What Obama Really Meant

[lwcon]

America's fastest-growing quiz sensation is "What Obama Really Meant."

Here's how W.O.R.M. is played...

• There are three teams — and a special player called "The Unifier"
• The teams are the Progressives, the Obama Fan Base, and the Grand Old Party
• The goal for the Progressives is "Progress," meaning that players who start the game with less money someday have a chance to have more
• The goal for the Obama Fan Base is "Unity," meaning that the Progressives have to stop their partisan bickering with the Grand Old Party, and everyone gets ponies
• The goal for the Grand Old Party is to take all of the money that other players started the game with. And everything they'll ever earn. And that their children will earn.
  
• The goal for The Unifier is to be "Teh Awesome." And he is, he is!
  
• In each round, The Unifier says something that's shockingly disempowering to the Progressives
• A skilled Unifier knows to hide the shockingly disempowering moment in the middle of an otherwise perfectly accceptable, or even admirable speech
  
• If a Progressive spots the shockingly disempowering comment — and dares to face the onslaught from the OFB — s/he presses the Challenge Buzzer and explains the problems with the statement
• The OFB besieges the Progressives. Every verbal tool is allowable, except logic.
  
• According to the mainstream media, the game always ends in defeat for the Progressives. The losers must wait four years or more for Progress, during which the GOP cackles maniacally.
• As a consolation prize, The Uniter offers Progressives "hope," which is practically as good as Progress, isn't it?
  
• At an undetermined date, the ponies arrive!
  

Here's an example of game play...

1. The Unifier kicks things off with a statement, such as:

Children are the future! Cotton candy is fun! Liberal heathens must stop hassling the GOP. Everyone's getting a pony!

2. The Progressives either concede the game immediately, or a team member presses the Challenge Buzzer and says something like:

"But the GOP and Religious Right are destroying our country!"

3. The Obama Fan Base encircles the Progressives and shouts rebuttals, such as:

• He said "Children are the future!" Isn't that the greatest thing you ever heard?
• When he said "liberal heathens," he meant, um, something really good. Definitely. And the way he said it was inspirational!
• Why must you hate Obama!? Why do you love Hillary so much!? If Hillary is nominated, we won't vote, you Unity destroyer!
  
• Don't you know that a black man can't be elected unless he throws progressives under the bus?
• You dirty hippies had your turn, and you ruined everything. Now it's our turn, and God as my witness, the mellow will never be harshed again!
• Ponies, dude. Ponies! Get with the program!

___

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[wyldwolf]

1. haha! You nailed it! Pitch this to one of the TV networks!

[lwcon]

14. Is that cool with the writer's strike going on?

Actually, who cares, because Obama sez the unions are just "special interests."

___

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[Cameron27]

2. ROFL

K&R

[lumberjack_jeff]

3. "Ponies, dude. Ponies!"

[SIMPLYB1980]

4. Yay ponies.

[lwcon]

11. Thanks!

I do so love ponies!

[IndianaJones]

5. excellent. nt.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

6. ponies are our future

Gobama!

[lwcon]

13. Well, you just won me over.

Because I do so love ponies!

[zanne]

7. Are you actually protraying Hillary as a Progressive?

She only plays one on television.

[lwcon]

9. Step #3 of the game scenario played for the win!

Except for one small detail. I'm voting for this guy in the primary:

http://www.correntewire.com/did_obama_or_hillary_suppor...

___

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[redqueen]

8. Oh my...

[joshcryer]

10. Sadly, this really is representative of GD: P, and the game gets played every day.

Damn, and to think this is possibly going to go on until the convention.

[William769]

12. K&R!

[jackson_dem]

15. Great game!

[lwcon]

16. Unfortunately, I keep losing

And not just me...

http://www.correntewire.com/when_is_it_our_turn

[Amanita]

17. Now I get it! Thanks!

[lwcon]

18. It's easy to play

Just go to DailyKos or do it here: post something reasonable about Obama's 10,000th statement that's disempowering to Democrats. The Obama Fan Base will do the rest.

And one day our ponies will come! I just know it!

___

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[Radical Activist]

19. The problem is that Obama is the one with the most progressive record

of the final three candidates.

[ClericJohnPreston]

20. Ding, ding

we have a player from the OFB.

