This is slick, very slick – and impressive. This ‘informercial’, just released in the US, cleverly tugs at heart-strings. I just hope Obama remembers the ordinary people he talked about if he comes to power. But I am also sceptical to what extent he can actually reform the private health care industry (yes, its an industry, big business) or push through pro-people economic policies. Too often, populist politicians show a keen interest in the concerns of ordinary people only to disappoint when elected as they invariably pander to the interests of Big Business and lose touch with the hardships of the people on the ground who voted them into power.
I also hope Obama will keep his promise to end the war in Iraq. But I don’t know if he can escape – or even if he wants to – from the clutches of the military-industrial-media-complex and its desire to seize strategic control of foreign oil reserves.
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I’ll respond with only two comments: 1. When I was a postgrad student in the US, I came across some interesting statistics i.e. 80% of political science professors in a survey of U.S. professors said they support the Democratic Party About 60% of economics professors said they support the Democratic Party 2. I have lived (studied, worked etc) in the USA for 17 years. I’ve also participated in local level politics in USA, I know something about the US Radical Right. The most balanced political commentary is by Mark Shields and David Brooks on the Newshour on public TV in… Read more »
Fox News is part of the Radical Right smear machine in the USA. This smear machine is not above inventing outright lies to attack political opponents. Readers beware! We have the equivalent in Malaysia — just look at the attacks on YB Teresa Kok. – Phua Kai Lit Actually, a better comparison would be the majority MSM in America, which slaveringly sides with Obama just as how our local MSM obeys the every whim of BN. FOX is akin to Malaysiakini, in that it openly rebels against the one-sided media establishment. Proof? Non-profit, politically neutral, non-partisan George Mason University Centre… Read more »
Phua Kai Lit, you only know of Fox news. Try to broaden your world perspective. Here`s something from AP (that`s Associated Press and it`s been around longer than Fox): WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama’s aunt, a Kenyan woman who has been quietly living in public housing in Boston, is in the United States illegally after an immigration judge rejected her request for asylum four years ago, The Associated Press has learned. Zeituni Onyango, 56, referred to as “Aunti Zeituni” in Obama’s memoir, was instructed to leave the United States by a U.S. immigration judge who denied her asylum request, a… Read more »
Hahaha hope and change malarkey is what they`ll get: Tim Reid, The Times of London Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harboring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve. The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of… Read more »
“This smear machine is not above inventing outright
lies to attack political opponents. Readers beware!
We have the equivalent in Malaysia — just look at
the attacks on YB Teresa Kok.” —–Phua Kai Lit
Is it? Best selling and noted author Erica Jong Tells Italians Obama Loss ‘Will Spark the Second American Civil War. Blood Will Run in the Streets’
http://www.observer.com/2008/politics/erica-jong-tells-italians-obama-loss-will-spark-second-american-civil-war-blood-will-r
Kinda reminds me of the Star and NST May 13 advertisements.
The Wednesday evening half-hour, $4-million-dollar television commercial for the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama was a masterpiece of imagery.
It was also entirely devoted to class warfare, class envy, and most of all to fear….
http://www.chronwatch-america.com/articles/3846/1/The-Obama-Commercial/Page1.html
The MSNBC is regarded as the most Left tilting media ahead of CNN. On the British end, the Beep(BBC) is a shameless pro Obambi source drowning also in all things politically correct but factually skewed. The fakir Obambi is a Manchurian candidate who regards the US Constitution as flawed, so flawed that he will introduce radical changes to address it according to his Leftist Socialist agenda in deference to the moribund UN body, for one. What he stands for is too long to list out here but it isn’t anything auspicious for the US or the free world. He’s bad… Read more »
Fox News is part of the Radical Right smear machine in the
USA. – phua kai lit
Your comment implies that Buraq Hussein Obama smeared his aunt and uncle through fox news?
If not, why doth he no pratice what he preach? Or is he just too much of a narcissistic progressive and woe unto those who cross him.
In which case he isn`t much of a Hans Litten.
Phua Kai Lit, Foxnews is the only one that is not overly bias like the rest of the others. Their second worse being CNN which is available via Astro M’sia.
The US TV NewsMedia bias in the US has never been so shamelessly bias before as over this election and the “anointed one” is also the most dubious dude so far. He can’t even produce his birth certificate. Why not?
