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I try to never disagree with Slate magazine but today, that task is far more than I can handle as they’re running a piece about Barack Obama as a man who has turned American politics upside down. They list seven “truths” of today’s politics that he destroys, but it’s shallow. Almost all of their “truths” of today are simply media creations that would never hold water in reality, and some of them are true and some of them aren’t even affected by Obama.

Remember, on paper, the conventional wisdom was that John Kerry could defeat George Bush easily, Dewey defeated Truman and Jimmy Carter’s honesty would revolutionize American politics.

Here, I’ll quickly go through the conventions he lists and illustrate how shallow they are rather than the fact that the Lord of Illinois is a Political Prophet.

1. Hillary Clinton is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. She certainly is, with or without Obama in the race. “Front-runner,” of course, means the person leading in the polls, with the most money, and biggest organization. Durr.
2.John McCain can beat anyone the Democrats put up. Of course he can beat anyone we put up, theoretically. Howard Dean can, theoretically, beat George Bush. Anything can happen in politics. But let’s not kid ourselves: the idea in the media that McCain is the best candidate the GOP can run is nonsense. He’s not God just because Jon Stewart thinks he’s handsome.
3. Democrats have a problem with religion. Of course that’s true. That’s transparently true. Evangelists don’t often vote Democrat, and that’s the truth. Now, the idea that Obama is going to get anti-abortionists and pro-marriage? people excited is ridiculous. Obama is pro-choice and that’s unacceptable to a vast majority of Evangelists. Nothing would change with him, sorry. Don’t be stupid.
4. Old liberalism is dead. Barack Obama is an “old Liberal”? What in the hell does that mean?

I can’t go on, because the idea that a hypothetical Obama run has “changed” politics is absurd. At the end, they write, “Obama could turn out to be just another liberal fad, like Howard Dean in 2004. Once he decides to run, the cynics assure us, his halo will tarnish or crack. And maybe so. But this time, maybe not” in an effort to dismiss criticism. My criticism isn’t based on cynicism but on simple logic and truth. Obama can not win the Presidency.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2006 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).