Ace of Spades HQ

September 10, 2008

Thomas Friedman: Obama Needs to Get on Fire
— Dave in Texas

Echoing Olbermann's complaint to Obama (why aren't you angrier?), he wants to know who "slipped that Valium into Barack Obama's coffee"?

Somebody needs to tell Obama that if he wants the chance to calmly answer the phone at 3 a.m. in the White House, he is going to need to start slamming down some phones at 3 p.m. along the campaign trail. I like much of what he has to say, especially about energy, but I dont think people are feeling it in their guts, and I am a big believer that voters dont listen through their ears. They listen through their stomachs.

Friedman makes the same mistake that has everyone else on the left scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened to the Obama campaign. He thinks (or just claims) Obama's somehow lost his energy, he's not connecting with people like he used to. He pines for the "memorable lines or uplifting visions", then in the same paragraph wants Obama to get specific about real problems, like Fannie Mae, energy and health care.

Trust me Thomas, you don't really want that.

Obama isn't going to tell you what he's going to do, he never has, because he either a) knows most voters will reject it, or (more likely) b) he has no damn idea how to fix it. An energy plan that categorically dismisses increasing the supply of it shows just how unserious he is about the problem.

Obama hasn't connected at a "gut level", he's preached "hopeychange" without explaining what it is, because it's nothing, it's "NOTBUSH". Lofty rhetoric about how things are all screwed up and we're going to "change things" starts thin and gets thinner by the day. He's like a consultant, not a leader.

Q. How does a consultant make love?

A. He sits on the edge of the bed and tells you how fucking awesome it's gonna be.

His problem (one of many) isn't that he's not on fire. There's nothing behind the smoke, and now that the smoke has cleared it's apparent to everyone watching.

And frankly Thomas, when he gets pissed off (and he does), he sticks his foot in his mouth. I don't really think you want him to get mad (well, you do, you just don't want to watch the results). He's pissed now and reacting like a child, crying about how "they're swift-boating me" with that lipstick/pig thing".

It's weak tea buddy. When a guy says "I'm not gonna get bullied around" you can bet your lunch money he's already lost his.

They really don't know what to do, but they're trying Tom.

Here's a timely, and awesomely awesome new Obama campaign logo from S. Weasel. She told me I could steal it, so obviously she's unclear on the whole "theft" concept, but the girl's got game:

ObamaBiden

Someone Left the Cake Out in the Rain

Update: I had most of this below the fold cause it's a little long, but that doesn't do justice to Stoaty's logo. Honestly, I could have just written "BLAH-DEY, BLAH BLAPPITY BLAH Friedman Obama love". The logo is the shit man.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:20 AM | Comments (60)
Post contains 536 words, total size 4 kb.

1 Best logo evah!

Posted by: Sean Bannion at September 10, 2008 09:28 AM (epqk/)

2 Once again, S. shoots through like a rocket.

_{Sometimes I wish we were related.}

Posted by: A. Weasel at September 10, 2008 09:32 AM (bqcfE)

3 The problem is that the urban left (particularly the male urban left) now basically controls the Dem nomination process, and hates the very idea of a strong, alpha leader. Because that would be all warlike and not progressive and shit.

So they pick some neutered pansy like Flipper or Zero. But then, they notice that his wussiness is getting exposed. "Be tougher!", they cry. "Attack!" "Don't be swift-boated!"

But the lefties don't realize that a wuss trying to be macho comes off worse than a wuss acting normally. It's funny to see Barry trying to push back, because he doesn't know how to do it, and comes off looking weaker by as much as he tries to be stronger.

Moose-Belle is twice the man Barry could ever be, and it's killing him. He can't stand up to the girl on the opposing ticket.

Posted by: someone at September 10, 2008 09:33 AM (2z2WN)

4 That logo is awesome. Truly a work of beauty.

Posted by: Slublog at September 10, 2008 09:35 AM (R8+nJ)

5 He gave Hillary the finger in the primary campaign. Doesn't that count for something?

Posted by: Banjo at September 10, 2008 09:37 AM (1DQ52)

6 A cockmuncher like Tom Friedman telling anybody to "man up" just pegged my irony meter.

Posted by: Captain Hate at September 10, 2008 09:38 AM (r9x7Q)

7 The line about how voters think with their stomachs (or the more usual variation think with their wallets and pocketbooks) is ignorant. Personally I think the taxes issue is not definitive for voters either, and concentrating on it misses the point of why people participate in a democracy. We, the People, want to know what our Government is going to do, and where it intends on going. Because it is going there with our lives, our careers, our kids. America can't afford to fuck things up anymore, and the People have known that since before Reagan. It's taken this long to get someone to grab the bull by the horns, no matter how politically dangerous that act may prove to be. When Governments fuck up and don't rectify the situation, make amends, or correct course, you get disaster-- be that internal turmoil, getting conquered, or having a Regime-collapse. But in today's Global Civilization none of those options is an option, what with America carrying the weight of the World. We have the Constitution already in place and it's worked well for us for 221 years. That's solid enough to go with.

