Monday, July 28, 2008

A Blog Interrupted

Monday nights are usually a good time to get some blogging done. The work week begun, more right-wing outrages built up over the weekend to expose and respond to, few distractions....

Ouch, Soriano just hammered that pitch off of Sabathia...lucky it was just a double...that’s the hardest smack I’ve seen off the Big Guy...OK, pop-up...maybe we’re alright...oops, that’s a run...

It has been determined that, for the third time in a row, the presidential election is to be a referendum on the Democratic candidate. Thus does the Dem candidate get held to a higher standard than the Republican. You expected Junior Bush to be stupid, you expect John McCain to be lame and you always expect the Democrat to be a serious person and a public-policy grown-up as opposed to a sound-bite spouting hack. Once it’s set up this way, all the Republicans have to do is pick apart and exaggerate real and imagined minor flaws in the Democrat. Once they make you feel uneasy enough about the person you agree with the most, they win, but only by default.

Is Braun going to start getting the Barry Bonds treatment the rest of the year? None of those pitches were close...OK, Prince, way to work it, baby...Hart has been so clutch all year...yipes, not this time...

And so we will be treated for the next 100 days to the shotgun approach, with the right-wing trying to find or invent something, anything, to make you feel bad about Barack Obama. The Rev. Wright thing got some major traction, raising Obama’s negatives 15 points or so – and they are going to keep working it as the election gets closer. But the thing they have really committed to recently, from the top dirty dogs Limbaugh and Hannity to lowly compliant local bloggers is this whole Obama-as-Messiah nonsense. The word has gone forth, as they say, to drive people away from Obama by portraying him as full of himself and his supporters as naive, starry-eyed dupes.

Double-ouch...Soriano seems to have CC’s number tonight...can we walk him next time?

Being a savior or messiah is not anything Obama or any of his supporters has ever claimed or wanted, but the truth has never got in the way of a talking-point the GOP thinks will play with uneasy voters. Right now, they are in saturation mode, where they hammer the lie from all corners of the echo-chamber. The national wing-nuts now call Obama "messiah" at every mention of his name. In print, right-wing columnists and bloggers can barely conceal their glee in capitalizing "the One" and "He".

Come on, you guys, it’s Ted Lilly, fer cryin’ out loud, not Cy Young...

Beyond ridiculous are the attempts to put the Obama story into faux biblical language. Some British knob – in a Rupert Murdoch rag, natch – not only wrote a long imaginary passage about the path of "the Child", he read it into a microphone for the benefit of (double-natch) Fox Noise. It was looked on by Charlie Sykes, who pretended to be wildly amused, and Patrick McIlheran, who hilariously opined that the Murdoch lackey had produced "the most brilliant words out of Berlin".

Nice defense in the last couple of innings...jeez, it’s the 6th, let’s get something going...Yeah, J.J.! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!...Braun! Baby! What a stud...OK, now I feel better...Corey Hart...what did I say about clutch??...

Milwaukee’s local right-wingers have of course rushed to contribute to this group fictional effort to diminish....Hang on a minute...

One out, bases loaded, Lee and Ramirez...let’s see what you got, CC...ugh, full count to Lee...double play ball!...what the hell, Rickie!!...

Milwaukee’s local right-wingers have of course rushed to contribute to this group fictional effort to diminish the stature of the Democratic candidate. One of the first to raise the phony religious specter about Obama was the current holder of the McBride Chair at formerly respectable WTMJ, James T. Harris...

Branyan!!!

...who used his I’m-a-right-wing-black-guy license to christen him the "Chocolate Jesus" (since appropriated by the Texas Hold ‘Em Blogger and others) and to try his hand at the drafting of supposedly Obama-esque bible verse. And Rick Esenberg embarrassed himself with his own attempt at Obama-as-Messiah ridicule this past weekend.
  • "Barack, being called to redeem the world by the will of God and our brother Chris Matthews, to the ones that have awaited me in the Tiergarten that is in the city of Berlin, called by me to be more than they have been and to arise from their indifferent lives, together with all those in every place yearning to be My Ones and to learn of what change they should believe in, My peace and that of your mother Michelle be upon you, this is the moment and Ja, können wir."

Good grief, what a lot of noise. "Yearning to be My Ones"? "Your mother Michelle"? Where is the truth that supports the satire in any of this ungodly mess?

Damn, that's what happens when you walk guys...How many hits has Derrick Lee sliced to right that way?...Come on, Billy, go get that ball...Damn...

Somewhere, this attempt to ridicule Obama by pretending that he thinks he's the messiah must test well. I guess it sets them up to deride Obama's eloquence by smirking that it came from the Mouth of the Annointed One. But I think the very strangeness of the unhinged campaign shows a grasping-at-straws desperation.

I suppose it's too much to ask for a Marmol break-down tonight. Wait, there a walk! Kapler swings...Back, back...nope. But it is great to see that play-off atmosphere at the ballpark, even if there are too many Cubs fans. We'll get 'em tomorrow...

9 comments:

grumps said...

Lately, not at first but lately, there's been an undertone of, "Obama has gotten above his raising." It's as if he's to be punished for aspiring to something better rather than being rewarded for his hard work.

It's getting hard not to read the word, "Uppity," into some of the Obamessiah crap.

AnotherTosaVoter said...

I guess this means you're not interested in answering the questions I posed in the other thread.

