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Obama's Etch-a-Sketch.
The 2012 Democratic National Convention was a triumph. I'm making a note here, huge success! It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Every speech was perfectly crafted to appeal to the best of us. To remind voters of the choice between these two competing world views, only one of which can lead us forward as one nation. The whole event was a great rebuttal to the Republican's National Convention of doom and gloom. I said here last week that if you watched the RNC it was not unreasonable to come away feeling as if America was a pile a rubble with every city in the nation in flames.
Our Democrats did a great job of showing just how ridiculous the GOPs melodramatic convention was. They offered a choice between steady growth and optimism, and Romney's doom and gloom. Between rooting for America to succeed, and rooting for it to fail. But while all of the speeches were great, there were a few that stood out.
Among them are Michelle Obama's, Joe Biden's and Barack Obama's. Not because they were particularly better than say Elizabeth Warren's, John Kerry's or Bill Clinton's. But because they did something that badly needed to be done.
They shook Obama's Etch-a-Sketch.
In 2008 American's came to know Barack Obama pretty well during the primaries. They had already gotten their first impression of him at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and what a great impression he made.
So after more than a year of primary campaign debates and speeches, particularly his speech on Race in America and his very moving concession speech in New Hampshire, American's came to know him as the charismatic, good looking Senator who had a lot of promise and a uniquely American story. It was that process of coming to know then Senator Obama that made him so untouchable. McCain/Palin and the GOP tried throwing everything they could at him. The William Ayers thing, the whole secret Muslim nonsense, and the ridiculous birth certificate fiasco are just a few of the more prominent attempts to make Barack Obama seems foreign and Un-American.
None of it worked because the American public had already made up their minds about him. They knew him to be a good decent American, and every time he spoke it made these attacks against him look absolutely silly.
Fast forward four years and the picture started to look a little different. Four years of constant attacks, four years of lies, fables, racism and outright disrespect were starting to have an impact on President Obama's favorability numbers. While there was no evidence to support the idea that Barack Obama was a bad President, that he was dangerous and foreign and a threat to the future of our nation, it was an idea that was being repeated 24/7 for the last 4 years.
This sort of repetition, mixed with an unnatural level of passionate hatred toward the man is enough to make any casual observer question whether or not they've missed something. Whether Obama did something that these people knew about, and despise him for, but that you or I have somehow failed to notice. The GOP talks about Obama eroding our freedoms. Chuck Norris warns of 1,000 years of darkness. Rick Santorum wonders out loud about whether or not America will still be free when his kids are his age.
These are all facetious exaggerations that stem from a purposely warped view of minor, barely notable policy disagreements. The eroding freedoms claim is of course based on the intentionally warped idea that you have the "freedom" to die for being both sick and poor at the same time. That you have the "freedom" to burden others with your illness by not having insurance and forcing the state to pay for emergency room visits. The "freedom" to not participate in our society. The "freedom" to swim alone at sea.
The 1,000 years of darkness claim is a similar complaint. The GOP knows that once ObamaCare takes effect it will be with us forever, thus 1,000 years of "darkness." This is why I love the term ObamaCare and why we saw the Democrats embracing it this past week. Like Medicare, ObamaCare will be around forever. Attaching Obama's name to it was the biggest miscalculation the GOP has ever made. In 40 years when voters are talking about which candidate they can trust to protect ObamaCare, their children will ask what that is and the explanation will most certainly include the fact that it was named after Barack Obama.
The melodramatic worry that America will no longer be free when the next generation of American's is old enough to run for President is based on the absolutely backwards idea that religious institutions are supposed to have power over citizens. That they have more rights than people, and that by giving individuals free choice of their health care options, Obama is taking that freedom away from religious organizations.
It's ridiculous.
But these finer details are never explained to the American people, so all they hear is the platitudes of 1,000 years of darkness and eroding freedoms. Just as the dreadful RNC painted a bleak picture of America, it is not unreasonable for casual observers and swing voters to hear these types of hyperbolic lies for four years straight and wonder if maybe there is something to it. One would think there has to be a reason they keep hammering this guy, he must have done something to warrant this sort of behavior, otherwise they would have moved on by now.
I am no causal observer, I am closer to what you may call a political junky. I don't watch every stump speech but I do read Daily Kos every day, I watch MSNBC every night while I make/eat dinner. I pay attention. Yet even I went into the coverage of the Democratic National Convention with this feeling that Barack Obama was some radical President, and that he would need to do some major "selling" of his ideas.
