what are barack obama's flaws?

you say subtext i say domtext

you say subtext i say domtext

YOU ARE A GOLDEN GOD

lincoln = greatest american writer (gore vidal once said this, and i kinda sorta believe it).

i read one of nixon's books years and years ago and all i remember is the incredibly hilarious chapter where he tries to explain watergate and there's like 5,000 paragraphs in a row that all begin like "the most foolish misunderstanding about watergate was...", "the most ridiculous assertion about watergate was...", "the most ironic charge about watergate was..."

hey, i was there, maaaan

In the Arena's got a photo of Nixon writing a speech, arm of his glasses in his mouth. The caption: "Even writing one line takes hours of concentrated thought."

in the arena! i think that was it.

didn't pat buchanan write nixon's farewell address?

The success of the Obama administration will largely depend on the quality of his advisors and appointments. There's no way to know what his administrative style will be. I know he's bright enough to figure out a lot of this stuff and correct his mistakes, but he won't enter office with much margin for error.

I don't worry about his ability to conduct diplomacy with other nations. I don't worry about his ability to conceive and propose budget priorities or legislation. I wonder about his ability to stay in front of the public opinion parade in the USA, what with the attack machine (Fox news, Scaife and Coors throwing millions around, conservative think tanks, etc.) grinding 24 hours a day trying to steer the conversation onto whatever trivia they deem useful to their ends.

It's a pretty big shitstorm to stand in the middle of and still have the time, energy and focus to accomplish good things.

This could be said about any president ever.

Also:

I wonder about his ability to stay in front of the public opinion parade in the USA, what with the attack machine (Fox news, ILE, Scaife and Coors throwing millions around, conservative think tanks, etc.)

Fixed.

Sure. The things I identified don't even begin to approach critical flaws. They're kind of givens.

But then, I don't see any evidence that Obama is beset by major flaws that would prevent him from being a good president. I do see good reasons to think he would be an excellent president. I can only speculate.

I do think it is good to mention this stuff, though. It's good to remind the more gung-ho fro either Obama or Clinton that a campaign is different from governing, and that even good candidates with undoubted talents can be ensnared in a failed administration, due to encounters with problems that are beyond their ability to solve.

It's fine to get your hopes up, but don't consider them guaranteed by the "right" outcome of the election.

Later at a Lincoln Park nightclub, Obama spoke to a raucous crowd of music fans, who paid up to $500 per person to see a performance by Wilco lead singer Jeff Tweedy, and two other band members.

"Before these guys go, I want them to know that I had heard a rumor that they had suggested that I had nothing by them on my iPod," Obama said. "That is not true. I love Wilco."

love is over

so it was an alt-country cowboy hat

There's nothing wrong with a little Wilco on your ipod. And I'd rather he pander to voters through questionable music taste than questionable policy positions.

lol xp

There's nothing wrong with a little Wilco on your ipod. And I'd rather he pander to voters through questionable music taste than questionable policy positions.

-- Super Cub, Saturday, July 12, 2008 3:07 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

you obama maniacs sure do some rhetorical backflips to support this guy!! first his stance on civil unions, now his stance on wilco ... does the man have any principles??

he'll throw wilco under the bus if he needs to

No Son Volt, no credibility

a lot of people on ILM certainly did (xpost)

Obama met Wilco at the Farm Aid 20th Anniversary show in 2005 and has appeared with them at several events since.

http://www.harpmagazine.com/img/news/2005_09_29_wilco_obama.JPG

during the debate bits I saw between innings, I definitely heard him SIGH.

serious question

Now in terms of the administrations or how I would approach the presidency, I don't think I'd restrict myself to three people. There are people like Sam Nunn, a Democrat, or Dick Lugar, a Republican, who I'd listen to on foreign policy. On domestic policy, I've got friends ranging from Ted Kennedy to Tom Coburn, who don't necessarily agree on a lot of things, but who both have a sincere desire to see this country improve.

