Comments on: Burned Black

By: Donald Johnson

Donald Johnson — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:10:21 +0000

My theory about Wright is that he honestly thought he was successfully walking the tightrope of standing up for his beliefs without bringing down Obama, until of course the rope broke. I mean, think about how Wright and his friends at church probably talked about Obama’s patronizing dismissal of Wright’s opinions (what the high priest and priestesses of the Obama cult call his defense of Wright). He probably told his friends “Well, Barack is just doing what he has to do. He’s a politician and he’d be killed if he openly agreed with me.” And Wright’s family and friends probably nodded their heads and agreed that this is what is going on. So Wright thought he could defend himself and say in public what he undoubtedly thought was true regarding Obama and since he was being charitable in his own mind towards Obama, he thought that’s how it would sound.

As for Barack, he’s the least of three evils. A shameless liar and panderer, but I think that’s part of the constitutional requirements.

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:21:52 +0000

Carter’s really an ambiguous figure. In a lot of ways, he–not Reagan–was the first president of the New Right. It was the Carter administration that first implemented many of the ideas of the Business Roundtable for disciplining labor and subsidizing accumulation. It was also under Carter that the second Cold War got well underway, the upsurge in military spending began, and Brzezinski’s shenanigans began the resurgence in American global activism after the post-Vietnam lull.

At the same time, though, Carter went into office mouthing a lot of the “new citizen movement” and “small is beautiful” ideas found in venues ranging from Harry Boyte to the People’s Bicentennial Commission, and appealing to populist sentiment against corporate privilege and large unaccountable organizations of all kinds. In a way, it was almost as great a turnaround as that between FDR’s traditional Jacksonian campaign rhetoric and his corporatist practice in office.

By: Jim Henley

Jim Henley — Thu, 01 May 2008 15:20:31 +0000

Q: You are singing directly to my Carter-revisionist heart, you know.

By: quasibill

quasibill — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:14:21 +0000

Kinda OT, but your description of past presidents made me think of the 70s and 80s:

Carter catches all sorts of crap for dealing with the economic mess left by Nixon and Ford’s policies, and Reagan gets much of the credit for change in fortunes precipitated by Carter’s appointment of Volcker, Bush Sr. gets much of the blame for dealing with the economic results of Reagan’s reckless policies, and Clinton gets lots of credit for getting to play with all the breathing room Bush Sr. gave him. I would say that Bush gets blamed for the aftermath of the Clinton party, but Bush, Jr. has only added gas to the fire, so he deserves any blame he gets.

Not that any of them were truly capable of the tasks placed before them, but even when they were marginally effective, they usually get scorned for it.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:30:08 +0000

We made the job too big for anyone to do it well, and built it to bring out the worst in anyone who gets it.

Amen.

By: thoreau

thoreau — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:25:13 +0000

I suspect that in eight years a lot of us are going to find Barack Obama deeply infuriating, and it will probably because we decide he’s a patronizing bastard.

And, like you said above, Rev. Wright may already be feeling that way about Obama. “That kid thinks he can just talk down to me and sweep me under the rug? I’ll show him! I’ve got stuff to say and I’m going to say it whether it likes it or not!”

By: In Which I Exemplify the Worst of the Media § Unqualified Offerings

In Which I Exemplify the Worst of the Media § Unqualified Offerings — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:39:27 +0000

[...] don’t just blog about Jeremiah Wright at the Art of the Possible, I blog about the day’s favorite Jeremiah Wright conspiracy theory. I think we can all agree this makes me [...]