[Radical Activist]

24. Try to let this sink in

sucker
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

[lwcon]

25. Call the poison control center -- it's an irony overdose!

For a "radical" to use the word "sucker" while linking to a Charles Krauthammer article is too rich for my blood!

___

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[Radical Activist]

26. Look at the content.

The article is accurate and speaks for itself no matter who it came form.
Or don't you think Russ Feingold is a progressive since Russ essentially said the same thing?

[lwcon]

29. I am disappointed in Russ's position

Obama is clearly on a rightward arc, and Edwards is clearly on a leftward arc. Hillary swung to the right some time ago, but at least she's stayed put, maybe leaning back left a little now, while Obama is zooming past her to accommodate the GOP.

I don't have time to do a full inventory, but let's look at a few of Obama's rightward moves:

* Saber-rattling toward Pakistan
* Constantly conflating religion with values, and scolding liberals for disrespecting religious faith
* Actually claiming that Jesus Christ called on him to serve (if I wanted that, I'd vote for Huckabee)
* Constantly belittling the efforts of progressives in the'60s and '90s
* Constantly framing the problems in DC as being "partisanship," which is the preferred frame of the GOP and MSM to diminish the sea change signaled by the 2006 midterm election and the underlying public dissatisfaction with the corrupt, incompetent GOP
* Running an ad that's guaranteed to be fodder for Repubs if Hillary is nominated: "She’ll say anything, and change nothing."
* Repeating the GOP falsehood about a "Social Security crisis"
* Arguing that the cure for our debt-ridden economy is tax cuts
* Dismissively describing unions as "special interests"

Obama is a smart, charismatic guy who has attracted a lot of endorsements. But he certainly doesn't have mine, because as a progressive, I'm sick of him throwing me under the bus. I'm proud of fellow voters who have noticed and have gravitated away from him:

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3160

I expect he'll do well in South Carolina, but I certainly hope he's not the Dem nominee and if he is, that he'll stop pissing on his base just because he finds it expedient to do. It disempowers the party as a whole and limits how far left he'd be able to lead.

___

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[Radical Activist]

37. That's a lot of spin about his words.

You can take any candidate and spin what they say into making them sound more conservative. You could do that to Edwards to if anyone were so inclined. You have your interpretation of what Obama said and I disagree with most of those interpretations.

You know what I don't see in your post. Specific policy positions. Why don't you name some specific issues where Obama has moved to the right? You don't because his stated platform is every bit as progressive as Edwards. The main difference is that Obama also has the progressive voting record to back it up.

I see you don't like Obama talking about religion but the Democratic party became the party of progressives because of William Jennings Bryan, who took very liberal stands form a religious viewpoint. There is a progressive religious tradition in America so Obama talking about his religion doesn't make him a conservative.

Your post is the same kind of thing I always see from Edwards supporters trying to paint Obama as a conservative. Its always their interpretation of what Obama said but without naming specific policies where Obama is conservative. The attack lacks substance.

We finally have the chance to nominate the first left wing movement activist for President. If he gets the nomination the Republicans will start looking at his record and personal history to show how liberal he is. Maybe then you'll realize how wrong you are.

[lwcon]

38. "Spin." Cute dodge.

Yes, criticism of the endless number of statements he makes that disempower progressives by embracing GOP frames is just spin.

Talking about religion doesn't make him a conservative. But what about continually fluffing up the GOP straw man that says liberals don't measure up to conservatives re: "morals" and "values"?

"I think it’s important particularly for those of us in the Democratic party to not cede values and faith to any one party."

"For progressives, I think we should recognize the role that values and culture play in addressing some of our most urgent social problems.... I think progressives would do well to take this to heart...."

"...the discomfort of some progressives with any hint of religion has often prevented us from effectively addressing issues in moral terms."

That's just got to be great for the party, right?

Just like in "The Sixth Sense," they only believe what they want to believe....

[Radical Activist]

39. What are you talking about?

Obama is saying we need to fight back and refute the GOP claim that liberals don't have values. How is that supporting the Republican position? Yes, it would be great for the party if we finally won the "values and "morals" argument against Republicans. I'd love to see a candidate who can do that. Why is that a bad thing?

