Obama says he is whatever people see in him. Explains so much.

[Skip Intro]

“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views,” Mr. Obama wrote in “The Audacity of Hope, his I’m-running-for-president book...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/us/politics/24obama.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1204250736-OyKeIHRcnJN5NQfgBvbzOw

Hence the vague, meaningful-sounding yet ill-defined words like "Hope" and "Change" and "Unity."

Hence the star-struck devotion of some who see whatever they want to see in him, and the reason many are hard-put to become specific in their reasons for such devotion.

Hope, change, and unity - whatever those feel-good words mean to you, he is that.

Great marketing, really. It's like their selling a new candy bar - it is delicious, whatever that means to you.


The quote ends...“As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them."

yep.

(this thread was inspired by this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4814135 )

[MadBadger]

1. Didnt you just comment in a thread saying the same thing?

[Skip Intro]

2. yeah, I'm about to link to it, had a different take, any rules broken?

[anonymous171]

3. Way to quote out of context

It was the same with the Reagan comments. Disgraceful...

[cali]

4. I'm so sick of dishonesty

you forgot the second half of that quote in which he states that people are bound to be disappointed. Anyone with a shred of honesty and two functional brain cells knows what he's saying.

[Skip Intro]

6. it was just put in there, cali - but tell me, what is he saying?

[cali]

13. He's saying that people are projecting onto him and that because

he isn't everything to everyone and isn't trying to be, some people will invariably be disappointed. I don't see anything difficult about discerning that. It's obvious.

[Skip Intro]

14. I think it explains his campaign strategy perfectly.

Sell himself with vague happy-feeling words and slogans that can be whatever anyone listening wants them to be.

I'll agree to disagree.

[cali]

17. Yes of course you will.

You've got a hate on and it prevents you from being honest. Your thread title is a disgrace. Ignore is my friend. bye bye.

[Skip Intro]

18. well I guess you can't see this then, cali, but really, who is full of hate here

will you not at least say that the other thread, "Clinton Compares Obama to a Blank Screen" is inherently dishonest, because, indeed, it wasn't Hillary who called him that, he called himself that?

[Recursion]

16. If one reads the whole passage, he's also -- *gasp* -- honestly addressing his fears and worries

Imagine! A President being honest about his insecurities. The horror!

To me it really fits in with his "what we want we will have to work for" message.

[Skip Intro]

7. And why didn't you feel that way in the thread which dishonestly claims those are Hillary's words?

Who is really being dishonest here?

[DemGa]

5. A blank screen for President? This sounds like a bad joke....nt

[MoonRiver]

8. He must have been a snake oil salesman in a previous life.

But I gotta hand it to the con, he is a true artist.

[Recursion]

9. Sigh. It's like arguing with creationists

The way you keep seeing the first half of the bit where Darwin muses about the complexity of the eye and how it seems nearly impossible to have developed by natural selection.

The "blank slate" is actually part of his message: if we want change we are going to have to work for it and lead the country the direction we want it to go.

He's very, very, very clear about this, but there are none so deaf as those who will not hear...

[DemGa]

11. Ah you have chosen your projection upon the blank screen Obama

So obama is a "receiver" of the peoples' will. This is getting very odd.

[Recursion]

12. The President is the servant of the people

He has some ideas (which he's quite clear about) about what he wants to do; many of them are ideas I agree with. But ultimately the things I want done I'm going to have to work for and get other people to work for.

[Canuckistanian]

10. Hmmm...

[Skip Intro]

15. woah...

hadn't seen that before...


wow.

[AtomicKitten]

19. And you and other Clinton supporters paint him with feces. Well done.

[Johnny__Motown]

20. Remember the story of the 5 blind men and the elephant?

They all felt different aspects of the animal and they were all correct. Barack is complex.

[dcindian]

21. Ouch you only quoted part of that.

Obviously to make some irrelevant point which was not inferred to in the original writing.

"But that is not all that I am. I also think my party can be smug, detached, and dogmatic at times. I believe in the free market, competition, and entrepreneurship, and think no small number of government programs don't work as advertised. I wish the country had fewer lawyers and more engineers. I think America has more often been a force for good than for ill in the world; I carry few illusions about our enemies, and revere the courage and competence of our military. I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP.

Undoubtedly, some of these views will get me in trouble. I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them. Which perhaps indicates a second, more intimate theme to this book–namely, how I, or anybody in public office, can avoid the pitfalls of fame, the hunger to please, the fear of loss, and thereby retain that kernel of truth, that singular voice within each of us that reminds us of our deepest commitments. "

[DemGa]

22. K & R