My Candidate? My Candidate are you talking ‘bout My Candidate?

[grantcart]

My Candidate? My Candidate are you talking ‘bout My Candidate?




You say what? The MSM says he just stepped in to it?


Well if he did this is what I say:


“Sure he stepped in it he’s thinking about taking over and he’s not thinking about where he is stepping.”


“He just stepped in it but the others are swimming in it.”


“He had to step in it to avoid having the Secret Service detail from running over that baby carriage”


“He’s so cool that even when he steps in it he still looks cool”


“He just stepped in it so the others would lower their guard”


“I got news for you fella there is a large stadium of people who have underestimated my guy so you go over to that stadium and tell them other million losers what you told me and watch them laugh their ass off at you. And while your goin’ take your checker board cuz he plays chess”


“He stepped in it so you fools would talk about it. He’s actually all tied up laying foundation for the GE. Hired thousands of ‘summer interns’ to register 20 million new voters”.







(Of course he hasn’t even stepped in it yet, he just has a pastor who is alternatively brilliant and completely egotistically self absorbed. But for the ‘stuck on stupid crowd’ – which I usually personally lead – you got to toughen up. This is just the beginning.)

Did you really think that wrestling control of the most powerful political office in the world was going to be a straight line? Did you think that it was going to be easy? Did you think that it was all going to be lined up and we just had to show up with a better candidate?

These are interests with billions of dollars at stake. They are people with decades of personal history at stake. No conspiracy here but you don’t just show up and cut to the head of the line no matter how good your candidate is or how compelling he is without upsetting some people. They don’t give this power away you gotta take it. You gotta grab it and you gotta hold it.

Now if you need to have some personal counseling we could arrange some one on one time with Mr. Travis Bickle, or young Vito Corelone, or Jake La Motta or send you to Cape Fear with the Good Fellas.

[flowomo]

1. it's precisely the taking, grabbing, holding part that worries me....

Obama (whom I voted for) just hasn't shown he's willing to do that to the degree necessary. Clinton certainly has. Complain all you want about her campaign, but she's pretty good at the taking, grabbing and holding part.

This was my point in one of my recent newspaper columns:

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2008/04/18/opinion/columns/rich_lewis/doc4808ae67e75c3316188259.txt

[grantcart]

2. Really that is the myth isn't? Maybe we could get ol Ross Perot to run again

The reality is that the Hillary is running just about the same level old Bill was in the 40s the Clintons won because they benefitted from a third party run by a billionaire.

We aren't going to take power with the same paradigm and if we get the White House we aren't going to effect change by governing with the same paradigm.

Obama changed the landscape in Illinois by adding all those people who sit on the sideline and don't join in.

The reason that he is going to get the nomination is that he knew where, when and how to grab it. And he knows that if goes

negative on Hillary he will have fewer people 90 days from now to grab it from McCain.

He is just as determined and twice as effective as she is and that is why he has won 30 contests. But because he didn't win all 50

some people wilt.

[flowomo]

3. who said anything about going negative on Hillary?

That's not a wise move. But (as I said in the column I linked, written after the last debate):

"This is the missing piece in Obama’s candidacy — the willingness to flash a bit of anger, to exert authority on the issues he believes in. A president has to be cool, reasonable and diplomatic — and Obama is all of those things.

"But a president also has to be forceful, demanding and hard on occasion — or risk being steamrolled by those who are. Obama was steamrolled on Wednesday — by the unimpressive likes of Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos. Some might ask how in the world will he take on Congress or Vladimir Putin."

[grantcart]

4. The fact is that he has grabbed it and Hillary wishes she had.

The defect in your analysis and your link is that this is a family fight and not the General Election. He may have been caught off guard by the strange set up in the 21st debate but he has shown steely determination in other debates.

He also has the shortest learning curve of anyone since Kennedy. The reality is that if he uses the same tools in the primary as he will in the GE there are a lot of Clintons supporters who will stay at home.

Come to the GE and he doesn't have to pull his punches and can play without restraint. He has done it in Chicago and he has done it in this campaign. He used the right strategies and the right tactics at the right time. He already grabbed it and now is tailoring his attacks on Hillary to maximize the results in the General


But the OP wasn't about him it was for the faint hearted who get a little resistance and wilt. Fortunately Obama is built of sterner stuff.

[flowomo]

5. I'm less sanguine than you are....

I'll know it when he shows it. For now, I'm a "unity ticket" guy:

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2008/04/28/opinion/columns/rich_lewis/doc4811edc6da97b648228914.txt

[grantcart]

6. No your less committed than I am

maybe this is your first rodeo


I couldn't give a shit of any of your links. My determination is mine I don't get it by a link.



The point of the post is if your going to take power then you have to be in it for the long run and you have to be prepared to go thru a lot of shit. Full blown shit. I have in the past. I have had screaming arguments with the second hand man to dictators and corrupt generals.


Obama has done what he has to. He has his plan and he is working it. A few months ago they accidentally emailed their projections out and it turns out that his victories are within the MOE in state after state of what they forcasted 4 months ago.

If the PA debate was such a debacle then how was it that he was able to slash her lead down to being very close to the extinction point.

It isn't just one guy with a briefcase. It is a highly professional team that has overthrown the strongest set of challengers ever to run for President, including the family of a past President. If they need to make adjustments they will adjust.

On August 24th and Nov 4th Obama is going to win.

This latest well Obama can't do such and such is just the warmed over stuff we have been seeing since the begining:


He is too detailed, He's not going to be inspirational enough

He can't raise money.

He isn't Black enough

He is too Black

He is too inspirational

And now "He isn't tough enough" give me a break - get a number and go to the back of the line

or trust the folks who have gotten us this far and put on some heavy armour because this thing has just begun.

[flowomo]

7. whoa! we're having a discussion and suddenly....

you question whether this is my "first rodeo"? LOL -- I was at the 1972 convention in Miami rooting my ass off for McGovern. And been around since.

And you don't give "a shit" about my links... which are my own columns and simply save me the time of retyping my thoughts here. I've read your lengthy past posts with interest -- they are your columns. I regret you don't give a shit what anybody else thinks.

And, yes, you are more "committed" to Obama. I only voted for him the one time I had the chance, in Pennsylvania, last week. Might do it again, too.

[grantcart]

8. Its not that I don't give a shit what other people think

I not only read other Obama posts I read columns by Clintons.


I didn't intend to be rude but my point is at this time it isn't the time for self doubt and angst.


Sometimes my friend we just have to put it beside us and say fuck it we trust what these people are doing.


This isn't the time for a thoughtful critique of the finer points of Obama's debating technique or policy positinos.



On another day where the GDP isn't filled with self doubt I would be very interested in reading your columns.


Today I think we need a little more Travis Bickle. There are going to be days like that in the future. I am a lot less worried


Obama being tough enough than his followers who don't have the Republican convenience of a disposable conscience.




Peace