygurl]

16. Now, THAT is scary. Something is definitely up when the RW commentators....

...are saying nice things about a candidate.

When will more people wake up to this sneaky RW ploy? They know that racism is alive and well (if just below the surface) in USA ca. 2008.

[mac2]

19. It's not racism

it's bad policy for our country. The voters are ignored and the discussion is trite. It is a smoke screen to address the real problems we face today.

[chimpymustgo]

18. Some of the right-wing love is sincere: it proves their point - racism is GONE. No need for govt

assistance for minorities - affirmative action, welfare, social security, THE NEW DEAL. See - Obama proves it! And if you're a winger and you don't HATE the guy - why you are ABSOLVED. You are immediately welcomed into the circle of goodness of the enlightened who can ACCEPT a black man!

And thus, America's violent history of murder and genocide and slavery and sweatshops and lynching and apartheid and voter disenfranchisement is declared DEAD AND GONE.

We are SAVED!

[kurth]

21. Get ready for another four years of misery and frustration

The RW strategy is plain as day.

[fasttense]

22. The corporate media loves Obama's fluff

They feel secure that the big O will NOT investigate or prosecute our war criminal leaders and their enablers - the corporations. Yet, they are amazed that white America would vote for a black man who is less liberal than the whites running against him.

I've heard the big O speechify and he reminds me of neither JFK nor MLK. There is no substance to his speeches. I listen to his mesmerizing voice and cool stance and hear nothing of how he would change the US. His speeches are all fluff and no specifics. I don't hear about fighting or working or holding criminals accountable. Both JFK and MLK spoke with substance. They spoke on how change would be made and why it was needed. The big O merely says he is the embodiment of change and that he will work with the republicans. He doesn't mention that you can't play fair with liars and cheats.

[zalinda]

23. Which is scaring the hell out of me!

Why? I fear they have something on Obama that will blow him out of the water in the GE. This all seems too pat, something is wrong. I have no idea where this dread is coming from, but something just doesn't feel right.

zalinda

[woofless]

24. We saw how they portrayed a privileged, white, Ivy League

graduated war hero Senator. Just think what they might have in store for brother Obama. I am NOT looking forward to that.

[tom_paine]

25. You are right to mistrust our 'good fortune'. The MSM has been the enemy of the American People for

some time now.

We drink their poison brew at our own risk, and lately, ALWAYS to our detriment.

They lie, mislead and spin for profit and for their Corporate Bushie Masters.

This is the PERFECT STORM for them. First, play up to the Liberals and Lefties with a heartwarming tale of how racism is over in Amerika (when in reality anyone who has been paying attention knows it's been RISING steadily since the OJ Trial, if not before...African-Americans have been disenfranchised on a monstrous scale in each of the past 4 elections, and nobody, not even the African-Americans themselves, seems the least bit miffed about it).

It's the Perfect Trap, and they know it...at least the Corporate Masters and Bottom-Liners and Bottom-Feeders who now control the toadying MSM know it.

Then, the inevitable "who could have forseen?" afterwards, after a Goldwater-like or possibly even a McGovern-like trouncing, and the crocodile tears while the Bushies laugh and laugh and laugh.

And because of "political correctness", we can't even speak about what reality is, without being labeleed as racists ourselves.

As I said, the perfect trap. And, yet again, Charlie Brown runs up and he's gonna kick that ol' ball THIS time!

I hope I am wrong, but on this one, I KNOW I am right. The MSM Toadies are selling us a bill of goods, a Brooklyn Bridge.

And, as always, we are lining up to buy buy BUY!

[MISSDem]

28. Even George Will wrote in yesterday's paper

very complimentary things about Obama. I thought 'this has got to be the end of the world when George and I agree on anything'.

[MISSDem]

29. I wish I could take my post back.

What a bunch of negative thinkers and I do not want to throw in with you. If all of this malarkey you are saying should be true just what do you propose to do about it? Please get real.

[chimpymustgo]

30. This is a refreshingly thoughtful thread. Not about light shining down on "the one",

people in crowds, crying.

We're trying to deal with the tangibles of improving out country.

[tom_paine]

32. Thank you, chimpymustgo. Since when is it negative to point out the reality that racism is on the

rise and that the Bushie MSM is suckering us AGAIN in the exact same way as they did last time?

I cannot help but analogize to the early 1930s German Jews and Liberals, not wanting to lump themselves in with those "negative nellies" who were foreseeing what would happen and being told to stop being negative, stop being such Conspiracy Theorists, just ride it out and things will get better.

Well, things eventually DID get better, but only after they got immeasurably, unimaginably, horrific-ly worse.

Or like those Roman Liberals of 60-48 BC, saying not to worry about Crassus and Caesar. The Republic had lasted hundreds of years, and would last hundreds more.

For THEM things NEVER got better. They licked Imperial Boot for 400 more years, then their descendants watched in horror as their previous victims came back with a vengeance.

Things move a lot faster these days, and we probably don't have 40 before Peak Oila nd Climate Shift set in, which means Peak Economy.

As to what to DO about it, other than support Edwards, primarily because he is the only one who is even TALKING about making substantive fight against the Bushies, there's not much else to do.

We are flies struggling in a web we let the spiders build for twenty years without interference. Forthe past seven years the spiders have REALLY moved in and are devouring us whole. The one fly who is talking about finding something sharp to cut the webbing with is being ignored, while the other flies equally trapped in the web are screaming for us to shut up because "a new day of spider-fly bipartisanship is emerging".

I don't think I have felt this despondent since Obama's "nice guy" speech at the 2004 convention, once again yielding to the Bush False Reality Bubble and puting our collective chins up high so the Bushies could smash it with THEIR "nice guy" convention.

[MISSDem]

34. You are too much.

Bye

[tom_paine]

37. And you lied about what I said. It is demonstrably provable. I showed it above.

Not much credibility for you, now is there?

If I am too much, then you are too little. And a liar to boot. I wouldn't say that if it wasn't 100% demonstrably provable.

I did just that above. See post #35.

[MISSDem]

40. I'm not looking for credibility for myself. I'm wondering why you

are so angry. Is it because you are supporting John Edwards (who I like, by the way) abd he hasn't a snowball's chance of winning? Well don't take it out on everyone else. Personally, I think Obama has a really good chance of being the next president but for me whether it is Barack or Hillary, I will vote for the Democrat. As I asked earlier, what other choices are there for us? It does no one any good to just get angry. By the way I don't think I am a liar. Your post did sound like you thought that people of color couldn't think for themselves.