Fear And Loathing On The Road To Denver
IN jumping the shark-skinned couch as he has, sad Obama worshipper Phillip Adams is probably not alone amongst left-wingers throughout the Western world. While most are probably confident their man will win the Democratic Party nomination, many are shell-shocked to see this newest exemplar of all the liberal attitudes and shibboleths they hold so dear being held to account for vicarious religious peculiarity and obscurantism. If you've spent an era earnestly lamenting right-wing evangelists and the Republican 'war on science' it's humiliating to learn that for 20 years your favourite ideological son has been an enthusiastic disciple of a conspiracy theorist who believes AIDS was a vast liquidation programme designed to eradicate black people. This is just one manic urge away from arguing the 1969 moon landing was faked to divert black attention from the example of Jimi Hendrix. In a touchingly old-world display of moral blaxploitation, Adams tries to save the situation by - amongst other traditional Adams diversions - comparing Barack Obama to Sidney Poitier, the latter man a "calming" charmer for whites. Jeremiah Wright he calls "ebullient." Wow.
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“Or will they gamble that Obamamania, though now checked and checkered, will trump the impressive narrative and solidity of John McCain on the hustings?”
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This, then, is the psychological dimension to what Hanson describes as "the most fascinating juncture in the last 50 years of primary-election history." The questions and stay-tuned teasers abound: has Snipergate left bullet-strewn Hillary Clinton's promotion of a persona more than merely spousal, or has that embarrassment simply created MAD parity with the smashed image of her hitherto iconic opponent? Come convention season, will the superdelegates make a judgement against Senator Obama based on fears of more disasters featuring his close old friend and spiritual adviser, Reverend Wright? Or will they gamble that Obamamania, though now checked and checkered, will trump the impressive narrative and solidity of John McCain on the hustings? Then there is the possibility Senator McCain will eventually suffer rather than profit from the other side's jelly-wrestling, for pure want of oxygen. And that supposed nuclear gazump of a Dream Team lurks in the background still - another possibility refusing to flatline. Americaphile, Frank Devine, is justified in making Dr Johnson assert that "the man who is tired of American politics is tired of life."
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“Meacham's thesis applied, presumably, would result in a new organisation dedicated to the Obama candidacy alone rather than to a perduring national role.”
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But there is one more possibility and it's by far the most interesting and potentially consequential. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham argues that if Senator Clinton is the beneficiary of a "corrupt bargain" that gives her the nomination, Obama loyalists could break away to form their own party. Given Team Clinton's viciously persistent attempts to portray its formerly invulnerable nemesis as lately unsaleable, it isn't entirely fantastic to imagine ruthless comparative assessments being made in Denver of the popular vote and the delegate count - and also whatever else may, by then, have diminished or enlarged the candidates. Meacham's historical comparison - applied loosely, with no analogous perfection intended - is based on those events of 1824 that handed John Quincy Adams a House-orchestrated victory over rival Andrew Jackson. Meacham's thesis applied, presumably, would result in a new organisation dedicated to the Obama candidacy alone rather than to a perduring national role. I doubt it will come to that. If Hillary doesn't have the numbers, she'll bow out with a convention speech apotheosising The Clintons and patronising The Nominee.
“Or will they gamble that Obamamania, though now checked and checkered, will trump the impressive narrative and solidity of John McCain on the hustings?”
_____________________________________________________
This, then, is the psychological dimension to what Hanson describes as "the most fascinating juncture in the last 50 years of primary-election history." The questions and stay-tuned teasers abound: has Snipergate left bullet-strewn Hillary Clinton's promotion of a persona more than merely spousal, or has that embarrassment simply created MAD parity with the smashed image of her hitherto iconic opponent? Come convention season, will the superdelegates make a judgement against Senator Obama based on fears of more disasters featuring his close old friend and spiritual adviser, Reverend Wright? Or will they gamble that Obamamania, though now checked and checkered, will trump the impressive narrative and solidity of John McCain on the hustings? Then there is the possibility Senator McCain will eventually suffer rather than profit from the other side's jelly-wrestling, for pure want of oxygen. And that supposed nuclear gazump of a Dream Team lurks in the background still - another possibility refusing to flatline. Americaphile, Frank Devine, is justified in making Dr Johnson assert that "the man who is tired of American politics is tired of life."
“Meacham's thesis applied, presumably, would result in a new organisation dedicated to the Obama candidacy alone rather than to a perduring national role.”
_____________________________________________________
But there is one more possibility and it's by far the most interesting and potentially consequential. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham argues that if Senator Clinton is the beneficiary of a "corrupt bargain" that gives her the nomination, Obama loyalists could break away to form their own party. Given Team Clinton's viciously persistent attempts to portray its formerly invulnerable nemesis as lately unsaleable, it isn't entirely fantastic to imagine ruthless comparative assessments being made in Denver of the popular vote and the delegate count - and also whatever else may, by then, have diminished or enlarged the candidates. Meacham's historical comparison - applied loosely, with no analogous perfection intended - is based on those events of 1824 that handed John Quincy Adams a House-orchestrated victory over rival Andrew Jackson. Meacham's thesis applied, presumably, would result in a new organisation dedicated to the Obama candidacy alone rather than to a perduring national role. I doubt it will come to that. If Hillary doesn't have the numbers, she'll bow out with a convention speech apotheosising The Clintons and patronising The Nominee.
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