Posted by: Trudy Goodshoes at September 10, 2008 09:42 AM (4gKQm)

8 I, for one, can't wait to see Obama rage boy unleashed. I want fire and brimstone, Barry!

Posted by: runninrebel at September 10, 2008 09:43 AM (0n9wc)

.......crying about how "they're swift-boating me" with that lipstick/pig thing".

We're not swiftboating Obama. We're just sloppin' the hogs.

Posted by: SlaveDog at September 10, 2008 09:44 AM (H6Jyg)

10 Ooops. Wrong signature. Busy day at the office.

Posted by: Squire of Dimness at September 10, 2008 09:45 AM (4gKQm)

11 Actually, I kinda like Tom Friedman in a way.

I'd put it as if Tom Friedman is telling you to "man up", you know you've got a problem.

Posted by: Techie at September 10, 2008 09:47 AM (JG9UU)

.......crying about how "they're swift-boating me" with that lipstick/pig thing".

I'm sorry but didn't he swiftboat himself?

Posted by: Lemmiwinks at September 10, 2008 09:47 AM (E6GUg)

People that "are not gonna get bullied around" don't need to say that. People who aren't going to be bullied, don't get bullied in the first place. Mainly because they are people through force of presence or character that everyone knows not to bully. And if someone doesn't recognize that person and attempts to bully them, they get put in their place pretty darn quick.

You don't see McCain walking around saying he's not going to be bullied.

Reminds me of the great quote in The Rock about winners and losers.

"Losers whine about doing their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen."

Same idea here.

Posted by: Brad at September 10, 2008 09:55 AM (4Lj4w)

14 Why isn't he angrier? Because he has succeeded in every campaign to date via proxy warriors. If he gets overtly nasty, it takes that last bit of shine off "hope and change" he thinks he has. Team Axelrod and the Left have become expert at using surrogate entities to attack, smear, lie.

The instant the smears come directly and repeatedly from The One's lips? Game over, man.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at September 10, 2008 09:58 AM (sI5Ho)

You know, uh, you can, uh, y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you can leave a cake out in the rain.

Still a cake.

Posted by: Barack Obama at September 10, 2008 10:01 AM (ULsz9)

16 Now, THIS is what "inexperience" looks like. Recall, that Obama could be considered a campaigning neophyte. In his state legislator race, he had some of his opponents DQ'd, and I bet that Judge in Jack Ryan's divorce case gets a Christmas Basket from time to time.

Posted by: Techie at September 10, 2008 10:04 AM (JG9UU)

17 I, for one, can't wait to see Obama rage boy unleashed.

Can we have an Obama Rage Boy 'shop? Please oh please oh please?

Posted by: alexthechick at September 10, 2008 10:06 AM (SHHaV)

18 Distant cousins, at best.

Posted by: David "Ferret Face" Ross at September 10, 2008 10:06 AM (GwV+j)

19 Hope you don't mind, but I stole the logo. It's completely priceless. I've linked back to this entry for proper credit.

If you want me to take it down, let me know.

Posted by: NukemHill at September 10, 2008 10:07 AM (lHcjX)

That logo is awsome. Hilarious. I just sent it to a former Hillary supporter (now a McCain supporter).

Laughed my a___ off.

Posted by: newguy40 at September 10, 2008 10:09 AM (kduZC)

21 Even though hopenchange may make some people's leg tingle, it doesn't mean a damn thing to the majority of Americans. Everyone thinks the economy is bad even though they personally aren't in too bad a shape. When you start talking about "changing" things, they want to know how it's going to affect them. It may be better for others, but if it hurts them, they don't want to do it. The voters aren't as dumb as Obama seems to believe thy are.

Posted by: Steve L. at September 10, 2008 10:14 AM (o0YD+)

Nukem, link it back to S. Weasel if you don't mind. She deserves the props for it, and encouraged people to use it so I'm sure she's fine with you using it too.

http://sweasel.com

Posted by: Dave in Texas at September 10, 2008 10:18 AM (pzen5)

23 Yeah, Barack. Time to fight dirty. Call your pals in the media and have them say some nasty shit about Palin's kids and how she's a bad mother!

