Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I Wish Every Suit was this Empty

You could almost see them all clap their hands and yell "BREAK!". No sooner had Barak Obama taken the lead for the Democratic party nomination for president then suddenly, all at once, Republicans and their supporters started implying that Obama is all talk and no substance. His talk of hope is a "slogan", according to John McCain, or a superficial gimmick, or worse yet, a slick, smiling, substance-free empty suit who is selling snake oil.

If this is the Republican strategy, it is going to be a dark gloomy November for the pachaderms. Their charges have as little substance as they claim Obama has. They sound like the creationists that chant "scientists have found no missing links" as if stating the thing made it so. The strategy is the same: When the facts tell a different story than you want, ignore them, or deny their existence. Obama actually has quite a bit of substance, which is why some of the more honest Republicans complain that he is too liberal. Perhaps those that think him contentless should debate those that think he is too liberal. Those that think both, well, they can't be helped.

Perusing the legislation Obama has been involved in: prevention of nuclear proliferation, making government information such as contracts, and who is getting them, available to the public in order to reduce waste, cronyism and fraud, avian flu, homelessness among veterans, and integrity in elections are hardly lightweight issues. If Republicans pretend that they are, and have McCain say little else about them, they'll have a rerun of Clinton/Dole, with a young agile Democrat clobbering an old Republican chanting outdated slogans of his own.

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