FROM COMMANDER GUY
TO LIFTER GUY?
As expected from
the huge advanced hype, many in the media were carried away into hyperbole-land
with Queen Oprah and her crown-prince-to-be,
especially those pundits who share her cable channel. So they played parts
of it over and over to make sure everyone got all the nasty political stingers
that were poorly disguised in Oprah's well scripted presentation.
Nasty bits because
Oprah went to some lengths to say she wasn't in it to be political -- blah,
blah, blah -- she was just concerned for the plight of the country. Of
course she was not telling anyone what to think as she proceeded to tell
them what to think and why they should think it.
But there was a
refreshing exception to this media swoon.
"What happens when they find out Oprah isn't running for president?"
Trust Keith Olbermann to nail it.
That was mainstream
cable and broadcast, but many AARadio hosts like Eddy Shultz lost themselves
in adoration with pious rants. Along with several pundits and columnist,
they bowed low before the throne that did not preside over the circus,
but rather was the circus.
Inspiring, some
wrote, just like an old-time gospel revival; where the talented pair spoke
in the manner of the place they were in, getting much blacker for Carolina
than Iowa. Can you say pandering?
All that was expected,
but many of the blog comments showed something much different. Bloggers
picked up on Oprah's fervent avowal that she was speaking up because she
was so concerned for the country and called her on it.
 The
recurring theme found on several blogs went similar to this one:
"Where was Oprah for the last 7 years of atrocities by this administration?
Where was she when the people needed to be informed of the truth, where
were the riots in the streets at the outrage at the most corrupt administration
in the history of the nation, where was she during all this?"
There were cooler,
more thoughtful heads in the mainstream too who remarked that all those
crowds came to see Oprah and that all Dems were not idiotic enough to transfer
their admiration of her to Barack. Many still want to see how he can do
what he claims.
Just how, they ask,
does he propose to do all this "lifting up". Will he employ the
Phantastic 4 and other comic book super people who can lift anything they
need to? Will he define where up is? Is it heaven or lower down? Hard to
tell as he consistently claims that he will do the lifting-up and never
speaks of using the Democratic process involving Congress.
To Oprah and Barack,
polarization is a dirty word and he is going to lift us above it and unite
the country. While agreeing that at times Barack may be eloquent and inspirational,
Columnist Ellen Goodman writes in The Boston Globe:
"The Democratic
nominee won't have the luxury of a do-good campaign. Even a post-polarization
candidate would face a polarized politics. There's still a difference between
being an icon of change and an agent of change. And there is a difference
as well between being a fine philosopher king and a strong presidential
challenger."
It's going to take
a fighter, one with experience whose head is not in the clouds of Never-Never-Land
to defeat the Republans. It is no time
to send an inexperienced boy to do an
incredibly competent woman's work.
gapperserve-at-peoplepc.com
http://gendergappers.blogspot.com
2007-051
Copyright
2007 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished
for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that
this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: gapperserve@peoplepc.com.
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