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The Gathering Storm

Cal

Well-known member
September 16, 2008, 1:00 a.m.

Idols of Crowds
The Gathering Storm.

By Thomas Sowell


‘A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather than to an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather than to competence.”

Jean-François Revel was not referring to the United States when he wrote those words, nor to his own France, but to human beings in general. He was certainly not referring to Barack Obama, whom he probably never heard of, since Revel died last year.

To find anything comparable to crowds’ euphoric reactions to Obama, you would have to go back to old newsreels of German crowds in the 1930s, with their adulation of their fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. With hindsight, we can look back on those people with pity, knowing now how many of them would be led to their deaths by the man they idolized.

The exultation of the moment can exact a brutal price after that moment has passed. Nowhere is that truer than when it comes to picking the leader of a nation, which means entrusting that leader with the fate of millions today and of generations yet unborn.

A leader does not have to be evil to lead a country into a catastrophe. Inexperience and incompetence can create very similar results, perhaps even faster in a nuclear age, when even “a small country” — as Senator Obama called Iran — can wreak havoc anywhere in the world, when they are led by suicidal fanatics and supply nuclear weapons to terrorists who are likewise suicidal fanatics.

Barack Obama is truly a phenomenon of our time — a presidential candidate who cannot cite a single serious accomplishment in his entire career, besides advancing his own career with rhetoric.

He has a rhetorical answer for everything. Those of us who talk about the threat of Iran are just engaging in “the politics of fear” according to Obama, something to distract us from “the real issues,” such as raising taxes and handing out largesse with the proceeds.

Those who have studied the years leading up to World War II have been astonished by how many people and how many countries failed to see what Adolf Hitler was getting ready to do.

Even though Hitler telegraphed his punches, few people seemed to get the message. Books about that period have had such titles as “The Gathering Storm” and “Why England Slept.”

Will future generations wonder why we slept? Why we could not see the gathering storm in Iran, where one of the world’s leading oil producers is building nuclear facilities — ostensibly to generate electricity, but whose obvious purpose is to produce nuclear bombs.

This is a country whose president has already threatened to wipe a neighboring country off the map. Does anyone need to draw pictures?

When terrorists get nuclear weapons, there will be no way to deter suicide bombers. We and our children will be permanently at the mercy of the merciless.

Yet what are we talking about? Taxing and spending policies, socking it to the oil companies and rescuing people who gambled on risky mortgages and lost.

Are we serious? Are we incapable of adult foresight and adult responsibility?

Barack Obama of course has his usual answer: talk. Rhetoric seems to be his answer to everything. Obama calls for “aggressive” diplomacy and “tough” negotiations with Iran.

These colorful adjectives may impress gullible voters but they are unlikely to impress fanatics who are willing to destroy themselves if they can destroy us in the process.

Just what is Senator Obama going to say to Iran that has not been said already? That we don’t want them to develop nuclear weapons? That has already been said, every way that it can possibly be said. If talk was going to do the job, it would already have done it by now.

Go to the United Nations? What will they do, except issue warnings — and when these are ignored, issue more warnings?

But what does Obama have besides talk — and adoring crowds?



National Review Online - http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjQ1NzM0MWI2MjU1YTdmMTY5NThmZjZlM2RiZjBlMDg=
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
‘A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather than to an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather than to competence.”


:clap: :clap: :clap: Excellent, Cal! This nails the Obama follwers right on! This is them!
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
don said:
kind of like the unreasonable enthusiasm for palin.

Palin has actually done something, little d. She has accomplishments, she has executive experience, she has shown integrity. She cleaned up government, throwing out bastards IN HER OWN PARTY. That shows me something. What has Obama done that compares to any of that?

Nono is having trouble answering a question under the "A Good Republican", see if you can help him out.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
don said:
kind of like the unreasonable enthusiasm for palin.

Why is it unreasonable?

Palin has actually done something, little d. She has accomplishments, she has executive experience, she has shown integrity. She cleaned up government, throwing out bastards IN HER OWN PARTY. That shows me something. What has Obama done that compares to any of that?