Obama made a statement most liberal anti-DLC Democrats should agree with, that the Dem party hasn't stood for its core progressive values during the Clinton years, and all I saw here was a bunch of knee-jerk screaming about Reagan from people who chose to ignore the real point. That's the spin I see. He wasn't pandering to conservatives by talking about Reagan. He was making the same point Dean made last time and the same point many liberals on DU have made many times before. Obama is going around the country saying that we should stand for something again, have a liberal message that appeals to moderates, and some of the liberals who should agree with him most are entirely missing the point.

[lwcon]

46. And this is how we play W.O.R.M. n/t

[papau]

61. Is "say anything" attack Soc Sec so moderates join you, or drop universal in Health for same reason

or say that progress under you will only come in small steps - again to pull moderates along I assume, or to imply Democrats had no grand theme in their beliefs in the 60's or under Clinton - like fair taxation, raising middle class incomes as the GDP grows, reducing the number of the poor via jobs and job creation, attempting universal health - all these under the theme of helping the poor and middle class instead of the rich - all this was not a theme that can compare to REAGAN'S IDEAS.

And Obama wants to sell us his grand vision - and then take small steps (the "small steps" are the words Obama uses to describe his goals) to move toward that vision.

I will gladly vote for Obama if he is the nominee - but I have a hard time understanding how the above makes him the most left of the 3.

He is very good at maintaining a nice voting record - but how many of those votes involved issues that would have been decided as later recorded whether or not he even voted (not saying that voting "correctly" is not important - but only that it is not the only thing to take into account).

If Obama has this "REAGAN THEME" vision going on, I sure have not heard the major change specifics. Reagan's change - the 1981 30% tax cut on upper class and rich - was not a small step - and was not passed by a Democratic Congress. Perhaps electing a larger majority of Democrats to Congress might allow larger steps to be taken than Obama feels comfortable with - and perhaps that is a "hope" that one should act on by electing one of the other two?

[ClericJohnPreston]

32. Another Obamination

who has to LINK to an article to make his case for him.

Sorry Obamite, I THINK FOR MYSELF. I KNOW YOU BELIEVE YOU ARE THINKING, BUT, YOUR INFANTILE LINKS AND NON-THINKING ARE OBVIOUS TO THE REST OF US.

Damn, you OBF get under my skin for your willing and complicit naivete and willful ignorance. You take pride in your own mind-numbing use of fallacious arguments and don't even realize it. I don't think any one of you has ever met a straw man you didn't like.

Pathetic lack of critical thimnking skills, which we, the Edwards supporters will not follow. Go back to "wishin and hopin". The OP is right. The dripping irony of your names and avatars, so incongruous to the left and Progressive ideals they are meant to emulate.

Pathetic!

[Radical Activist]

36. Wow. That's a lot of name calling.

And among it all not a single response to the fact that Obama has the far more progressive record of the final three candidates. You don't respond because its true.

[ClericJohnPreston]

59. I didn't respond

because I was sleeping. CULTIST! Do you make decisions based on the reality of 5 years ago or today?

Who has the most PROGRESSIVE PLATFORM Mr. misnomer non-radical. It certainly isn't Obama. He doesn't speak like a PROGRESSIVE or act like one. You, like your fellow cultists, rely on impassioned pleas to emotions, rather than rational thought. I never expect anything, but tangential asides, when I confront Obamatons. That, or LINKS!!!!

[LWolf]

52. Perhaps;

his platform and rhetoric are not the most progressive, however.

[LittleClarkie]

21. Where are the Hillary fan base?

Because they sure aren't with the progressives.

[ClericJohnPreston]

23. Try defending your own position

for a CHANGE!

[depakid]

33. They aren't -but they also aren't naive....

Anyone who thinks that the far right is going to act rationally- that we can "unify" the country is not only a fool- but a very dangerous fool.

Haven't made up my mind whether Obama's the fool- or whether he's simply playing others as fools, but either way, I see this "strategy" as playing right into Republican hands. Yet again.

[ClericJohnPreston]

22. Thanks for the thread....

it brilliant, and sadly, all too realistic. Sadder still, the OFB is absolutely OBLIVIOUS to the reality around them, falling for cheap sloganeering and ceding rational thought to symbolic speech.

Pathetic, really.....