Obama, while charismatic, hasn't exactly wowed us with specifics. Neither has McCain, but neither have many Presidential candidates in probably the past 221 years that they've had to run. And there are legit questions about his experience - a year and a half in the Senate after his few years in a statehouse are hardly much more impressive than Bush's 4 years as ceremonial head of Texas after a failed business career.

Again you suggest that any arguments that oppose yours are based on nothing but talking points, another dismissal that you claim is an underhanded tactic of your opponents.

You seemed to relish the idea of reasonable, mature debate. I wonder if you'll take this opportunity to engage in it.

Mike Plaisted said...

ATV:

Again, I'd love to engage on this messiah "issue", but there is no such issue. It is simply an attempt at ridicule. So what's the response -- no, he doesn't have a messiah complex? There has never been one indicated. They are making it up out of whole cloth.

And, yes, this pretend-he-thinks-he's-the-messiah campaign is a prime example of a talking point that has been distributed and encouraged by the GOP a way to undercut Obama's legitimately charismatic appeal. All of these people did not come up with this on their own and suddenly start squawking about the same thing at the same time and drafting faux bible verses by coincidence or accident.

Again, as with many of my posts, this is all about the process being used against the Democrat. There is no "issue" to discuss, other than the blind allegence of those in the professional and amatuer right-wing echo chamber to drive whatever message is suggested, no matter how absurd. I think the existance of the daily talking-point memo is a legitimate topic for discussion, as is the vacancy of the ideas by those who choose to follow.

Anonymous said...

The "right-wing echo-chamber" is merely reacting to what Obama is making for himself. Obama has given them plenty of ammunition to use:

"We are the ones we have been waiting for..."

"...this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

"We are the change that we seek."

"There's a moment in the life of every generation, when that spirit has to come through if we are to make our mark on history. And this is our moment. This is our time."

People like Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger are not the concoctions of the right-wing echo-chamber, these are REAL people that Obama has publicly supported and even called part of his family. This is his own doing. He's "swift boating" himself.

From his faux Presidential seal replete with Latin quote to his claiming of there being 57 states in the U.S. to his speaking ability off-teleprompter...Obama himself is creating what you deem the demoninzation of the candidate by the right.

Try as you might to blame this entirely on the right while ignoring how flawed this candidate truly is.

William Tyroler said...

Messiah, Interrupted:

Championships are won on defense, and in baseball it's defense up the middle (C, SS, 2B, CF) that counts. With Weeks, the Brewers are rancid at Second; that's why they aren't going to win anything this year. Besides, the Cubs are probably the better team -- run differential is the best predictor of success and there, the Cubs have it over the Brewers.

I'm not a Ned Yost detractor, but the Brewers acquired Ray Durham for a reason. Play him. The Brewers have a decent shot at the Wild Card with him in the lineup.

Mike Plaisted said...

Gee, Anony, Obama is the first candidate in history to stand accused of lofty rhetoric. Every politician since the beginning of time has tried to convince their supporters to seize the moment and that there is a moment to seize. McCain would do the same if he could. There is more jealousy than anything else in this particular talking-point campaign.

Bill: Rickie hurts us more as a lead-off batter than he does in the field, and that's saying something. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt -- he does appear to have his heart in the right place, a true believer -- but it's crunch time and we need a lead-off man hitting more than .224. I'd give Durham a chance, too. That's what he's there for. I'll bet he's the one leading off tonight.

Anonymous said...

I only hope the best for Weeks but he has really been testing my patience. At the very least, I think that Ned should platoon 2nd. Why would we let someone like Durham warm the bench when Rickie is underperforming so badly?

Mike, can you be on call tonight? I might need your services. I am going to the game and I don't always mix well with the cubs fans that inevitably surround me:)

Rick Esenberg said...

What I wrote is - as I am sure you know - a parody of the rather lengthy introductions in the letters of Paul - in this case the First Letter to the church at Corinth. So ... technically ... I'm not implying that Obama thinks he is the Messiah but,rather, His Apostle.

But I could have footnoted everything in there (maybe not Michelle as Mother but give me some artistic license) and the teasing of Obama for his overweening sense of self importance is hardly limited to conservatives.

And, incidentally, wasn't it embarassing that he goes over to Berlin and gives the whole speech in English? Not even an "Ich bin ein Berliner" or "danke shon." I guess that all he knows is merci beaucoup.

Mike Plaisted said...

Actually, Rick, "the teasing of Obama for his overweening sense of self importance" is limited to conservatives. Besides - what "overweening sense of self importance" are you talking about? Obama has always impressed me as personally somewhat modest. Is it the sin of Pride that he has dared to step forward that has got you, Rick? If that's the case, you can indict everyone who has ever taken the giant step of running for president. Is it the "this is our time" language, language used by every politician since the beginning of time? What was he supposed to do when all those people started coming to his rallies -- send them away and hide in front of a modest green screen, like McCain?

Parodies are only amusing if they are informed by an honest reality, not some made-up nonsense designed only to ridicule. But, you didn't have any problem with the Loophole Louie name-calling either, so I guess ridicule is just something you are comfortable with.

And, oh yeah, he was supposed to speak German. Right. You people would have eaten him alive, claiming he was aping Kennedy, probably saying he was speaking in tongues. He didn't speak French in France or Hebrew in Israel, either. Sorry he didn't give your boys that opportunity to hit the "he's pandering" button.

Hey, Corey, I got your back, bro. Just make sure you make it worthwhile.