Nono is having trouble answering a question under the "A Good Republican", see if you can help him out.
 

don

Well-known member
yes she has such huge accomplishments. lol. get a life. put sassy sarah in the whitehouse! she'd just call up that vladimir putin and she'd tell him that he can't go into georgia and if he continues to act up she'll just have to talk to his parents. the palestinians and israeli's - no problem: sit them down at her kitchen table with milk and cookies and those boys can just get to know each other better and in no time at all they'll find out they're actually good friends. right on sandhusker. matt damon nailed it when he said it's like a bad disney movie. not saying the repubs can't win; just saying you believe too much of the old feel good american propaganda.
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
Gullible voters believe Obama's empty rhetoric and swoon over him like a 'rock star'. On the other end, they believe a national media that has distorted, blamed, and cultivated outright hatred for Pres. Bush.
Our moderator is a prime example.

don said:
kind of like the unreasonable enthusiasm for Palin.
Appropriate point, but "unreasonable" may be a bit premature. Palin, in her few days in the fray, has already be vetted more by the national media than Obama since he announced.
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
don said:
yes she has such huge accomplishments. lol. get a life. put sassy sarah in the whitehouse! she'd just call up that vladimir putin and she'd tell him that he can't go into georgia and if he continues to act up she'll just have to talk to his parents. the palestinians and israeli's - no problem: sit them down at her kitchen table with milk and cookies and those boys can just get to know each other better and in no time at all they'll find out they're actually good friends. right on sandhusker. matt damon nailed it when he said it's like a bad disney movie. not saying the repubs can't win; just saying you believe too much of the old feel good american propaganda.
don, sounds like you got Obama and Palin mixed up...Obama is the talker.
 

Larrry

Well-known member
Let's get this right. Matt Damon the guy that only reads what he is told does what he is told and lives in a made up world and you are looking to him for words of wisdon. Geeez, try again
matt damon nailed it when he said it's like a bad disney movie. not saying the repubs can't win; just saying you believe too much of the old feel good american propaganda.
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
Larrry said:
Let's get this right. Matt Damon the guy that only reads what he is told does what he is told and lives in a made up world and you are looking to him for words of wisdon. Geeez, try again
matt damon nailed it when he said it's like a bad disney movie. not saying the repubs can't win; just saying you believe too much of the old feel good american propaganda.

Let's get this right. [Obama] the guy that only reads what he is told does what he is told and lives in a made up world and you are looking to him for words of wisdon. Geeez, try again
 

don

Well-known member
i've said on here that i think obama is an empty suit. but using palin to try to make mccain look better? that may be one good definition of deparation. obviously issues aren't relevant to either side.
 

Soapweed

Well-known member
don said:
lol. i knew it would get you guys going. have a good day.

You remind me of a science teacher I once had in high school. He put the wrong answer on the chalk board, and when the students corrected him, he tried to laugh it off saying, "I was just testing you." Yeah, right. :roll:
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Sandhusker said:
Palin just doesn't make McCain look better, Palin IS better.




Nothing added to nothing is still nothing.


McBush thinks our economy is fundamentally sound.................I guess if you own so many houses you FORGET the actual number...it is pretty sound in your little world.

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
 

don

Well-known member
soapweed: You remind me of a science teacher I once had in high school. He put the wrong answer on the chalk board, and when the students corrected him, he tried to laugh it off saying, "I was just testing you." Yeah, right.

no, i've been watching both sides in your election standing in front of their glass houses and throwing stones but this one was just too easy. i couldn't pass it up. i think your choices are similar to ours: vote for one of the two serious contenders and hope you're voting for the lesser evil or 'waste' your vote by voting for who you think you could trust the most. i'll probably waste my vote because i think strategic voting is hypocritical.

fh: You are laughing at something that is much to serious than to be laughed at.

maybe we should be laughing at ourselves because we're stupid enough to be taken in by cynical political operatives whose only goal is to garner power. do you really believe more than ten per cent of what you hear from the two major parties? they don't mean what they say and they could never achieve what they promise.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
kolanuraven said:
Sandhusker said:
Palin just doesn't make McCain look better, Palin IS better.




Nothing added to nothing is still nothing.


McBush thinks our economy is fundamentally sound.................I guess if you own so many houses you FORGET the actual number...it is pretty sound in your little world.

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

So you fix the economy my taking money away from those who use that money to grow the economy? Boy, that's an economic rocket scientist there.
 

don

Well-known member
they did it with hillary a year ago, they've done it with obama over the last month or so and sarah will have to take her lumps, too. the media needs fresh material so when they find it you're the new kid in town and when that doesn't sell anymore they take you apart.




