I also think that many are confused/amused/frightened by the fervor of many Obama supporters. They think that those supporters are blindly worshiping him, and thus makes them more inclined to try to show that he’s not the Second Coming.
That would apply to those pointing out his actual flaws, and many of the ones exaggerating his flaws. Not to the sort who call him the Antichrist or Muslim or Marxist or other delusional accusations. It’s not like he’s some perfect superhuman who doesn’t have real flaws people can pick out so they need to make them up, after all.
Well, many conservatives seem to think that anyone who breathes even a hint of leftist economic policy is a Marxist, so I think that qualifies. But you have a point on the rest. Still, I think that it might still apply; some may think they need to reach to find that level of criticism that “balances out” the worship.
And isn’t one of the things they say about the Antichrist is how popular he’ll be? 
Yeppers to both of you.
Well, you know he has confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, so he must be evil incarnate as well as massively delusional.
No doubt some RW bloggers, spammers, etc., have been standing poised to smear the Dem nominee with lies no matter who it turned out to be – but do you seriously have any doubt Obama’s coming in for some kinds of shit a white man wouldn’t?
Cite for the former?
There is some fairly widespread, literal demonization of Obama on the right. People who quite literally believe he is the Antichrist. There is no equivalent “deification” from supporters. His popularity (and that’s all it is, garden variety popularity, not “worship”) is also explicable in terms of his presense, his oratory skills, his intelligence and his story. It’s rooted in something real. The ludicrous hatred and fear is based on absolutely nothing of any substance.
Disregard that, I suck male genitalia.
Or simply dishonest; it’s not like an honest unbeliever could get elected. Being religious ( and thus delusional ) or pretending to be ( and thus a liar ) is a requirement for the Presidency.
Were you operating under the impression I was a big fan of his ?
Not at all. I was operating under the impression that you have worked hard to establish a foolish consistency of disrespect and revulsion toward people of faith. Correct me if you’ve drawn any exceptions.
I don’t think we have any reason to question Obama’s sincerity about his faith. It’s not anything new. Is it just because he’s a democrat that people think he can’t really be a sincere Christian? In his books, his speeches and his work in Chicago, he’s always been openly religious and explicitly Christian. He’s been chastizing the left for years for being too suspcious of evangelicals. I don’t think there’s anything phony about his faith.
Yes, IMHO. The Republicans have been pushing the whole “Jesus is a Republican” bit for so long that most people have bought into it. Not helped by the fact that the Democrats let the Republicans walk all over them on the subject so much. It’s the same thing as happened with patriotism.
I’m not interested in making this thread about me.
Absolutely no doubt. I just found it interesting the way you worded it. Like that was the conclusion you wanted readers to reach, but you didn’t want to be the one to say it.
I don’t see the adoration of Obama near so much as the enthusiasm for change which is reflected in Obama, and its change which has the pulse pounding. Hillary represented change too, but tepidly, in a triangulated way, the DNC way, the Republican Lite way that bends over backwards to reassure business and finance that they are “responsible” i.e., servile.
Nothing wrong with that if you can’t do any better. But this time out there is a huge hunger for things to be different, and Obama is different. However much change McBomb talks, he’s still another old white Republican, the candidate nobody wanted but got stuck with anyway. When he talks change it’s discordant, its like Brittney talking about clean living.
Worse: he’s a smoker.
Nah, that’s just brimstone fumes. It’s a common hygiene problem with Antichrists.
I see a lot of racism on the extreme end of the Obama criticism spectrum. Everything from people calling him a terrorist to “Barrack Bin Laden.” I guess some people think the notion of a black president is too radical of a change. He’s not white enough or Christian enough for that demographic.
Someone was making the claim that white Americans were only voting for him to “prove to themselves that they aren’t racist.” As if it were absurd that someone would vote for him for any other reason. I lit a fire under that person when I suggested that voting for him could be a way of nullifying the votes of people who are racist. That didn’t go well.
And, no, not all of the criticisms are racists, of course. But it seems the exaggerated claims tend to be easily embraced and spread around by racist people.
Back in 1992, the Democrats nominated Bill Clinton whose previous national exposure was a heavily ridiculed speech given four years earlier at the DNC. This guy’s nickname was Slick Willie because scandal slid right off of him. Even before the election he was caught up in a sex scandal with Genifer Flowers that everyone convienently ignored because the guy had charisma, mojo, whatever you call it. Even as president when he got caught committing perjury, the same charges that got Judge Claiborne impeached and convicted a few years earlier, his cult of personality trivialized the entire incident as just getting a blowjob and the same senators that overruled Claiborne’s objection that perjury was NOT impeachable and convicted him turned right around and said that in Clinton’s case perjury was NOT impeachable and acquitted him on the charges. Did anyone care about this Demo turnaround? Fuck no!!! Because it was the Republicans who were the bastards, not Good Ol’ Boy Bill.
So now in 2008, we see a Democratic nominee who’s previous national exposure was a speech at the 2004 DNC. He likewise has developed a cult-like following (someone in this thread called it deification) and we already see how any contraversy is a) having little effect on his campaign and b) is hurting Republicans by making them look like assholes for bringing these issues to the forefront.
Do you really not know why the Republicans are demonizing Obama? Because he is another Bill Clinton and minor slings and arrows will have no effect on his campaign.
Actually, it was more a matter of telling Bush Senior that if his made a campaign issue of it, Clinton would make Bush’s mistress a campaign issue. That, and the fact that Clinton wasn’t a hypocritical pseudo-moralist who lectured people on sexual morality while screwing anything that didn’t run away fast enough.
Of course it was all about it being a blowjob, and only about the blowjob. Everyone knows it. In fact, the fact that after such obsessive investigation and ruthless tactics they only managed to nail him on that makes Clinton look positively saintly by politician standards.
Well, they shouldn’t have spent so much time and effort demonstrating their bastardness to the whole country then.
Actually, it’s more a matter of them being moral cripples, lunatics, and liars.
It’s desperation. The Republicans are heading for a blowout of epic proportions this year. Between the war and the economy, this just isn’t a good year to run with an R next to your name. They need to tear him down and tear him down hard and fast to have any prayer of holding on to relevance this election. Desperation drove Hillary to the kitchen sink strategy, it’s driving right wingers to do it to the extreme. If it was Hillary we’d see the same thing except it would be a rerun. Edwards of course would have been smeared as a pretty boy ambulance chaser, etc.