OH, YEAH, AND JESSE VENTURA AND HULK HOGAN ALWAYS HATED EACH OTHER, TOO

4/30/08
One of my more insightful friends sent me an e-mail this morning asking what I thought of the Obama/Wright flap and whether it will influence the nomination. I have been neglecting the IP of late, so I thought I’d post my response.

What really amazes me is that more of the media don’t see the Wright/Obama “conflict” for what it is: an entirely, and ham-handedly, staged effort to distance Obama from Wright. This is straight out of the Clinton playbook, only done with nothing like the Clinton finesse.

I suppose the media’s inability to see through this diaphanous ruse should not surprise me in the least, let alone amaze me. As the old saying goes, there is none so blind as he who will not see, and most of the media refuse to see ANYTHING negative about Barack Obama. But what will they do if this turns out to be, as it looks like it will, an Obama-McCain race? All hagiography, all the time?


Below is my response to my buddy:

4/30/08

First, I think the whole thing (i.e., the Obama/Wright flap) is staged; the "conflict" was set up in order to distance Obama from Wright. It isn't real; it's all political tomfoolery. Call it my cynicism, if you must, but you know how I feel about politicians.

Second, the Wright issue has been neutralized by this charade, with the help of a compliant and deliberately gullible media. Even though I get a sense that the tide is turning, it is a bit late and it still looks like Obama gets the nomination. Very few of the party pros who compose the superdelegates have the intestinal fortitude to deny the nomination to a Black man who leads in popular votes and committed delegates, even if he is looking like the weaker candidate at this juncture.

Hillary is clearly sticking (and has stuck) around in order to be the only alternative when "something else" surfaces. Whether that "something else" has already surfaced or is yet to emerge, the strategy was certainly worth a try and still might work out, but, as I said in the last paragraph, I doubt it. I have to tell you, though, that if she somehow manages to win the nomination, she is the Rocky Balboa of politics.

A few more things. First, the fight doesn't hurt the Democrats at all. They are getting all the attention and all the focus. Just look at the turnout numbers in the primaries, even BEFORE McCain secured the nomination. All the excitement is on the Democratic side. My second point is related to the first: It's still hard to see how the Democrats blow this one. While they often bear an amazing resemblance to the '69 Cubs, they can't lose to a McCain led GOP after eight years of Bush even if the weaker of their two candidates (looks like Obama now) gets the nomination, right?