Posted by: Warden at September 10, 2008 10:20 AM (QoR4a)

24 Obama needs to run as a Democrat, not as a Leftist. McCain is running as a Republican, not as a Rightist. Whenever this country has faced a very serious-- possibly mortal-- threat, it responds with what could be called the "bipartisan Party'" a two-winged one-party Governance system. But the Parties have been hijacked by radicals on either side, and the result is trench warfare and gridlock. And nothing gets done except that these guys get to divvy up THE MONEY rather than those guys. We're stuck in the mud and facing a major challenge from 'The Climate Change Group' (hereby legally termed) that is much more dangerous to not only our Government but the individual citizen. We aren't responding at all with vigor, and the communicating of the threat to the populace is almost non-existent. We need to be able to leap to defense if necessary-- and that takes unity and domestic peace and will and intelligence. Obama, like most of the sound-bite hoggers of microphones, is a representative of the radicalized faction of his Party. When he gets rid of his disguise and plays for the left side of the same team that McCain is on the right side of, then this election can move forward as something that MATTERS, in the bigger picture of History. Until then, I stick with the statement that the actual, factual Barack Obama is more or less a Maoist.

Posted by: Squire of Dimness at September 10, 2008 10:22 AM (4gKQm)

25 I'm pleased to see you resisted the headline: Tom Friedman Wants to Set Obama on Fire.

Posted by: vanderleun at September 10, 2008 10:24 AM (s0k8A)

Re. the coffee, Thomas, bad news for you--the Valium was a suppository.

Posted by: andycanuck at September 10, 2008 10:25 AM (qKkaY)

27 Outstanding Logo! I feel sad for Obama, rhetorically-- literally (attention LBJB(Del)) I am laughing. He really is being 'Swift-boated', but he means it in a different way. He thinks 'swiftboating' is a dirty political trick. Sadly (heheh) swiftboating is, really, having the truth, about what you did and how you did it, run over you (and your faked up image) like it was a big ol' riverine gunboat full of machine guns and big motors and you were just a floater stranded in the current.

Posted by: Potosi Joel at September 10, 2008 10:26 AM (TPRbZ)

NO WE CAN'T!

Posted by: Eleven at September 10, 2008 10:29 AM (7DB+a)

S.Weasel is the shit.

Awesome post, Dave.

Posted by: Max Power at September 10, 2008 10:32 AM (q177U)

30 Yes, that logo deserves to be above the fold.

Posted by: Ron at September 10, 2008 10:42 AM (gKHiu)

Here's what I don't get- Obama has approximately one bazillion campaign and policy advisors, so why so little in the way of detailed policy proposals?

It's not an issue of his own inexperience or intelligence- any drooling moron can offer whatever detailed policy proposals his advisors wrote up for him. You don't need to be a seasoned pro with a genius level IQ to read policy proposals off a teleprompter and have your webmaster post them on your website.

The only things that make sense to me are:

1. He's too much of an egomaniac to listen to experts.

2. He knows that the policy he'd actually try to enact would be too objectionable.

3. He's afraid that debating policy specifics will distract from the hopey changey Earth-healing kumbaya theme that David Axelrod successfully used to get Duval Patrick elected.

4. He's just too damned dumb respond to criticism of his campaign policy proposals and thus doesn't want to get too involved in details he can't fully defend or explain.

I'm betting on #4.

Posted by: Hollowpoint at September 10, 2008 10:44 AM (rf03a)

32

That logo is my new desktop background. _{but ill probably remove it soon because i'm a chickenshit and obamatrons make assskaaarrrred}

Posted by: IreneFingIrene at September 10, 2008 10:45 AM (MFQJZ)

Jen at Demure Thought shas it right: Americans don't want a man-cunt for president.

And it's just that simple.

Posted by: trentk269 at September 10, 2008 10:47 AM (WUM14)

That was so damned good that I assumed it was Ace.

For a Texan, you write goodern Molly Ivins.

Posted by: pendejo grande at September 10, 2008 10:53 AM (36V3F)

35 I listened to Tom Friedman on NPR talk about energy (which sounds a lot like Obama's plan) and he has some good points on energy, but he just doesn't get the reason for more domestic drilling. It's just some kind of blind spot in his mental vision.

Posted by: Neo at September 10, 2008 10:57 AM (Yozw9)

36 Nukem, link it back to S. Weasel if you don't mind. She deserves the props for it, and encouraged people to use it so I'm sure she's fine with you using it too. http://sweasel.com Done. Thanks.

Posted by: NukemHill at September 10, 2008 11:00 AM (lHcjX)

37 I'm just sittin' here gigglin'. Can't stop.

Posted by: JimK at September 10, 2008 11:02 AM (rZdhc)

ER, Did I tell you yesterday this thing, lipstick gate, had legs?

It is all that is being talked about, and brain dead brings it up himself, like he is smart enough to stop the tide.

