Saturday, November 01, 2008
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Steyn's "Obama in 2-D"
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Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
10:34 AM
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Mark Steyn's typically brilliant analysis of the Obama movement has to be read a couple of times to appreciate its genius. (HT: RobinsonandLong.com)
There are signs that millions of Americans already understand the giant "bait-and-switch" that is the Obama campaign, and that Obama's own "spread the wealth" and "fundamentally transform America" rhetoric is what has given McCain a second chance.
One of many key graphs:
The two-dimensional idea of President Obama is seductive: To elect a young black man of Kenyan extraction and Indonesian upbringing offers redemption both for America’s original sin (slavery) and for the more recent perceived sins of President Bush — his supposed enthusiasm for sticking it to foreigners generally, and the Muslim world in particular. And no, I’m not saying he’s Muslim. It’s worse than that: He’s a pasty-faced European — at least in his view of state power, welfare, and taxation.
Steyn assumes you know, and regular readers of Steyn will know, that the "European-way" has failed on almost every count, and dramatically so. No other politician bringing Obama's rhetoric and record would get close to 1600, but Obama's political gifts and team, and his life's narrative are so compelling that he has indeed entered the weekend before the voting ahead (except in that one day of Zogby polling.)
Ahead, but not elected, because this is a weekend where the vast, vast majority of voters ask themselves what do they want for their country and their children and grandchildren? Do they want their money back from the market downturn and how does the economy grow enough to allow that? Can I or the country afford the sort of massive tax hikes Obama is pledged to and which his Democratic allies will only raise?
Will McCain or Obama more ably keep the terrorist threat from our shores for the next four years?
It is the time for serious reflection, and McCain is right to be optimistic about Tuesday. On every count except image and speechifying, McCain is the far better choice for president. McCain is counting on the collective common sense of the American electorate. Obama's hundreds of millions of doallars cannot obscure the fact that he's spent less than four years achieving nothing in a do-nothing Senate, has never run so much as a shift at a fast food place (except for the Annenberg Challenge which he ran with Bill Ayers) and has a long commitment to the very ideas that have driven Europe into its deep hole.
MSM has failed to sell the "its over" message, because some of the "polls" stayed close enough long enough for voters to care about the race in its closing hours and thus to continue the focus on Obama. Steyn's summation is the best closing argument any pundit can offer. Send it to your friends.
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