Bye Bye Barry

Joel S. Hirschhorn

The final results are in on this historic November day. Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he raised, Barack Obama has lost the 2008 presidential election. American voters have boldly spoken truth to arrogance. Turned out that all those pre-election opinion polls that showed Obama’s inability to get over 50 percent support were prescient. Much of the public was never comfortable with Obama, though he clearly was so comfortable acting like he already was president.

Hillary and Bill Clinton are probably drinking champagne and having the sweetest time since Bill won his first presidential election. Hillary must now bite her lip repeatedly and resist saying publicly that “I told you so!” Hillary in 2012 will reveal that she learned her lessons well.

All that Obama audacity of arrogance from the smiling, glib politician finally died the death it so richly deserved. Too many pundits will blame his loss on his blackness and racist voters. But the larger truth is that sufficient voters saw through the many lies and deceptions. Obama always had a hard time giving a simple, short straight answer to tough questions. He was always mentally calculating exactly how to game his answers so that he would achieve all the benefits he had his eyes on. He was simply too (*)(*)(*)(*) presumptuous and too smart for his own good. In the end, Americans do not want the smartest person in the presidency or endless nuancing. They want someone they can easily understand and trust, despite their skepticism. There were many reasons not to trust the calculating Obama to do anything he promised to do or, for some people, to fear he might.

And now the bloviating pundits will also blame third party presidential candidates for siphoning votes from Obama, as if Americans have no right to exercise their political freedom and vote for someone they honestly think has the best policy positions and would most help restore American democracy.

Jon Stewart and other late-night comics will feast on these election results, as they should. I can’t wait to hear jokes about Obama’s wife becoming a more vocal and militant critic of the good old USA, now that she has proof positive that so many Americans are stupid white racists.

Of course, now the nation must suffer through the ineptness, confusion and dementia-like dullness of the living-in-the-past John McCain, tough-talking but brain dead. Will the McCain presidency look like an extension of the incredible terrible George W. Bush White House? Of course.

Still living off a once-true characterization as a maverick, McCain must now surround himself with people who actually are smart and knowledgeable about myriad issues. Should be no problem finding enough lobbyists. Pundits will start speculating that McCain will be lucky just to stay alive for four years, but thankfully his vice-president seems more capable. One thing for sure: the power plutocracy that really runs the country will have little trouble pulling the strings behind the scenes and keep the puppet McCain dancing to tunes written by corporate interests.

Ralph Nader summed up this way: “A large fraction of Americans know that we need a Jeffersonian political revolution to fix our corrupt system. They were not fooled by the Obama rhetoric about change, not from someone that has been a product of and servant for the two-party plutocracy. Yes, all the votes for me and the other third-party presidential candidates spelled the difference between Obama winning and losing. Our voters correctly protested against the corrupt two-party system. They did not elect McCain. Only those who voted for McCain elected him, and that is something they must live with as they watch a McCain administration continue dismantling American democracy and budget-busting global warmongering.”

Cynthia McKinney wisely noted that “It is time to stop saying God bless America, and begin repeating God save America. The good news is that we will build even greater public support for a true political revolution during the McCain presidency. All too often things must get much worse before they can get better. They will get worse.”

As to Obama, half-jokingly he said: “I may come back as a third-party candidate.” Or did that reflect a calculation that Democrats had learned their lesson? As to all the screaming from the left that the Republicans stole this election also, Obama immediately said “John won it fair and square.” Thanks Barry, exactly what I expected from a phony change agent.

[Contact Joel S. Hirschhorn through www.delusionaldemocracy.com.]

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Our delusional democracy breeds delusional prosperity.

Humor and Satire. We don't have a Crystal Ball forum.

statusquobuster, well I guess I don't have to vote now since the 2008 election is already final. This is great news, no more politics, no more pre-election blogging, no more false advertising, no more media bias, no more flooding of the airwaves. Thank you, thank you.

Ok, now that you've got your head screwed on right, you do a disservice to all those that plan to vote. Your prognostication leaves a lot to be desired. You're assumption does not take into account a lot of factors such as the VP choice, world events, blunders by the candidates, how many turn out to vote and for whom they will vote, how many won't take the time to vote and the list goes on and on.

My only suggestion to you is that you don't vote since you are so confident in the results.

Funny stuff!

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Sun flames and moons glow, timeless the tides will flow, what will I face, what will be mine, fortune and fate the other side...

Public thanks to Catzmeow for enabling me to make my goal of half a million credits by Xmas.

Too bad that's not going to happen. There are almost a dozen bi partisan alternate energy legislations sitting in committee since Jan '07 when the Democrats took over. The one that made it out of the Democrats energy dungeon was so laden with un-related pork, even I couldn't believe it. No one in their right minds would vote for more than that. That's issues for sophisticated voters. But it's the Democrats position on domestic drilling that's gonna murder ya in November. People are having to choose between feeding their kids and putting gasoline in their cars, and yes that would be the poor and middle class, the Democrat base. These are not terribly sophisticated voters, to them more oil = more gasoline = lower prices and the Democrats are blocking the way. Save your fancy explanations, most of the low income Democrat base aren't educated enough to understand that mumbo jumbo, all they'll see is the Democrats stopping the oil that can bring the prices down and take the squeeze off of them. So you go on and believe that the low income, poor and disenfranchised give a rats backside about whether the snail darter fish won't like the new oil rig.

Add in the party divide and how the floor vote at the convention is surely to open old wounds between the Clinton and Obama camps and push them even further apart. Then with Obama's numbers dropping like a brick, Hillary can possibly pull off an upset at the convention causing Black voters to go nuts that their guy was robbed.....Good Luck. McCain is enough of a Democrat to draw the angry Democrats because he's liberal enough, after all the Democrats wanted him to be Kerry's running mate in '04

I'm sure you'll find a way to marginalize what I've said to save face in public, but deep down inside you know what I'm saying is absolutely true and so does everyone else.

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At least you got that right. So should the government pander to the lowest-common-denominator red-state voter's uneducated whims?

The energy bill that did pass under the current administration was a POS. Freebies for oil companies, a nod to ethanol, and not much else. The word "conservation" seems to be a foreign term to Republicans.

Now, Now, your getting ahead of yourself here-This is the most exciting election to date-why do you want it to end so soon,were just getting warmed up. Here is some news you might find interesting,I am a volunteer for the OBAMA campaign in Nevada,yesterday 15 people changed their party affiliation from gop to DEM,when I was out doing voter registration,the day before 12 people changed from gop to DEM-it is like this almost on a daily basis,but what's interesting being out there is the enthusiasm for change,it is electric and refreshing,as much as I support OBAMA,it is the every day people that are actually making a difference.If you missed HARDBALL last night,there was a segment about REPUBLICANS FOR OBAMA,saying a large portion of mccains base is for OBAMA,OH,life just keeps getting better.

More sheep following the sheep-herder. All I hear is talk about "change". Unfortunately, most of these folks don't realize that the "change" is a socialist in disguise that wants more governmental control over the people, will increase taxes, and is weak on national security and foreign affairs. Obama is a true politician: only telling people what they want to hear.

No wishes needed Obama has already lost.