The Sarah Palin Phenomenon Is Doomed
MarketWatch Columnist Jon Friedman Warns The Media Live To Build You Up, Then Knock You Down
Comments 2283
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2008
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Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, reaches to shake hands at a campaign rally in Carson City, Nev., Sept. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)





Palin Back On Campaign Trail
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(MarketWatch) This column was written by MarketWatch's Jon Friedman.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Sarah Palin Phenomenon is doomed.

But it's not because of her lack of foreign policy experience or her deer-in-the-headlights look during part of her interview last week with ABC's Charles Gibson.

The primary reason why the Palin bubble will burst is that the media will decide that they are bored with her. They'll need to move to shine a light on a fresh issue or individual.

This is how the world works in the age of 24/7 news cycles. Whether the subject is Britney Spears, Michael Jordan or Sarah Palin, we inevitably raise stars to mythic levels, out of all reasonable proportions. Then we knock them down. (Look out, Michael Phelps. Your time is coming, too.)

It isn't a case of quixotic behavior by reporters and editors. Internet sites, blogs and cable news operations all thrive on presenting fresh headlines and updated story angles as often as possible so readers think we're on top of things. The news world moves at warp speed.

Palin's story is especially captivating because she emerged as an overnight sensation. The governor of Alaska was virtually unknown on the national scene before Sen. John McCain tapped her to be his running mate. Amid the media crush accompanying her rise, it now seems as if Palin has been around forever.

For as long as she has been in the public eye, people have been skeptical about her qualifications, but the allure of her beginner's pluck catapulted Palin to the covers of magazines ranging from Time to People.

The interview with Gibson may be remembered as the first brick being pulled out of the wall. The reviews weren't favorable from the media in the segments when Gibson asked Palin questions about foreign policy.

For instance, the New York Times called the exchange "strained." The Washington Post-owned Slate went so far as to say that "The ABC News anchor flummoxes the GOP amateur."

I'll be interested to see how Palin -- not to mention McCain and the Republican campaign machine -- reacts when the media's disillusionment sets in for real. Their actions may determine the course of the 2008 race.

If they handle the media's about-face with aplomb, her chances of looking, well, vice-presidential will be enhanced. But if Palin's handlers blow it out of proportion and show a strain, their behavior will reflect negatively on her.

Gibson, as dignified a newsperson as America has now, treated Palin fairly and didn't resort to hectoring her with "gotcha" questions, either.

Palin's supporters may be chagrined that their candidate didn't sound more self-assured or expert when she discussed Alaska's relationship to Russia. But Gibson didn't try to trip her up. He pretty much asked the kinds of questions I would have put to Palin as well.

Gibson treated her with the respect befitting a vice presidential candidate. ABC, while discussing the interview Friday on "Good Morning America" unleashed political correspondent Jake Tapper to assess the "truthiness" of Palin's remarks on the ABC show.

The television networks appear to be treating Palin carefully, trying hard not to seem sexist or liberal or come across as intellectual, big-city bullies.

When ABC noted that Tapper had found a few holes in Palin's comments (though nothing earth shattering), the network took pains to add that it, too, would be dissecting the statements of Joe Biden, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Specifically, Palin seemed to have little idea about the Bush Doctrine, in which the U.S must spread democracy around the world to halt terrorist acts. When Gibson put it to her and asked if she agreed with the doctrine, she answered, "In what respect, Charlie?"

Some analysts have suggested that Gibson knew more about the Bush Doctrine than the vice-presidential candidate.

"She sidestepped questions on whether she had the national security credentials needed to be commander-in-chef," the Associated Press noted.

Since we're all clear on the nuances of the Bush Doctrine, we can move on to the Fickle Media Doctrine.

Now that we've built you up, it's about time for us to knock you down.

Can Sarah Palin withstand the body blows that are being inflicted by the national media?

The media aren't the bad guys in the Palin discussion. It's easy to accuse us of acting like sexists or big-city egomaniacs. Let's be real, though. McCain selected Palin for exactly those reasons - because she is a woman from a little-known state, who can take some of the heat off McCain and behave like an attack dog against Barack Obama. So far, the Republicans' plan has worked to perfection, as Palin has dominated the political discourse over the past few weeks. Now we'll see if she has the right stuff to go the distance.


By Jon Friedman
Copyright © 2008 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
"Specifically, Palin seemed to have little idea about the Bush Doctrine, in which the U.S must spread democracy around the world to halt terrorist acts. When Gibson put it to her and asked if she agreed with the doctrine, she answered, "In what respect, Charlie?" "

Tell me, don, where can one find a copy of this Bush Doctrine? When was it written?
 
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