Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Midway For Obama

Midway

Asia Times commentator Spengler was at the Democrat's Convention and thinks that Obama is going down to a crushing defeat.
The Democrats were watching the brightest and most articulate presidential candidate they have fielded since John F Kennedy snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And this was before John McCain, in a maneuver worthy of Admiral Chester Nimitz at the Battle of Midway, turned tables on the Democrats' strategy with the choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Spengler thinks that Obama is at his core a weak man. He works so hard to please because he can't make the hard choices. We have already seen that with his reply at the Saddleback interview when he was asked about abortion. "It is above my pay grade", he said.
Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain's choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain's selection was a statement of strength. America's voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama's prospective defeat is entirely of its own making. No one is more surprised than Republican strategists, who were convinced just weeks ago that a weakening economy ensured a Democratic victory.
And what about that old war horse McCain? The ancient mariner?
McCain doesn't have a tenth of Obama's synaptic fire-power, but he is a nasty old sailor who knows when to come about for a broadside. Given Obama's defensive, even wimpy selection of a running-mate, McCain's choice was obvious. He picked the available candidate most like himself: a maverick with impeccable reform credentials, a risk-seeking commercial fisherwoman and huntress married to a marathon snowmobile racer who carries a steelworkers union card. The Democratic order of battle was to tie McCain to the Bush administration and attack McCain by attacking Bush. With Palin on the ticket, McCain has re-emerged as the maverick he really is.

The young Alaskan governor, to be sure, hasn't any business running for vice president of the United States with her thin resume. McCain and his people know this perfectly well, and that is precisely why they put her on the ticket. If Palin is unqualified to be vice president, all the less so is Obama qualified to be president.

McCain has certified his authenticity for the voters. He's now the outsider, the reformer, the maverick, the war hero running next to the Alaskan amazon with a union steelworker spouse. Obama, who styled himself an agent of change, took his image for granted, and attempted to ensure himself victory by doing the cautious thing. He is trapped in a losing position, and there is nothing he can do to get out of it.
It is interesting that the Democrats keep nominating successively weaker candidates. First Gore. Then Kerry. And now Obama. I think it is becoming obvious for all to see that the Democrat Party has no soul. As such it has no direction except the will to power. In fact the behavior of his base since Palin was nominated is an expression of that weakness. It would appear from their behavior that strong women frighten them. And they should be frightened.

There is more detail to Spengler's analysis which deals with his psychological profile of Obama. He also refers back to a column he wrote in February that I highly recommend. You should definitely read them both.

I think it is telling in many ways that the left's caricature of evangelical relations with women is really a projection of their own weakness. In fact Moloch is the god of the weak. You have to be strong to raise children. Not just for a day or a week but for 18 or 20 years. In fact for a whole lifetime. Which is exactly why what the left is going through now with the abortion issue and Sarah Palin and her daughter is so telling. They are attacking the mother and daughter because they are strong. And such strength only illuminates that which they would prefer to remain in darkness. Their weakness.

Does this mean I want abortion made illegal? Don't be silly. Such a law would serve no useful purpose. Botched abortions kill. They can also prevent future births when the woman and man involved find their strength. But that does not mean that we should avoid looking at it square on and seeing it for what it is. The fact that the Democrats and especially Obama have to a great degree fetishized abortion is very telling. Very telling indeed.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

10 comments:

Karridine said...

Once you spell it out, it seems OBVIOUS! Well done.

*I just called your home, and let it ring 7 times. But you were sleeping, scuzi! I was positively excited by this post, and sought the opportunity to speak with you again.

Unknown said...

this is the latest conventional wisdom on the right, and I would like it to be true. But if so why did Obamas numbers start to rise (and even to 50%) AFTER McCain announced Palin?

M. Simon said...

yehudit,

Counter question.

Why is O! finally showing up on FOX?

Don Surber:

In the waning days of her bungled presidential campaign, Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton appeared on O’Reilly.

===

I must admit the poll numbers are perplexing.

Anonymous said...

exellent analysis, I feel it on a gut level, smoothness sauveness from barack, shining like an empty glass vesel with the light coming thru it. but everyone loves it. then mcain created this new dynamic, with this obviously strong women, (any women who can shoot and gut a deer is stronger than barrack) who is young and attractive and real on a level barack has never shown himself to be. or as the boys at jawa report would say "hottie" I know with conviction we are back in the race.

Anonymous said...

im listening to her speach right now!! and she has just pantsed obama punched him in the metaphorical nose and if he's watching this he should be crying like a baby

M. Simon said...

She will gut the enviro restrictions keeping us from American energy resources.

Pax Federatica said...

Gov. Palin's speech tonight brought to mind, of all things, U2's Bono introducing the band's live cover performance of "Helter Skelter": "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We're stealing it back."

In this analogy, Palin is Bono, Obama is Manson, and Hillary Clinton is the Beatles. Obama stole Hillary's thunder in the Democratic primaries; now along comes Palin to steal not only Obama's own thunder, but also the thunder Obama had stolen from Hillary. By the time 2012 rolls around, Hillary may well find herself being the "other" woman in the campaign; for all we know she may even (heaven forbid) be up against a female incumbent.

Rhinobird said...

Notice how Obama has been running against Palin the past few days instead of McCain? I find that very interesting.

Anonymous said...

he's running against her because now he's running scared. he cant match mcain in experience, and he's in a mad scramble to convince people he's more qualified then the vp pick???!!! lol. he's got to convince them he's more ready than the vp pick, the problem with that is even if he succeeds he will only have shown people he's ready to be vice president not commander in chief. obama has been check mated.

al fin said...

McCain already has the male vote. The battle now is between Palin and Obama for the female vote.