Maybe it’s just because I’m abroad these days and operate a life devoid of most media, but I’m having a difficult time understanding the almost fanatical following Barack Obama has built in the past few months.
Several people on this board (and others) seem ready to defend Obama with frightening conviction. Why frightening? Because those threads often read more like the threads debating the existence of God. In Obama’s camp, there seems to be no shortage of zealous, ever-faithful supporters whose arguments seem to come straight from the Media-Hype-God’s mouth.
Nothing against Obama, of course, but I am just naturally suspicious of anything that receives this much hype this early on. And maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s not just media hyping Obama and his ‘message of hope’. Maybe the media isn’t necessarily being unfair (what’s fair, after all?) toward the Clinton campaign.
But maybe it is, too. Maybe we’re waylaying our best candidate for a hyped up, untested product. Maybe the media is concentrating on Clinton in a remarkably personal way.
So c’mon guys back in the US. Can you help me understand? Why isn’t this hype? Why isn’t the media forcing Obama down your throats? And why does Clinton seem to be getting such a bad rap whenever I do turn on the TV or read the paper? She doesn’t seem to be doing anything even remotely as slimy as what comments here would indicate.
And for being Bill Clinton’s wife, that’s a great achievement in itself
I will add that I have the same feeling. He’s seems big on hype and short on substance. Then again, I looking forward to a US run by the moderate not the extreme.
Wait till November - He’s not a lock for president.
Wait till 2 years from now - I smell Jimmy Carter.
As to the OP: Obama and his hype - you forget he’s a politician not a rockstar. I’m a thirty something, male professional - Obama inspires me to feel like I can someday trust my government again. He gave substantive answers tonight in the debate, and people who read into his words see his substance. I have not been duped, I don’t post nonsense, I am not a dumbed down version of John Q. Public. I’m a working American man who likes what he sees in Obama as a president.
We are not waylaying our best candidate. We are voting the best candidate - on all spherical fronts - into the presidency. This isn’t hype, this is initiative.
I have had similar feelings BUT I think it is sign of just how fucked America is realizing itself to be and peoples desperate need for hope for something new and better and different. I don’t know if Obama is the person who can provide it. I am willing to vote for him and hope for the best maybe he will succeed. When I get tired of the hype I just remind myself that maybe he will live up to it, he can’t do any worse the the current joker…
I think there’s hype about “Obama Hype.” That meme is out of control: that the people who support him must be crazy, or are crazy, or that it’s nearly religious in nature. I haven’t seen anyone back up these claims with facts or evidence.
One of the first rules of negative campaigning is to try and turn positives into negatives. If someone is war hero, slam their war record. If they are charismatic, call them a demagogue. So when I hear this argument, I think (a) this person is a strategist, or (b) this person is lapping up what they’re served.
Agree completely. In the beginning, it was all “He’s a rockstar”. then someone a couple weeks ago said “Cult!” and now the meme has shifted to that because it’s much more exciting and dirty than just “rockstar”.
I can’t explain why the rest of Obama-supporting America likes Obama. Personally, I agree that he is very similiar policy-wise to Clinton but, where they differ, I generally agree with Obama. I haven’t been at all impressed with the management of the Clinton campaign which has been rife with financial mismanagement, poor judgement and cronyism. So I like Obama’s ideas more and don’t buy Clinton’s “Day One” package.
I give the other posters here the benefit of the doubt that they have made their own informed, educated decisions about Obama and that his supporters here aren’t simply under Obama’s cultish Svengali powers.
I don’t know about where you live but I got several calls a night before the primaries asking me if I was going to vote for Obama. The local Obama supporters were out in front of the local grocery store. Don’t get me wrong I support the guy and voted for him and hope to vote for him for President so I am not some strategist trying to flame him. I don’t think the supporters are zealots but sometimes it does seem like there is an awful lot of hype. Maybe you’re right that it is hype about hype…
So they, um, called you and they were at the grocery store. My god, the evidence against them is extraordinary! It’s completely unprecedented for campaign volunteers to call voters at home, and even if they do that, they certainly don’t buy groceries.
It is sad that so many people now see support as hype, hope as emptiness, and inspiration as inculcation.
I get it. We’re not supposed to like our politicians. We’re supposed to keep our skeptical distance. As a people, we are wary of true believers. That’s healthy. But there is a difference between cynicism and skepticism. You can be skeptical that Obama will succeed in changing America. You’d be a fool not to be. But that doesn’t mean you need to be cynical about it.
