Make fun of imaginary people who might have these hypothetical reactions.

Actually, I was making fun of you.

There are three strains of commenters here (yes, over-generalizing):

1) Chairman Obama is Lord.
2) Hillary dead-enders who still can't let go.
3) People who care about issues more than candidates and are thus rightly perturbed by some of Obama's recent moves.

I've supported Obama from the beginning. I've donated to his campaign many times. I've attended rallies...blah blah blah. So I find it funny when people in categories 1 and 2 lecture people around here.

Posted at July 1, 2008 11:48 PM in response to Obama Speech: We Can Expand Faith-Based Charities And Separate Church From State

I'm waiting for Obama's Sista Souljah moment on global warming. It will be awesome to read half of the comments here afterward:

"It's a dry heat!"

"I never liked science anyway."

"This is a brilliant strategy that only Obama understands."

"Obama has to appeal to the wingnuts who believe Jesus road a dinosaur in order to win the election."

"We should all just have faith in the inherent goodness and wisdom of our Leader."

"At first, I doubted Chairman Obama's words, but now I realize my understanding was incorrect. Thank you for correcting me, comrades!"

Posted at July 1, 2008 11:15 AM in response to Obama Speech: We Can Expand Faith-Based Charities And Separate Church From State

Whatever the particular merits of this might be, it is now clear that Obama truly believes that you can only get elected President in this country if you adopt a raft of Republican (or at least Republican-lite) positions. He is buying into the same old conventional wisdom: we live in a "conservative" and religious country and thus only "centrist" Republican positions are permissible. This is why Democrats always lose -- the majority of the people don't vote on issues. They respond to bold leadership and conviction, even if they disagree on the particulars. Obama won't lose this time, though, but ultimately he'll probably only have George Bush to thank for that.

My enthusiasm has been curbed -- and I had a lot of enthusiasm to curb. At this point, as at other points in American history, the only hope is the courts. Even with the conservative majority it enjoys today, the Court is the only institution that has pushed back on Bushism.

Unfortunately, this election is quickly becoming (yet again) a choice between the bad and the less bad.

Posted at July 1, 2008 10:52 AM in response to Obama Speech: We Can Expand Faith-Based Charities And Separate Church From State

I don't know what is up with the Obama camp. Ever since they won the nomination it seems like they have abandoned the very strategy that won them the nomination. You know, "the general election is different, so we need to adopt the GOP premise on national security (FISA and now this)." This is exactly what makes Democrats look weak and scared.

Posted at June 30, 2008 1:32 PM in response to Obama Campaign Condemns Wes Clark's Comments About McCain

If Obama had maintained his opposition to warrantless surveillance and telecom immunity instead of caving to the GOP, every single person in this thread who is now defending this bill would be relentlessly attacking it.

It reminds me of the contortions the Hillary people went through trying to justify her Iraq vote.

Posted at June 26, 2008 12:54 PM in response to Obama On FISA: Telecom Immunity Issue Doesn't Override National Security

Laws broken? The Democrats better grant blanket immunity post haste. Otherwise David Broder will accuse them of partisan bickering!

Posted at June 24, 2008 5:50 PM in response to 80% of So-Called Liberal Applicants were "Deselected" by DOJ

He is doing what he must do to win the general.

I thought the point of the Democrats winning control of Congress in 2006 was that they would finally be able to stop this insanity and hold the Bush administration to account. They haven't done that -- at all. Why? Because they are using your logic: "An election is coming up and we have to do X in order to win the election. Once we are in power, everything will change." I see a pattern. Do you?

Posted at June 20, 2008 6:36 PM in response to Obama Backing FISA "Compromise"

He is doing what he must do to win the general.

I thought the point of the Democrats winning control of Congress in 2006 was that they would finally be able to stop this insanity and hold the Bush administration to account. They haven't done that -- at all. Why? Because they are using your logic: "An election is coming up and we have to do X in order to win the election. Once we are in power, everything will change." I see a pattern. Do you?

Posted at June 20, 2008 6:34 PM in response to Obama Backing FISA "Compromise"

If Ron Paul weren't crackers, I'd be voting for him. Unfortunately, his gold standard/privatize the CIA kookiness scares me away. But he is basically the only one in this whole mess who takes the Constitution seriously.

Obama just lost some credibility in my eyes. And this only reinforces what we already knew: the Democratic party has enabled Bush at every turn and continues to do so. They should be impeaching him and instead they are bending over backwards to support his lawbreaking and trashing the Constitution.

The Democrats deserve just as much blames as the GOP for the last seven years.

Posted at June 20, 2008 6:15 PM in response to Obama Backing FISA "Compromise"

This is Republican talking point 101 on Iraq: "We were all fooled by the bad intel. Even Bush was fooled!" And that is completely true if you ignore what Hans Blix, ElBaradei, Zinni, Scowcroft, Scott Ritter, and scores of others were saying at the time. That's one.

Two: you are making the idiotic assumption that if the intelligence were correct (Saddam had reconstituted WMD programs) that the only course of action was invasion. How fucking stupid is that? Guess what? Axis of Evil superfreak, his Grand Illness Kim Jong Il has/had a WMD program. Everyone knows it. Why haven't we invaded yet?

Only the monumentally stupid, like your dear Hillary, couldn't figure that out. Plenty of people saw the colossal goatfuck in the desert coming -- Obama among them -- and you are attempting to use that against him? Well, I guess Hillary put you in that uncomfortable little box. All you have to do is step out of it.

Posted at June 19, 2008 1:04 AM in response to Obama: You Wanna Talk About 9/11? Well, Let's Talk About 9/11!