I didn't even realize I had this notion in the back of my mind until the convention started and it became clear that my image of Barack Obama didn't quite match with reality. After watching him be attacked for 4 years, and watching all three days of that horrible convention in Tampa Florida (a great city btw), I had somewhat fallen for the idea that Obama is disliked, and that there is something "off" about his Presidency.
Don't get me wrong, I still liked the guy. I still defended him and his administration every chance I got. I was still going to vote for him. But in the back of my mind it was as if the arguments against him had become a given. I just accepted them, not as true but simply as part of the normal discussion. These lies were simply what the other side says. I accepted this as if it was no big deal.
Sort of how traditional media outlets give equal time to both sides on issues like evolution when there is no valid reason to do so. I know evolution is real. But I just sort of accept the idea that there will be a creationist on TV to discuss it as well. The same goes for climate change. I've just come to expect to see the oil industry tool on my screen debating the benefits of oil being spilled into the gulf of Mexico.
Such balance is not necessary for issues of fact. Those "experts" do not belong on my TV and these thoughts of "yeah yeah Obama is a socialist, blah blah blah" do not belong in the back of my mind. But they were there. I have been very impressed with the President's ability to define Mitt Romney before he had a chance to define himself. And Mitt Romney seems perfectly happy to play right into that definition. But over the last 4 years the GOP has been trying to redefine the President and the discussion around the President as something of a mystery. Something that maybe isn't so positive.
This is why those speeches by our President, Vice President and First Lady were so important. They shook the Presidents etch-a-sketch. An etch-a-sketch that had been drawn on by the GOP. By the time Michelle Obama left the stage on Tuesday night it was clear the right wing had spent the last 4 years attacking a straw man. For me it was a moment of recollection.
A moment of "Oh yeah, this guy is uniquely American. I used to know that!"
Clint Eastwood's portrayal of Obama in an empty chair was poetic because it was the perfect symbol of the current GOP strategy. They are running against a man who doesn't exist. A distorted caricature based on their own lies and slanders. That much was always clear to me, and probably to the rest of America as well. But to exactly what extent the GOP had exaggerated, and lied and slandered wasn't completely clear until Michelle Obama had left the stage.
At that moment it was clear that these lies and exaggerations I had come to simply dismiss as noise, were in fact incredibly offensive and wrong. The etch-a-sketch had been shook. And then Joe Biden shook the etch-a-sketch even more.
While Michelle showed the personal side of Barack, Joe showed what it's like to work side by side with this President and I reminded us all that he is a good man who puts others first. That whole thing about him having a community organizer background is a net positive. He did it because he is a decent human being who cares about people. I knew that, but it had been buried beneath a pile of bullshit spewed from the other side. Joe Biden brought it back. Joe Biden reminded me and the rest of America why we like Barack Obama.
By the time President Obama hit the stage the American people were being reintroduced to the man they've known all along. The man who inspired them to work toward the America they knew we could be. To leave behind the pessimism and hopelessness that had engulfed this nation for 8 long years under President Bush. The Democratic National convention was a success because it did such an amazing job of reminding the American people who this man is.
He is not an angry man hell bent on destroying America. He is not the spawn of Hitler or Satan. He is not a threat to capitalism, or our nations position as the leader of the free world. Because of our convention these daily attacks on the President look absolutely silly, once again. As a result he will become untouchable once again. The moment he opens his mouth it becomes painfully obvious that the attacks don't jive with reality.
He's not some unknown commodity. He is President Barack Obama. That all American, skinny black kid with the funny name, who just won re-election.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/08/1129403/-Obama-s-Etch-a-Sketch
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Excellent Diary, I just took the liberty of adding pictures to it found at "The Obama Diary".
15 replies
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PS - I forgot to add-
EXCELLENT Post!!!!!! 
It would make an awesome bumper sticker!
Thanks 
Great pictures too !! 
Americans Coming Together!
It Is excellent and goes even better with those wonderful pics from the Obama Diary.
I've had a totally different perspective of President Obama because I've been visiting The Obama Diary everyday and I don't even own a tv. But, this "Obama's Etch A Sketch" is uber important for so many who were in DeanDemocrat's situation.
MAKE IT VIRAL!
FIRED UP IN KISSIMMEE!
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/09/08/kissimmee-fired-up/