There is a backlash now where the hip thing to do is pretend to be above all this. And it’s not just about Obama. It is the state of politics in America. To seem sophisticated, one has to exude aloofness about political messages and believe that its all just so much propaganda. It is sad that we are in such a place. What would non-propaganda look like? What would a genuine, sincere, political message look like? For me, and millions of other Americans, it looks like Barack Obama.
If you got several calls a night, I’d assume that people were getting your name off a volunteer calling list and it (for whatever reason) wasn’t getting removed from the list after they called. Less to do with fanaticism and more to do with volunteer paperwork.
On the Clinton site’s blog, people were complaining that their phone lists were so wrong that they were calling people 8+ times a night. No one is calling Clinton supporters fanatics about it though.
I’ve given $100 to the Obama campaign, I’m a delegate, and I’ve only been called twice. The second time was just to make sure I was going to caucus. I’ve been impressed by their organization to the extent that they don’t wast resources on people they know they have in their corner.
So – how many times is several? Did you answer the phone every time, or see it on caller ID and skip it? Obviously it’s possible they had a mix up in your state, but I’m curious if you actually answered the phone and they still called back several times, and how many time several is. Not that it would = hype anyway so much as normal campaign activity. I’ve been called 20 times a week by Al Franken, but I don’t think there’s Al Franken “hype” in Minnesota.
No, what there is is a strongly organized ground game. And every article I’ve read for the past week or so has mentioned the fact that HRC does not have this and it’s why she’s losing.
I agree with everything you wrote, Richard Parker, but people do have good reason to be skeptical, if not cynical, about American politics. The staged FEMA press conference was enough to make any idealist into a doubter.
I am supporting Obama because I am an idealist. I also believe he will win. Obama needs to be a strong leader and deliver without too much compromise on Democratic ideas. There are people putting all there hopes in Obama; myself included.
As much as I support Obama, I think criticism towards Hillary Clinton has been unfair and exaggerated. The election has been driven by the Media, but I don’t necessarily believe it is by design. Obama sells. Maybe I am a cynical idealist.
What attitude is that? The attitude that volunteers making calls and going to the grocery store is normal behavior? The attitude that Obama supporters like me have simply picked a candidate they like? The attitude that I don’t see how any of us are cultists, particularly when the people lodging these allegations can’t come up with anything better than the arguments you’ve come up with?
What attitude would serve the Obama campaign in response to you vague and very poorly supported accusations? Fear? Self-loathing? Shame? Compromise?
I can see you’re put off, but it just makes me think the spin machine is working. They’ve turned a positive into a negative. Obama’s popularity, like his oratorial skill, is now somehow something to worry about. Well, we can only hope with time he will be as uninspiring as Senator McCain, and his supporters as uninspired.
I live in California. My wife was a registered Republican until just before the primary, and I’m now a registered Democrat. The Republicans called 10 X the Dems. The only Obama call I got was from a person, asking if my daughter had voted yet. She’s away in college so that showed some good fieldwork.
It’s funny to see Republicans complain about the so-called cult even as they worship the blessed Saint Ron. Ever since Nixon, or Johnson, our presidents have been flawed, boring or incompetent - sometimes all three. Obama isn’t any of these things. I’ve liked him ever since I heard him on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.. He’s smart and fast on his feet. He’s had some experience in the world. Foreign policy experience? I’ll take someone who’s lived there over someone who lived on bases, or just voted. He does remind me of JFK, and we can sure use the boost.
As for HRC, I didn’t really mind her at all when this campaign started, but she now looks like a female version of Tricky Dick. I’d still vote for her over McCain, who’s a hypocrite, but I’d enjoy voting for Obama.
And as for policy, detailed policies announced in a campaign seldom happen - that’s what politics is all about. I’d rather have the right attitude than a detailed set of plans which will never get enacted.
Hmm – Here is the thing. I am and have always been a registered Democrat. My husband claims to be a registered Democrat, but I think he is a closet Republican, more precisely a right leaning Independent. Did John McCain’s camp call our house thinking two registered Democrats might actually jump ship, or am I sleeping with the enemy?
I am extremely excited about Obama, Voyager. I was resistant to Obama initially because, as Richard Parker alludes, cynicism crept into my soul. I found myself wondering if there was a secret plan to derail Obama, or was Clinton being sacked because she represents the biggest threat. In the end, I have to believe there is a real chance to fundamentally change the direction of this country. I have to believe in the philosophy of American government, the idea of American democracy, or there is nothing left to believe in.
