So Tom DeLay has started a blog — although if you take note of the footlines, you’ll see that most of the entries are written by other contributors. Still, DeLay seems to agree with Time magazine, which recently gave its person-of-the-year award to “you” — i.e., all of us who are using the Web to shape modern life and discourse — that small is the new big, and that top-down political power is losing out to grass-roots organizers. That belief is apparently what informed his surprising prediction the other day that Hillary Clinton will be elected president in 2008, likely with Barack Obama as her v.p. He attributed this future success to a powerful liberal coalition including grass-roots movements like MoveOn.org and Americans Coming Together. So now he’s taken to the blogosphere himself to try delivering some D.I.Y. spunk to the conservative movement.
My question is this: Does DeLay really believe that Clinton will be elected, or did he just mean to throw a fear bomb at his constituency? If it’s the former, that would make his prediction a stunningly rare statement of political fatalism. If it’s the latter, it would be one of the strangest political pep talks on record — the equivalent of Vince Lombardi marching into the Packers’ locker room before the first Super Bowl and telling his team that the Kansas City Chiefs were going to kick their ass.
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I disagree with your final analogy. I think it’s more akin to Lombardi making such an announcement at the beginning of training camp. In the endgame, it’s a bad idea to break down one’s own team’s morale with negativity, because at that point, you need every ounce of energy for the final sprint (excuse the mixed metaphor). However, there is at least debatably more value of instilling humility in the early stages.
I disagree with your final analogy. I think it’s more akin to Lombardi making such an announcement at the beginning of training camp. In the endgame, it’s a bad idea to break down one’s own team’s morale with negativity, because at that point, you need every ounce of energy for the final sprint (excuse the mixed metaphor). However, there is at least debatably more value of instilling humility in the early stages.
Well it certainly wouldn’t be the first time DeLay was wrong…
Where does he get the idea that Hillary could actually win? All I’ve heard from local Democrats is praying that she actually won’t run. Barack’s got a much better chance than Hillary IMO. Hillary’s got too much against her (stance on issues, personality), raises the ire of too many Republicans, and has too much dirt in her past (don’t put it past the Republicans to bring up the previous Clinton scandal, no matter how little sense it makes).
Barack’s got an incredibly charming personality. From what little I’ve actually heard him come out and say on issues, he’s pretty moderate, but still socially conscious. He’s got all of the grass-roots support Hillary is missing. The only real downside he’s got is superficial, namely he’s half-black and his name “sounds like a terrorist”. Both of those issues would be incredibly difficult to bring to the forefront without the Republicans shooting themselves in the foot. The only thing that could him is the Democrats being cowards (always highly probable) and keeping him out of the race. I’m not even sure if the Democrats with all their skill at failing with the odds on their side could stop Obama if he wanted to run.
Obama’s got all the charisma Hillary so desperately lacks, and that’s (charisma) a pretty major change in politics from the Bush error.
I just wish Obama was a bit more Libertarian and a bit less Democrat-Socialist
Well it certainly wouldn’t be the first time DeLay was wrong…
Where does he get the idea that Hillary could actually win? All I’ve heard from local Democrats is praying that she actually won’t run. Barack’s got a much better chance than Hillary IMO. Hillary’s got too much against her (stance on issues, personality), raises the ire of too many Republicans, and has too much dirt in her past (don’t put it past the Republicans to bring up the previous Clinton scandal, no matter how little sense it makes).
Barack’s got an incredibly charming personality. From what little I’ve actually heard him come out and say on issues, he’s pretty moderate, but still socially conscious. He’s got all of the grass-roots support Hillary is missing. The only real downside he’s got is superficial, namely he’s half-black and his name “sounds like a terrorist”. Both of those issues would be incredibly difficult to bring to the forefront without the Republicans shooting themselves in the foot. The only thing that could him is the Democrats being cowards (always highly probable) and keeping him out of the race. I’m not even sure if the Democrats with all their skill at failing with the odds on their side could stop Obama if he wanted to run.
Obama’s got all the charisma Hillary so desperately lacks, and that’s (charisma) a pretty major change in politics from the Bush error.
I just wish Obama was a bit more Libertarian and a bit less Democrat-Socialist
Barack’s upside is also his downside. He’s new and fresh and charismatic. That’s why people like him. But he’s a freshman senator with no real record and no defining political philosophy as of yet. Of course JFK had those same attributes but he (JFK) also had the Kennedy machine behind him. Who’s behind Obama? So far the press has been kind, and maybe because he is Black, it will stay that way. Then again maybe not. Is America ready for an Obama as President? How many are going to think Obama is only one letter away from Osama?
Barack’s upside is also his downside. He’s new and fresh and charismatic. That’s why people like him. But he’s a freshman senator with no real record and no defining political philosophy as of yet. Of course JFK had those same attributes but he (JFK) also had the Kennedy machine behind him. Who’s behind Obama? So far the press has been kind, and maybe because he is Black, it will stay that way. Then again maybe not. Is America ready for an Obama as President? How many are going to think Obama is only one letter away from Osama?
Tom Delay is/was much more Machiavellian than your two choices suggests. His best quote is this,
“Conservatives are waiting for the next Ronald Reagan to rise and lead us, but much like Elvis, there will only be one Ronald Reagan.”
Tom Delay is/was much more Machiavellian than your two choices suggests. His best quote is this,
“Conservatives are waiting for the next Ronald Reagan to rise and lead us, but much like Elvis, there will only be one Ronald Reagan.”