Hey, dumb shit, you were in TIDEWATER VA, today.

You can't stop the tide, bitch, you're fucked and everyone woman in the country is getting more pissed every time you talk down to them and expect them to buy your Bullshit excuse.

It OK with us though, keep swift boating yourself.

Thank you Karl!

Posted by: kempermanx at September 10, 2008 11:06 AM (2+9Yx)

When a guy says "I'm not gonna get bullied around" you can bet your lunch money he's already lost his.

Classic!

Ever notice how when liberals talk about fighting something, it's always an inanimate object like global warming or poverty that can't fight back?

I loved the Palin line about there only being one man in the race who has really fought for the voters. Damned straight.

Posted by: Andy at September 10, 2008 11:06 AM (C3mTI)

40 Obama is playing Chicken Little with all his "sky is falling" rhetoric vis-a-vis American governmental issues. He pines for the "good old days" and the times when America was some sort of beacon on a hill. The problem is, he wasn't even alive in the "good old days." Americans have always had to work, sweat, and worry about security and finances. He's both disingenuous and arrogant to assume that this generation has more difficult trials and tribulations than our forebears. There were no "good old days," and to the extent that America was a beacon on a hill, it hasn't changed. The world has evolved, the country has evolved, but America still stands for the same principles underlying embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Are there national tribulations? Certainly. Is there disagreement on the extent of our freedoms and the proper courses of action? Absolutely. Are these disagreements any more longstanding, deeper, or more severe than any others in American history? No. If you have the opportunity, read through the Congressional Record archives - it's replete with daily reports of enduring political arguments. You'll see fights of the sort that would get senators and representatives imprisoned today, including an assault between senators that ended up with one grievously injured after being bludgeoned with a fireplace poker. Listening to Senator Obama is like volunteering for a clinically depressive episode.

This may have been the wrong thread for a rant like this. I'm not very good at self-control sometimes. Feel free to flame.

Posted by: Jazz at September 10, 2008 11:31 AM (hnq5i)

Obama set himself us as a big projection screen. He uses lofty vague words to get the audience thinking about their Utopia. Then he warmly tells them that each of the audience member Utopias can be realized through him. That worked wonderfully for him when he's talking to a receptive audience who trusts him.

Unfortunately for him, that act doesn't work at all when his audience resists his O actualization act. Just as you cannot hypnotize someone who is unwilling, you can't O actualize someone who doesn't trust you. When such a person gets to the "I am the change you are waiting for" part, they see a blank screen and not a Utopia.

That's devastating to Obama. People like Thomas Friedman see the people in the audience that are non-responsive and they have no idea what just happened. That's when deperation kicks in. Articles like Thomas Friedmans' are a direct result of that desperation.

Posted by: bonhomme at September 10, 2008 11:33 AM (jvG2F)

42 Obama Needs to Get on Fire

I thought he meant like on fire like Richard Pryor

Posted by: CUS at September 10, 2008 11:44 AM (bbXZq)

You were supposed to be the chosen one!!!

Posted by: Christian at September 10, 2008 11:48 AM (Lgc/F)

44 <a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v160/tobiasfunke/?action=view&current=chosen.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/tobiasfunke/chosen.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket Image Hosting"></a>

Posted by: Christian at September 10, 2008 11:48 AM (Lgc/F)

45 That logo is awesome. Truly a work of beauty. - Slublog

Geez, jealous much, slu? Calm down there, wouldya?

Posted by: wiserbud at September 10, 2008 11:52 AM (8Dcp0)

46 CAKE WRECK! I double dog dare someone to make that cake.

Posted by: SarahW at September 10, 2008 11:54 AM (7sl9X)

47 Or cupcakes. MMmmmm. You know since that 3 point lead poll, there are free cupcakes for the world now.

Posted by: SarahW at September 10, 2008 11:56 AM (7sl9X)

Payback's a bitch baby!

Posted by: Jack Ryan at September 10, 2008 11:57 AM (zUQzG)

49 I kind of like the theory that Obama has never been up against a tough Republican opponent before. He was in a gerry-mandered district in Chicago where he eliminate rivals with technicalities.He ran against the eighth-string Alan Keyes for senate.

Hillary and the other Democrats couldn't attack his far left beliefs, his extreme position on abortion, or his radical relationships because to do so would have alienate the Democrat Primary base. Not to mention, as Democrats, they had a taboo against attacking any person of color.

He's a hothouse flower, exposed to the real world for the first time. He's a sheltered mama's boy, coming to a tough public school for the first time, and the mean kids are stealing his lunch money and giving him a wedgy.

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50 shouldn't peter sellers get a little credit for this great logo too?

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