Obama Double Talking Since Forever

“What about us?” ” We elected him!”  “Shut up, we don’t need you now!”

PUMA bloggers are having fun at the expense of the bewildered living another day in the life of the Barack Obama vs. his “base” non-drama drama.  Why the peace, love and internet “progressive/liberal/left” is in a snit defies logic.  Weren’t these guys listening during the primaries, caucuses and general election?  Or was the din in their echo chamber too loud?
Like Bible thumpers cherry picking passages, you could probably find Obama quotes to back up any position you want to take, if you Google long enough.  Far from being some crusading straight shooter, Obama has always been a clever double talker.  That is, when he’s on script, or in other words, reading or submitting ghost-written  speeches.  Off script, his words are often laughable, yet, equally adaptable, just much harder to decipher.  “Uh, ah, above my pay grade…” can mean anything you want it to.

However, when the cardboard titty groper is putting words in his mouth, Obama becomes a double talking linguistic maestro, using language to magically transport an easily transfixed listener/reader to the brink of logical thought, only to employ a deft “sleight of tongue/pen” that metaphorically yanks the rational rug deftly from beneath one’s feet.  Thus, true believing KoolAid drunks are left dazed and dazzled, while the mentally sober, upon noting the reaction of the bamboozled, are generally moved to hurl, immediately after muttering, “‘the fuck did he just say?”

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” is just stupid. Where have “we” been while “we” were waiting?  And, how come “we” didn’t see “us?”   That’s just one example of the silly shit he spews regularly and gets a pass for.  “Save or create at least two and a half million jobs” is another doozy.  Pay no attention to the fact that he just said a couple million jobs were at risk, or that we’ve lost more jobs than that in the last year, just think about the good times.  “Now” is always “the time.”  That’s what makes it “now.”

The fact that Obama never says anything he can’t wiggle out of, usually in the same sentence, has been lost on his faithful since Day One.  He’s “always said” he was against “dumb wars” in the same speeches he was promoting other, presumably “smart” ones.  October, 2, 2002:

Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don’t oppose all wars.

He has “always said” he would “end the war” in Iraq as much, and as soon,  as he could, only to re-deploy troops to Afghanistan.  Only a braindead, pie-in-the-sky optimist could have ever taken anything he said as being “anti-war.”  And yet, though repeatedly warned, some people feel cheated.  Well, boo-hoo.

Obama even spelled out the kind of shape-shifting “commitments” he was likely to make to the goodfellas on Kos in 2005.  In a diary entry he submitted regarding his position on the John Roberts confirmation, Obama “wrote:”

Let me be clear: I am not arguing that the Democrats should trim their sails and be more “centrist.”  In fact, I think the whole “centrist” versus “liberal” labels that continue to characterize the debate within the Democratic Party misses the mark.  Too often, the “centrist” label seems to mean compromise for compromise sake, whereas on issues like health care, energy, education and tackling poverty, I don’t think Democrats have been bold enough.  But I do think that being bold involves more than just putting more money into existing programs and will instead require us to admit that some existing programs and policies don’t work very well.  And further, it will require us to innovate and experiment with whatever ideas hold promise (including market- or faith-based ideas that originate from Republicans).

Our goal should be to stick to our guns on those core values that make this country great, show a spirit of flexibility and sustained attention that can achieve those goals, and try to create the sort of serious, adult, consensus around our problems that can admit Democrats, Republicans and Independents of good will.  This is more than just a matter of “framing,” although clarity of language, thought, and heart are required.  It’s a matter of actually having faith in the American people’s ability to hear a real and authentic debate about the issues that matter.

The “Obama is a liberal” noise came primarily from Republicans, not Obama.  Anybody who heard/read anything different then, from what he’s doing/saying now, deserves whatever they get.