UPDATE: Since so many commenters have accuse me of being a 'republican stooge' parroting 'right-wing talking points, I encourage you to take out your frustration by donating at my Obama Page.
2nd UPDATE: Everyone seems to think I'm a Republican troll, which is fine, I guess. It's certainly your right to come to whatever conclusion you wish. I would offer the, perhaps fifty or so diaries that I've written advocating progressive causes and Sen. Obama in my defense, if anyone would care to check out what I've written.
Also, here's an editorial that is running in the Idaho Statesman today, since my bone fides are being called into question. I don't mind people thinking the diary sucks; that's fine. Wouldn't be the first sucky diary I've written. However, I do take offense to all the 'republican stooge' nonsense. Thanks.
I'm beginning to get a whiff of a pattern developing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some dreamy-eyed idealist that expects their politicians to not be politicians. I never bought into the post-partisan, new-politics meme that has occasionally been proffered by other writers and Obama supporters.
I'm also quite pleased that Sen. Obama reversed himself with regard to opting out of public financing.
But . . . don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
I usually try to go to Sen. Obama's website about once a week to put a few more dollars in the hopper--I mean, what's the point of opting out if you can't raise a gazillion dollars.
However, couching your political opportunism in this type of high-minded piffle is a bit too much.
Really?
A declaration of independence from the public financing system? Formed on scrolled parchment to boot? All while soliciting a donation?
Yes Sen. Obama, your high-minded sacrifice is definitely running about even with "when in the course of human events" it becomes necessary to crassly break promises for the sake of political expediency . . .
Come on man. You're an outstanding, charismatic candidate but this is beyond insulting. This is gas-tax holiday crass. For once, I actually agreed with David Brooks when he made this observation about your opt-out:
Fast Eddie Obama didn’t just sell out the primary cause of his life. He did it with style. He did it with a video so risibly insincere that somewhere down in the shadow world, Lee Atwater is gaping and applauding. Obama blamed the (so far marginal) Republican 527s. He claimed that private donations are really public financing. He made a cut-throat political calculation seem like Mother Teresa’s final steps to sainthood.
The only problem is that this isn't the first time. When Sen. Obama was asked about the flag lapel-pin by a reporter in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in October 2007, he offered up this gem of an answer:
You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin," Obama said. "Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.
Instead," he said, "I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.
Of course, after the idiotic flag pin became an issue to the Sean Hannity's and Nash McCabe's of the world, Sen. Obama decided . . . errr, maybe I will wear the pin.
Don't get me wrong, I don't give two shits about whether Sen. Obama does or doesn't wear a flag pin. But, if he's going to drape his answer about why he doesn't in high-minded moral rhetoric, then perhaps he shouldn't reverse himself so easily.
I don't mind candidates reversing themselves. This flip-flop Youtube gotcha' fixation that American political culture has developed seems odd to me. I don't mind candidates changing their minds or reversing themselves. In fact, it's a positive attribute as long as it's not undertaken too often.
However, don't couch your politically expedient choices as high-minded sacrifices. Reversals are fine; insulting my intelligence is not.