what are barack obama's flaws?

I remember writing something about Clinton being a 'kneejerk liberal' in my 6th grade journal when he was reelected. I attribute this to my Dad always listening to Imus when I was having breakfast in the morning.

As for Obama, I'm in the "He strikes me as too intelligent to be as naive and optimistic as he comes off" camp. I really do think it's a campaign tactic, if you look at the more hawkish spots on his record you know he's not all teddy bears and rainbows.

my earliest political memory is of my mom saying something disparaging about Carter while he was running for office, I must have been 4? I remember liking CArter when he was president because he was the first president I was conscious of. I remember when Regan won pretty clearly; we already had a political cartoon on our refrigerator with a crying indian on it with some quote of his about breaking treaties; I remember when he won, I went and wrote "sucks" after his name.

Rolling Stone-reading pre/early adolescent that I was I was pretty politically savvy through school UP until college; as guessed above, I was just happy a democrat had finally won and tuned out and drank for several years instead. As a result I came out of the Clinton years with the impression that things had gone pretty okay and really one looked back on it critically in the past few years and seen the issues. Obviously still better than the years that followed though.

obama's major flaws, for me:

--fairly skimpy record for most of his state senate career
--endorsed mayor daley for re-election, as well as one or two of his cronies (i know i know politics as usual but EWWWWW)
--a bad offhand speaker, if the debates are any evidence
--a bit too willing to believe that his fellow politicians are decent well-meaning folks at heart (way worse than "overconfidence in the electorate's willingness to assume civic responsibility," which i can't parse at all -- how does he do that?).

by being the favored candidate of people who would rather dismiss democracy as a concept than believe anything actually negative about their boy

people who would rather dismiss democracy as a concept

i am stupid and slow

explain this to me please.

maybe not now cause i'm off for the night but i'm flummoxed as fuck by that clause.

yeah, wtf?

I dunno, I generally figure the "electorate's" "civic responsibility" is to vote for the candidate they prefer

gotcha.

stuff i like about obama:

--writes own speeches
--pretty good writer (the audacity of hope is surprisingly readable for an i-wanna-be-president book, tho my eyes must've broke from glazing over during the vague-as-fuck foreign policy chapter)
--even-tempered guy (i.e., neither a wimp nor a tantrum-throwing egomaniac like mccain -- or, frankly, bill clinton)
--a "moderate" in the carter sense, not the clinton/centrist sense

i know "writes own speeches" seems like a minor point but think about it this way: if every candidate had to write his own speeches, 9 out of the last 10 presidents wouldn't have won shit.

foreign policy naivete

This applies to every president for the last 30 years apart from, possibly, Bush 41.

thing abt political buyer's remorse is that it's gnna be eg "is pretty good writer" which we will look back on and say OMIGOD WHY DIDN'T WE SEE THIS SOONER

(as of now, i don't know why it'll be this either -- JUST MARK MY WORDS, his flaw will be something you currently and justifably consider a good quality)

J.D. – Dreams From My Father is even better.

is this like MARK MY WORDS BUSH WILL LOSE IN 04

MARK S MY WORDS

an economic conservative

won't say when he'll get us completely out of Iraq

carried water for Joe Lieberman

considers Israel STALWART (probly not cuz they use old men to spy on us)

doesn't seem to believe in his own timid healthcare plan

I remember being pretty little (maybe 5?), and being shocked--SHOCKED!--to hear from my mom that President Reagan (the only president I'd known, and thus THE PRESIDENT) didn't give a shit about homeless people.

when i was little i was shocked that the president couldn't just kill someone he disagreed with. "why not? he's the PRESIDENT!"

btw dukakis visited my school when i was in eighth grade; he made some sort of education speech in a basement room (the largest we had in the school). we all lined up on either side of the hallway leading there, and we were told to show a lot of respect, and i think we were all encouraged to clap for him as he strode between us. it was thrilling

gore also visited my school, in tennessee, a few years later - somebody tried to get me to ask him during the q&a section if he voted for gulf war i on account of his dad voting against the vietnam war and then getting booted out on his ear by the voters - i didn't do it

MARK MY WORDS SOMEONE WILL HAVE LOST IN 2004 <--- this is the level of certainty we are lookin at

Mark S, it's a total truism that if a person gets fired from a job, it's usually for something the employer vocally deemed an asset when hiring. 'We like your individuality' becomes 'you're too individual'.