[Lucinda]

27. Is there a no-pony option?

My yards too small for a pony.
So I would need a a kitty-cat, some goldfish, or maybe a hamster instead.
K?

[BuelahWitch]

35. Why do you hate Amurika?

Don't you know it's unpatriotic to have a yard too small for a pony?

[Lucinda]

44. I'm sorry. I didn't get the memo. :(

I'll do better next time. Honest!

[BuelahWitch]

50. .

Aw, to tell the truth, I don't have a yard at all. My pony will have to be kept in the bathtub.

[lwcon]

53. I'm sure Obama will get you a big, beautiful stable for your pony!

All you gotta do is hope for change, and you'll have it for sure!

[lwcon]

49. Be nice. Edwards and Hillary supporters love Amurika, too.

In their divisive, heathen, tax-raising, Social Security-stranding, Reagan-disrespecting, unfair-to-Republicans, bickering Baby Boomer way.

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[lwcon]

42. If you don't love ponies, vote for Edwards or Hillary

They harsh the mellow, so no pony for you!

[Lucinda]

43. That works for me...they're my 1 & 2

I can get my mello elsewhere

[Yuugal]

28. Spot on! nt

[NMMNG]

30. OMG, too entirely funny

And so realistic.

[robbedvoter]

31. So true! My ribs hurt!

[Time for change]

34. Excellent article

[zulchzulu]

40. You win tonight's Happy Half-Wit Of Bill Plob Award

I'm guessing you're a disgruntled Dennis supporter?

List me issues where Obama is not progressive...

[lwcon]

41. Bad guess

Voting for this guy:

http://www.correntewire.com/did_obama_or_hillary_suppor...

The issue isn't issues, it's framing -- the rhetoric that influences voters' perceptions. It's the life's blood of "ideas" like the Reagan Revolution, and Obama's giving us blood thinner.

Seven years of disastrous GOP hegemony are wiped out in an instant by his accommodationist rhetoric that describes the problems in DC as a mere "divisive food fight" where bickering Baby Boomers naggingly carp about partisan trivialities of the '60s and '90s.

Hillary's pretty bad with this stuff, and Obama's worse.

You know who else talks that way? Take this handy pop quiz:

http://correntewire.com/framing_the_framing_about_the_f...

[Forrest Greene]

67. Bickering Baby Boomers

That's the one I like best. One of the articles of faith for Obama & his supporters seems to be that those pesky baby boomers had their chance with Clinton (with Clinton?!?) & they should now lay down & die so that -- I don't know, is it the Brittany Spears Generation currently? -- can take over, with their superior energy, savvy, & hip. Er, hep. Hop? Hope?

Me, I was born in 1953, & the thought that my generation will be represented in the history books by Bill Clinton makes me vomit.

As for the Baby Boomer Generation having had its shot, how many U.S. Presidents are associated with WWII? I count Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, & Bush I. All of these were in some capacity members of the armed services during WWII. Kennedy & Bush saw combat, Eisenhower probably didn't see any fire fights but sure played an important role, Nixon was overseas but not in combat, & Johnson & Reagan were in uniform stateside. That's seven presidents, forty years of "Greatest Generation" presidents who had some connection with WWII.

So when a puerile Obama supporter makes Corporate Republican-scripted remarks about pot-smoking, hippie baby boomers needing to bow out, I just think of how convincing, & how convinced, Pete Townshend sounded when he wrote "Hope I die before I get old..." Then I think of Pete, bald & beaky as Donald Pleasance, wearing a Good Suit & hanging out at his club, selling "Won't Get Fooled Again" to a soft drink company, or wherever it was it went. I think that that the entire Named Generation construct & its artificial attempt to pigeonhole people for easy consumption by the status quo serves the powers that be far more than it serves the people who are tricked into using it.

And I figure the Starbucks Generation should be paying its dues until at least the year 2032.

Ah, well.

[merbex]

45. Simply brilliant;could be a writer for Stephen Colbert

Are you a striking memebr of the writer' guild?

[lwcon]

47. Well, that's about the nicest thing you could say!

If you're a Colbert fan, may I share with you my musical tribute to him, made shortly after his amazing White House Press Corp dinner?

http://vastleft.blogspot.com/2006/05/colbert-tribute-so...

[Maven]

48. Ponies, dude.

This is brilliant.

