Quote:
Why are we afraid of people who inspire us? Obama is an articulate and inspiring speaker. Hopefully he'll use his ability to lead and inspire people to do go things. Martin Luther King was someone who did the same thing with a similar gift. Hitler apparently had the same gift - have you ever listened to one of Hitler's speeches? I don't speak a word of german, and obviously abhor what he stood for and what he did, but just the sound of his voice makes one sit up and take notice.
|
I'm impressed that you got the Hitler AND MLK Jr. comparison both down in one post.
Quote:
Jinn, if you put aside the fact that Obama is an unusually gifted speaker, very nimble in his public appearances, and charismatic as all hell, and focus solely on his positions and political history, what distinguishes his positions and activities from any other big-city leftish Democrat? His politics are totally conventional. Totally. You might agree or disagree, but he's hardly a groundbreaker or an original political thinker. He's just a plain old liberal Democrat who happens to be very gifted. That is probably good enough for most of the people here, who are liberal Democrats, and that's ok. But let's not make him into something he's not.
|
You can't seperate "gifted speaker" out, I'm sorry. It's a very important part of his personality, and personality is all that makes a "conventional speaker" into a life-changer. If you've ever met someone who had NATURAL charisma and leadership skill, you know that their "power" in terms of realizing goals is ten-fold the power of someone who identical ideals who fails to convince and convey. I'm a firm believer that you can get just about any sane person to do just about every
reasonable thing you can come up with if you have the charisma and knowledge to cater the message to them. I'm no master of convincing, but a powerful voice and stature take you a LONG way in the world of people. I've met people who didn't even speak my language that made me want to do whatever they said; not out of fear, but out of physical presence.
Even if I somehow abstract an essential part of what makes him a good person and politician, as you pre-suppose, I don't find any 'traditionalism' to his politics. Sure, he's got to hold some mainstream leftist opinions, like "tax cuts for the middle class and no tax cuts for the rich," but that doesn't make him traditional. Did you know that part of his economic stimulus plan includes things like implementing cost-effective 'next generation' broadband? I can't think of any candidate past or present who knew as much about our dependence on high-tech infrastructure as Obama, nor do I see ANY current one who includes the same level of technology improvement in their economic plan as he does. That's one facet of many, but it's enough for me to say that you're not very familiar with Obama's policies if you think they're the same thing that we've been seeing in 'modern' politics.