Tom -- or John mentioned me being wildly liberal. Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong headed policies since I've been in Congress but I think it is that it is also important to recognize I work with Tom Coburn, the most conservative, one of the most conservative Republicans who John already mentioned to set up what we call a Google for government saying we'll list every dollar of federal spending to make sure that the taxpayer can take a look and see who, in fact, is promoting some of these spending projects that John's been railing about.

^^^ #1 from the saddleback forum, #2 from yesterday BTW

you're positing these as flaws?

Listening to people with alternative viewpoints is a flaw? xp

Being friends (or pretending to be) with Tom "LESBIANS IN OUR SCHOOLS" Coburn is a black mark in my book. Fuck that Okie asshole.

As a congressman in 1997, Coburn protested NBC's plan to air the R-rated Academy Award-winning Holocaust drama Schindler's List during prime time. Coburn stated that, in airing the movie without editing it for television, TV had been taken "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity." He also said the TV broadcast should outrage parents and decent-minded individuals everywhere. Coburn described the airing of Schindler's List on television as "...irresponsible sexual behavior...I cringe when I realize that there were children all across this nation watching this program."

more like tom COCKBURN

wow, calling an airing of schindler's list "irresponsible sexual behaviour" is so amazingly fucked up

i mean whatever you think of that movie. that is fuuuuucked.

daria palin!

i'm sure that obama is total best buddies with tom coburn, one of the senate's leading intellectuals

just like hillary is actually bffs with lindsey graham and don nickles (rip)

has anyone said that he's black?

i thought it!

I understand the gag factor in seeing an embrace of someone with detestable views, but being able to work with someone is not the same as taking BFF photobooth I ENDORSE YR VIEWS BROSEF pics with them.

he shouts out coburn waaaaaaaaaayyyy too much IMHO. so unnecessary

FWIW i do more work to help get obama elected than anyone else on this board

So that thing McCain mentioned during the debate about Obama requesting $932 million in pork is more or less accurate, right? Admittedly it's not something I care about that much compared to the bigger issues, but it would count as a flaw, and as far as I can determine it seems to be true.

my guess (i have not researched the details re: obama) is that a fair amount of what GOP usually term "pork" would be funding for projects in the state/district that would benefit the public

that is part of his job imho. i got plenty of things to criticize about obama but this is not one that troubles me unless there is some real cronyism stuff in there.

Yeah I wish he would actually defend some of the earmarks instead of saying that the system is "broken" since it's kind of giving the point to McCain, and not requesting any earmarks for the next year isn't going to do great things for Illinois. If he was just like, "hey here's all the useful stuff I did with my earmark money, I was working for my constituents, fuk u John" that'd be cool.

FWIW i do more work to help get obama elected than anyone else on this board

― regular guy, scranton, pennsylvania (daria-g), Sunday, September 28, 2008 4:00 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

A remarkable assumption.

FWIW I don't think anyone on this thread was attacking your motivations for criticism (nb: on this thread, other bs attacks on your motivations notwithstanding). Your point is well taken.

lol daria do u have a dick if so plz tell us how much bigger it is than the dicks of everyone else on this board

he shouts out coburn waaaaaaaaaayyyy too much IMHO. so unnecessary

FWIW i do more work to help get obama elected than anyone else on this board

― regular guy, scranton, pennsylvania (daria-g), Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

1. isnt he alwsy 'shouting out' to coburn in response to bullshit 'ties' to an asshole like ayers?

2. orly

i got it guys i think daria is actually joe biden

I took that to mean D. is working at an office or in some other GOTV capacity (much like Ethan).

or is sara palin

i assumed campaign work, but then i thought maybe she just knows more people who are "uncomfortable with" Obama than the rest of us

i might do Camp Obama, but I'm probably a little too Federal court for door-to-door; should do voter protection if I'm able to

Obama's biggest flaw is that he doesn't have a tic which would make him suitable for a really good "SNL" evisceration.

well, it does. there are things that are true and things that are false, at the end of the day.