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February 14, 2008
Thursday Afternoon
Happy Valentine's, dear readers.
1. Obama time.
a. Is Obama's message too depressing for America? The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger thinks so, arguing as much in a likely preview of Republican attack lines come fall:
Listen closely to that Tuesday night Wisconsin speech. Unhinge yourself from the mesmerizing voice. What one hears is a message that is largely negative, illustrated with anecdotes of unremitting bleakness. Heavy with class warfare, it is a speech that could have been delivered by a Democrat in 1968, or even 1928.
[...]
Whatever else, Barack Obama isn't talking sunshine in America. He's talking fast and furious. People not yet baptized into Obamamania may start to look past the dazzling theatrics to see a vision of the United States that is quite grim and could wear thin in the general election.
b. In an equally nifty - and far more convincing - flip of the conventional wisdom of the moment, Chris Bowers makes a strong case that it is Obama, not Hillary, who must win Wyoming to keep chances for the nomination alive.
c. Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Counterpoint: are sites like this an extension of a pro-Hillary meme, one that fundamentally fails to grasp Obama's political savvy? Sara Robinson writes:
So if Obamamania doesn't come close to making the cut as a "cult," then just what the hell is going on there?
What's going on is that we've finally got a Democratic candidate who understands exactly how the Republicans did it. As I pointed out my very first week on this blog, the GOP didn't come to power by talking about plans and policies; they did it by using strongly emotional appeals that grabbed people by the gut and didn't let them go. Theirs was never a movement based on reason. It was, from the very beginning, a movement of hearts and souls. And it was that deep, emotionally sustaining commitment that drew people in so deeply that they were willing to give 25 years of their lives to bringing about the New World Order their leaders promised them. We may hate what they've accomplished -- but we're never going to be able to do better until we can inspire that same kind of passion for change.
And Obama's doing just that. He's tapped into a deeply pressurized seam of repressed fury within the American electorate, and he's giving it voice, a focus, and an outlet. Are the results scary? You bet: these people want change on a scale that much of the status quo should find terrifying. Are they unreasoning? The followers may be -- but as long as their leader keeps a cool head, that's not as much of a problem right now as we might think; and the heat will dissipate naturally in time. Is this kind of devotion even appropriate? You bet. You don't get the kind of deep-level change we need without first exposing and channeling people's deep discontent. Obama's change talk may be too vague for most people's tastes (including mine); but the fact is that if we're serious about enacting a progressive agenda, rousing people's deepest dreams and desires and mobilizing that energy is exactly how it's going to happen. And Obama's the first candidate we've had in a generation who really, truly gets this.
2. Another beautiful Sabres win last night, all balm for those long nights of January suffering. Miller was fantastic - again. Moving on up...
3. Kotaku editor Brian Crecente delivers his Grand Theft Auto IV impressions:
After zipping through the rolling barrels, Bellic catches up with his quarry, whose car is marked with a red arrow, on a bridge and manages to fire off enough shots to first flatten the suspect's tires and then set the engine compartment on fire. The car, riding on rims now, tries to zip between two cars and misses the gap, fishtailing into a vehicle before rolling. The bad guy is thrown from the car, sliding across the bridge to stop near the railing, and then the car explodes, catapulting the would-be informant up and off the bridge.
The Rockstar guys erupt into laughter. "Did he just go off the bridge?" one asks, laughing.
I'm fuckin ready. (That's a screeshot uptop, incidentally.) Also at the fresh-daily Kotaku: gaming's top 5 love stories.
Posted by caps at February 14, 2008 02:26 PM