11/08/2008

Oh Looky A New President.




Hello,
In between bouts of ripping each other's hair out the ladies in work have been getting very excited about Barack Obama. Given the level of racism in that place I assume it's because they think he's quite pleasant as 'wogs' go.

I hope I've been wrong about the man but every time time I look at him I see an attractive Tony Blair blessed with the gift of impressive public speech and no real beliefs. Mind you if he is for any sort of real change he'll be shot in a month or two.

It would be churlish not to feel a wee bit of excitement at a mixed race fellow being elected as president in a country that was officially segregated in living memory but as MLK once wisely pointed out it's the content of a man's character that counts.

I'll be interested to see whether he follows up on his aggresive intentions towards Pakistan and if so will it will meet with significant liberal opposition? I suspect not. To misquote Bob Dylan they just want to be on the side that's winning (at any cost). Any shred of faith I had in liberals has been well and truly trashed by this election having witnessed their inability to differentiate between legitimate criticism and outrageous misogyny when confronted with Sarah Palin.

Cheerio









5 comments:

iLL Man said...

I have the feeling that Obama's first moves will be of an economic nature and whatever he spouted about Pakistan can probably be consigned to the realms of pre election rhetoric. Of course, it's also possible that 'whuppin' ass' may just be nudged a little further down the agenda for the time being......

Regarding Sarah Palin, whilst I have no doubt that she has had misgynistic rhetoric directed against her by elements of the US left, I was always of the belief that hatred of women was one of those things that would always crop up regardless of affiliation. Bigotry is a cross party issue, don't let the smiley faces fool ya!

The Democrats realised at a very early stage that targetting Palin for abuse was an 'own goal', and simply left the smearing to the Republicans, implying that Obama was a terrorist sympathiser/Muslm/Arab/Socialist, making them look ever more desperate in the process.

I'm not really impressed with the gun rubbing and biblical literalism, she's that sort of soundbite politician that gets on my nerves, but she's not the end of the world that a lot of people think she is. She seems to be working on implementing a gas pipeline in Alaska, which will doubtless be held up as a victory for the presdident elect with regard to providing domestic energy rescources. It also looks like she won't run for senate, though I think it would do her good.

It seems that staying away from the centre of power is a positive boon in Republican circles, as they seem to like their presidential candidates to be free of the Washington influence until they grasp the reins of power.

At which point Washington takes control and all hell breaks loose....

iLL Man said...

Re: Paragraph four. Apparently 'She' is the cat's mother. Excessive use of pronoun duly noted.

Clairwil said...

Bigotry is a cross party issue,
Yes I had spotted that but one doesn't hear often hear the republican party described as progressive on these sort of issues.

I can't get myself particularly excited by the prospect of one set of openly bigoted creeps getting trounced by another set who don't mind a bit of bigotry as long as it doesn't become 'an own goal'.

There is a great deal politically to criticise Palin for but I would suggest that phoney concern over how she will combine career and motherhood and the like go beyond that.

eeore said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the Palin thing was sexist.

Clairwil said...

It really was incredible. Surely if her politics were that bad there would be not time for a gender bashing. Mind you that assumes certain folks first objection wasn't a female having the effrontery to run for high office.