Dreams From My Father is not just 'even better', it's absolutely fucking stupendous:

"My mother laughed once more, and once again I saw her as the child she had been. Except this time I saw something else: in her smiling, slightly puzzled face, I saw what all children must see at some point if they are to grow up - their parents' lives revealed to them as separate and apart, reaching out beyond the point of their union or the birth of a child, lives unfurling back to grandparents, great-grandparents, an infinite number of chance meetings, misunderstandings, projected hopes, limited circumstances. My mother was that girl with the movie of beautiful black people in her head, flattered by my father's attention, confused and alone, trying to break out of the grip of her own parents' lives. The innocence she carried that day, waiting for my father, had been tinged with misconceptions, her own needs. But it was a guileless need, one without self-consciousness, and perhaps that's how any love begins, impulses and cloudy images that allow us to break across our solitude, and then, if we're lucky, are finally transformed into something firmer. What I heard from my mother that day, speaking about my father, was something I suspect most Americans will never hear from the lips of those of another race, and so cannot be expected to believe might exist between black and white: the love of someone who knows your life in the round, a love that will survive disappointment. She saw my father as everyone hopes at least one other person might see him, she had tried to help the child who never knew him see him in the same way. And it was the look on her face that day that I would remember when a few months later I called to tell her that my father had died and heard her cry out over the distance."

usually a total truism <--- this the level of certainty we are aiming at

i <3 obama but theres some soft bigotry of lowered expectations shit going on with his writing 4real - its ok but not ABSOLUTELY FUCKING STUPENDOUS

though im reasonably sure its "pretty good for a politician" expectations not "pretty good for a black dude"

It's excellent for a pol, and let's note that through Woodrow Wilson most presidential candidates wrote at this level.

"very good for a politician" more like....

"pretty good" for a literary memoir I guess

xpost

better than JFK's war-hero memoirs that that guy ghostwrote YES
better than ulysses s. grant memoirs NO WAY d00d
better than six crises <--- u&k

(disclaimer : ok i have read none of these tho the kennedy book was read out as excerpts in school assemby for abt 12 million millennia when i was like 9)

This sounds like a great poll - RATE PRESIDENTS AS WRITERS.

(the Grant memoirs are excellent, but I get bored when he describes battles, troop formations, etc)

admittedly jfk memoir = like "acka-acka! neeeow! crash! splash! we are on a raft w.sharks circling oh noes!" but even so GET THE FUCK ON WITH IT MR PRESIDENT

haha jfk's favourite books
1: the rouge et le noir
2: from russia with love

I CALL BULLSHIT ON THIS LIST ALREADY

amazingly i have never read six crises, though i did slog thru lbj's incredibly boring THE VANTAGE POINT

haha in Caro's biography he notes how LBJ, recovering after his 1955 heart attack, ordered Lady Bird to leave books and journals strewn all over the Texas ranch to give journalists the impression that he read and "thought deeply."

and mcgovern's autobio which is folksy & charming

probly should get around to the grant book one of these days

morbs, fyi, 'stalwart' is an adjective. you're probably referring to O's statement that Israel is a 'stalwart ally' of the US, but maybe you intended to refer to his statement that Israel's security is 'sacrosanct'.

box 13!

caro's biography = is lbj actually president yet (as per the published volumes)? is caro still even alive?

xpost Ethan, I'm really glad you clarified that, but if you haven't read DWMF, you really aren't in a place to say whether it's WHOA INCREDIBLE or not. I stand by my opinion.

Mark, Master of the Senate ends with LBJ as veep, chastened and chomping at the bit.

ethan, fyi, the praise for Obama's (first) book, at least outside of ilx, is for the self-knowledge it exhibits more than the writing (tho people think that's pretty good too)

though im reasonably sure its "pretty good for a politician" expectations not "pretty good for a black dude"

you think?

All of you that are dissing Dave and his band, obviously haven't given him a chance. Actually try to listen to them then you may discover that they aren't bad. Dont judge them without knowing what they are all about. They are making millions and usually boring music doesn't do that. The reason for that is because they are great musicians. I love all kinds of music so dont even try judging the fans either. You dont know them or me you have no right to say stuff about us. Sure some of you may be offended about his one line "hike up your skirt a little more and show the world to me" come on its not nearly as bad as half the rap that is played twice or sometimes 3 times as much as what Dave gets played on the radio.

-- Kara, Friday, June 6, 2003 11:51 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Link

caro is the brigadier pudding of actual real reality

"not nearly as bad as half the rap that is played twice" <-- you do the math!

What I heard from my mother that day, speaking about my father, was something I suspect most Americans will never hear from the lips of those of another race, and so cannot be expected to believe might exist between black and white

you don't need to have read the whole book to know that this could have used some tightening

The Caro Biography of LBJ does seem a bit liek a Hawkwind boxset with every outtake, bootleg and demo thrown in published in the form of a partwork.

"More of his penis went turgid" <-- tightening

The idea of LBJ ripped on acid and wailing at the top of his lungs...is more Texan than I realized.

when people praise the language in Obama's (first) book, they may be referring more to the interweaving of narrative and themes and ability to evoke thoughts and feelings than the tautness of the sentences

LEAVE MAH PECKER OUT OF THIS

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/picturing-the-century-photos/images/lbj-and-richard-russell.jpg

tautness is all politics: gettysburg address = 243 words long <--- this is the mark we are huntin

"Unintentionally Homoerotic Oval Office Imagery"

haha "tautness is all IN politics"

(it is apparently possible to be too compressed!)

"Unintentionally" <--- OO I SO DON'T THINK

Yeah oh LBJ big proponent of 'accidentally' showing cock to underline alphadawg status, amirite?