K/R

[Vinca]

51. Wow - and if it ever gets stale there's always a sequel based on Clinton scandals. nt

[tgnyc]

54. nailed it

[robbedvoter]

55. Help! I feel compelled too add "ponies, dude" to every post I make now.

I think this is already a classic!

[lwcon]

56. Why fight it?

And if you can't wait for Obama to ride one up to your house (or does he drop them from the sky on gossamer bunny pillows?), you can always order your own Unity Pony, dude.

Mine is going to be covered in happy crystal rainbow sparkles, and I'm naming it "Ronnie." It will be the best pony ever. And if it isn't, I'm sure it will be likable enough.

I do so love ponies!

[robbedvoter]

69. Now we're in Seinfeld territory! "The Pony remark"

http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/ThePonyRemark.htm

[ProgressIn2008]

58. I'm in the same place, looking at threads going "Ponies, dude. Ponies!"

Why fight it, indeed? The ponies have hit the big time!

[lwcon]

64. Help propagating the lingo is much appreciated!

The objective is to shame "centrist" Democrats and Bush Dogs into representing their constituents -- and the best interests of the country.

If Obama wants to claim the progressive mantle, he'll do a better job of it if he stops talking like Republican Lite and feeding low-information voters nutrient-free pap about singing Kumbaya across the aisle.

[lwcon]

57. Obama's right-leaning politics, summed up perfectly by The Nation

http://www.correntewire.com/what_obama_really_meant#com...

"As he has done on domestic issues like healthcare, job creation and energy policy, Obama is staking out a position to the right of not only populist Edwards but Clinton as well."

[ClericJohnPreston]

60. DING, DING, DING

Those who oppose Obama are a formidable crowd of THINKERS, versus the willingly ignorant, and easily led, Obamatons.

I, for one, am sickened by their impassioned pleas to irrationality over substance and their being oblivious to truth.

[Joe Chi Minh]

62. "...obdurate to the truth", I'd say. Though they must be oblivious to some

extent, because most of them surely couldn't be so bad as to have taken such a position knowingly.

Even in politics, where so many people's physical survival is concerned, invincible ignorance untempered by genuine haplessness, must come close to the unforgivable sin. And it seems unlikely that most of them would be more malevolent than extremely foolish. Though it was interesting to see a rabid Clarkista touting Obama for all she was worth. The Republicans are masters at introducing Trojan horses. If one fails, there'll be another one in the wings, all ready to step in and begin to spin a dream factory in the Democratic Party. Divide and rule.

Since openly supporting the Republican Party is now the vice that dare not speak its name, most corrupt young people who want to remain cool, will cop out by supporting a Republican Trojan horse. Many will be too blinded by their avarice to see that they will not continue very long to be rich enough to effectively support this set of Republicans, by contributing to the ability of the Trojan horses to divide the Democrats.

[lwcon]

63. But Jesus personally called on Obama to serve!

Why don't you love baby Jesus' pony?

[ClericJohnPreston]

65. Tsk, tsk...

For that very reason. Anyone who now associates God with their decision to run, is a complete and utter Theocrat, with a "Rapture"-like decalaration.

Sorry, no Evangelicals or Fundies need apply!

[robbedvoter]

70. Can I have a baby Raygun pony?

[1corona4u]

66. AHAHAHAHAHAHAH HAHAHAHAhahahahahahahah

ponies!!

[Hutzpa]

68. You must have ZOOM past your

exit, which was 2min ago on your right!

bawahahahaha!



He is lost, YOUR exit was 5mins ago, need to do a Uturn.

[lwcon]

77. ¿Qué? n/t

[robbedvoter]

71. Posting W.O.R.M alerts now! This is gold. Saves me so much writing!

[lwcon]

72. Excellent!

If you would, please send people to the original post, here:

http://www.correntewire.com/what_obama_really_meant

[killbotfactory]

73. This is what's known as "preaching to the converted"

Congrats, You've insulted my intelligence. I think I'll vote for Edwards now.

[lwcon]

74. Who's stopping you?

n/t

[killbotfactory]

75. What?

Nevermind, I'll just put you on ignore.

[lwcon]

76. Well, I'm glad s/he's voting for Edwards, anyway n/t

[libbygurl]

78. This is very clever, hilarious and spot-on! nt