Ahmmn... Obama says it was a mistake to allow his kids to take part in pulp TV portrait of his family [Hollywood Access, for christ sake!]. Essentially, he used his kids to burnish his family man credentials, his down to earth oh god no of course I'm not a detached elitist family man credentials - but doesn't really admit to that, rather making some excuse about how it all seemed harmless but now on reflection not so much. I mean, maybe I'm lost to the ravishes of a cancerous cynicism - but this is all bullshit, right? He clearly was using his kids as a political tool and everything about the show was scripted to that end, including the after the fact heart felt you see I'm such a sensitive, caring, thoughtful guy mea culpa - right?
This guy really disturbs me, and not just because I prefer McCain, which I guess I have to - I mean, McCain's campaign so far is so lackluster and disheveled and wandering that the only reason to prefer him over Obama is that he's not Obama, so it's not like I'm crazy for McCain - but that's not it. There's something at work behind the mask of the Obama campaign that is flat out disturbing: the striking disparity between his lack of relevant experience and his brash ambitions, his seeming narcissism, the blind enthusiasm of his followers that borders on zealotry, the way the press enables him, his heart-on-sleeve religious conversion [how like Bush, no?], his ultra liberal roots hidden behind reasonable sounding rhetoric, his calculated, ruthless equivocations on policy, the ease with which he lies and panders - it's all very fucking disturbing. It's as if I'm seeing the coming to fruition of something truly awful and dangerous that has been brewing in the belly of democracy in this age of superficial mass media and instant gratification for a generation or two now. [that's a little over stated, no?] [we'll see. Remember what Hamlet said to Horatio on the parapet] [well, of course, who could forget that, but... after all, really, he's just borrowing elements from successful Republican campaigns and smartly applying them to a Democratic campaign - not such an awful thing, I think. Should probably give him credit for it] [ah... we'll see]
Of course, democracy by its very nature is a bit of a problem child, a bit unruly, unpredictable, inchoate - difficult - and of course that's why it's so damn workable as well - and we who live with it tend to think, assume, that no matter how fucked up it gets every once in a while, it'll all work out in the end - and of course that too is why it's such an appealing system. But, of course, that's not necessarily true, is it? I mean, it'd be sadly naive to think that it could never happen that at some point some one or some thing is gonna come along and just completely muck the whole deal up, no? [sure, that'd be naive... but still not sure why you saddle Obama with this whole decline of the West thing: seems a bit harsh] [he just bugs me - besides it's not him per se that's the problem, it's what he represents, the fabric he's cut out of, the beast that has disgorged him, that's what we should be worried about] [ah... ok. But, ya know, if you just extrapolate from the quality of the campaigns each has run, kind of looks like Obama would make the better president] [yeah... not really sure what to make of that. Does tend to fuck up my apocalyptic conjecturing. Unless I respond by saying you make the mistake of thinking that being a good politician and being a good leader are the same thing, that most if not all the attributes required by each are interchangeable. They're not - and remember I have advocated that McCain's strategy should be to drive home point that the gap between Obama and McCain's political talents is essentially superfical and hints at issues of character which could cause one to favour McCain - ie I think Obama is arrogant and full of himself and that's why he's so damn good at giving speeches - man loves to hear himself talk].
