Wrong About Everything Except One Important Thing

Ms. Lithwick at Slate wonders if it can be cool to back Obama when everyone is doing it and links to this from Hanna Rosin:

Thirdly, the worrisome thing about Obama is that people see in him what they want to see.

This old piece of mine predicting that Fred Thompson would defeat Al Gore for the Presidency is not exactly one for the Eerily Prescient files [yet others Keep Hope Alive for a Gore-Obama ticket!], but it did correctly identify Barack as the Democratic Mirror of Desire (That is the Mirror of Erised to Harry Potter fans.)

And I agree with both of these secret Hillary backers - the Obama "Yes We Can" video is either madly uplifting or creepily cultish.

Comments

[MaidMarion]

"Yes We Can" = "Si Se Puede"

Ya think maybe that's why Barack's campaign chant is what it is?

[Other Tom]

Last I heard, Obama's "Global Poverty Act" was going to be voted on in the Senate on Thursday. Anybody know what happened? And will McCain have the sense to howl bloody murder about the thing?

[SteveMG]

"Global Poverty Act": requires that 0.7 percent of the U.S. gross national product be provided in foreign aid.

Seven-tenths of a $14.5 trillion dollar economy is a nice hunk of, dare I say?, change. Just over $100 billion (14.5 x .7).

If we just gave everyone - world-wide - living in poverty cash payments, it would do more good than distributing it through top-down international agencies and NGOs.

[PeterUK]

Obama's "Global Poverty Act" ,
This can be read another way,as an Act to make everyone poor.In which case can we all have a vote?
Don't forget the gun ban and the ICC.
This is the very same kind of acts and treaties which the EU used to hollow out our institutions.One day the government pulls one of the levers of power to find it isn't attached to anything

[ven]

Dem income GDP/GNP tax on the country.

[bgates]

I've seen 3 people claim that Lithwick piece was brilliant and/or hilarious. I thought it was another shovelful off of the pile of crap that Slate uses to fill most of its pages.

Found this on Global Poverty:
"The bill, which is item number four on the committee's business meeting agenda, passed the House by a voice vote last year because most members didn't realize what was in it. "

[Tom Maguire]

I thought Lithwick was clever, but... I am pretty sure she is not a lot younger than me (I'll concede "hipper" to anyone eager to make the claim), so for her to tell me what young hipsters are thinking fell a bit short.

[Other Tom]

Harold Ickes weighs in, as ham-handed as ever:

"A top Hillary Clinton adviser on Saturday boldly predicted his candidate would lock down the nomination before the August convention by definitively winning over party insiders and officials known as superdelegates, claiming the number of state elections won by rival Barack Obama would be 'irrelevant' to their decision.

"The claims no doubt will escalate the war of words between the campaigns, as Obama continues to argue superdelegates should vote the way of their districts. But the special class of delegates, which make up about 20 percent of the total delegate haul, are not bound to vote the way of their states and districts, as pledged delegates are."

[Porchlight]

Hipsters do tend to desert in droves once it becomes generally popular to like something. "I liked them before they were popular" is an old hipster joke - because it's true. It's not negligible as an argument against Obama - it's "a movement, not a campaign," merely a fashion statement, etc. It is increasingly looking like this segment of his support is going to peak early.

[Jane]

Hopefully not too early. Increasingly Obama looks quite beatable.

[kim]

Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded.
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[Other Tom]

If people don't want to come, there's no way you can stop 'em.

[Ralph L]

Wiki says Dahlia graduated from Yale in 1990. She just writes like a teenager.

[maryrose]

I don't think Obama has quite peaked yet. We all know Hil Ms Inevitable peaked months ago...How many more near death experiences can a campaign handle?

[bgates]

TM, I can't imagine you're less hip than somebody who writes for Slate, a rag so predictable in its NPR/Daily Show schtick it should be on the list of

[bgates]

...preview is my friend.
So predictable, it should be on the list of stuff white people like.

Follow that link, and imagine the kind of person that blog is describing. Then try to imagine that person doesn't have Slate bookmarked. Can't be done.

[glasater]

Paraphrasing Charles Murray once again--If all the world's wealth could be equitably distributed amongst all the people--everyone would be poor.