“O God, humiliate Bush and his party, O Lord of the Worlds, degrade and defy him,” Abu Yahya al-Libi said at the end of sermon marking the Muslim feast of Eid al-Fitr, in a video posted on the Internet. Libi, a top al Qaeda commander believed to be living in Afghanistan or Pakistan, called for God’s wrath to be brought against Bush equating him with past tyrants in history. The remarks were the first from a leading al Qaeda figure referring, albeit indirectly, to the U.S. elections. Muslim clerics often end sermons by calling on God to guide and support… Read more »
Phua Lai Kit commented that “Fox News is part of the Radical Right smear machine in the USA. This smear machine is not above inventing outright lies to attack political opponents. Readers beware!” Perhaps a more balanced view is that Fox and most Christian cable networks are conservative minded while CBS, NBC and ABC together with CNN are perceived to be more liberal-leaning. So in fairness to Fox, it is the only one national network pitched against 3 other national networks – hardly a level playing field. I don’t know much about the lies part but … one that led… Read more »
chauncey said:
“The financial crisis debacle had its origins during the Carter administration and amplified during the Clinton administration due to govt intervention to make the banks lend more to lower income groups. You can read about it even in pro-liberal media like San Francisco Chronicle.”
Here’s an example of such an article from way back in 1999, during the Clinton administration:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Note even back then, some ppl predicted a bailout would eventually be needed.
Hi Anil and Progressive friends
Can I make some more comments
1. Regarding kesu’s post above at 9:26 am:
Fox News is part of the Radical Right smear machine in the
USA. This smear machine is not above inventing outright
lies to attack political opponents. Readers beware!
We have the equivalent in Malaysia — just look at
the attacks on YB Teresa Kok.
You can also check out David Brock’s book
“Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an
Ex-Conservative”.
2. Here’s commentary on the worldwide economic crisis from
Dollars and Sense magazine:
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/1008weisskopf3.html
And just for the record… The violent death rate in Iraq if HALF that of Obama’s Chicago!
Will Obama Support Chicago Surge? Hometown Death Toll Double Iraq’s
Pics as evidence: Hey Ignorant World – There is PEACE in Iraq!
Perhaps you actually mean a total withdrawal of the American troops?
The war in Iraq is already over. Proven by none other than Obama himself!
Obama’s Iraq Trip Unwittingly Convinces Americans That There is Peace in Iraq
Even the Associated Press, normally a staunch bed-partner of the Democrats, took Obama’s ad to task for being a spit-shined hype sell.
Obama’s prime-time ad skips over budget realities
Evidently, Barack Obama’s candidature and campaign for the presidential seat has become a global phenomenon, not just in America and Europe but also in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. It is not only because of his multi-racial background that Obama appeals to millions across the world, but also because his claim of giving hope resonates in the minds of Americans who are seeking a change from the 8 year-long economic deprivation wrought by the neo-liberal policies of the Republican Bush presidency. Therefore it is necessary to examine what many Obama advocates have refrained from examining: can the conflicting hopes… Read more »
Of course he would be able to put together a slick infomercial – a significant part of his base comprises the people whose craft it is to do stuff like this. That’s made clear when you contrast the production values of the party conventions a couple of months ago. Barack Obama said it himself: he wants America to lead the world. And now he has at his whim the same advantage that GWB had after September 11th 2001, i.e. a compliant US MSM (by the way, Republicans blogs are using this acronym in disdain now! Looks like we finally have… Read more »
How is it that Mr. Slick wants to spread other people`s wealth, but not his own: Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Obama’s best-selling memoir “Dreams fFrom My Father,” lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston. A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom apartment for failing to pay $2,324.20 in bills, according to the Boston… Read more »
typical US President, no matter how good he/she can be, he/she will not touch on the Israel issues…
Who actually created Taliban and Al Qaeda?
But he will still succed since he stands for the people…
Obama will definitely be pulled in different directions… But I think we’ll see a kinder USA with him at the head.
Dear Anil Barack Obama will make a great President, in my opinion. His voting record is decidedly “liberal”. (Very liberal = social democratic in the US context). The severe damage done by “free market fundamentalism” over the last 30 years (Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl and our very own milder Mahathirist version i.e. privatisation) has changed public opinion and is paving the way for a revival of Keynesian economics. But globalisation is raising enormous challenges for traditional Keynesian policies and for the welfare state. What we need is Keynesianism on a world scale with more progressive versions of international organisations like the… Read more »
Fantastic. Whether he keeps his words is another issue but as he said ” I am not perfect” isn’t it amazing rather than being in the state of denial.
It looks quite likely that Obama will be the next President of the US. He speaks very well of course, and definitely a smart man. He says all the right words as opposed to Bush … but America is not voting Obama vs Bush. It may be a surprise to some but most of the current problems facing the US were not caused by the Bush administration. The Clinton administration had Osama bin Laden in its sights but did nothing. Terrorists were sniping away at the US in the 90s and because Clinton was otherwise distracted by his personal demons,… Read more »