Cheat-Seeking Missles

Friday, June 20, 2008

Barack, Out Of Buses, Opts For Trucks

Apparently having depleted his entire fleet of buses under which he's thrown his church, his grandmother, his friends and his commitments, Barack Obama has rustled up a fleet of trucks. As David Brooks tells us in today's NYT:

And then on Thursday, Fast Eddie Obama had his finest hour. Barack Obama has worked on political reform more than any other issue. He aspires to be to political reform what Bono is to fighting disease in Africa. He’s spent much of his career talking about how much he believes in public financing. In January 2007, he told Larry King that the public-financing system works. In February 2007, he challenged Republicans to limit their spending and vowed to do so along with them if he were the nominee. In February 2008, he said he would aggressively pursue spending limits. He answered a Midwest Democracy Network questionnaire by reminding everyone that he has been a longtime advocate of the public-financing system.

But Thursday, at the first breath of political inconvenience, Fast Eddie Obama threw public financing under the truck.
What do you call a man who so casually breaks his promises in order to serve his impossibly pushy ambitions? A liar? An immoral sack of manure? A danger to all mankind? An old school, smarmy politician who's duped millions of naive Dems into thinking he stands for something new and better?

Fortunately for the wily liar, there is no subject more boring and unimportant to the American mainstream electorate than campaign reform, so today's outrage will come and go without so much as a furled brow among the duped Dems.

Unfortunately for John McCain, he's the father of this campaign reform mess, and he's shown sufficient honor to stubbornly stick to his word. Imagine that. From a politician!

Reading Charles Krauthammer this a.m., I came across an Obama quote that looks positively ridiculous in light of his tectonic shift on campaign reform. Obama is talking about McCain's reversal on offshore drilling:
"His decision to completely change his position" to one that would please the oil industry is "the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades."
Besides being wrong on oil and wrong on economics, the quote is a harsh mirror held up to Obama's ear-y face.

But what the heck, his flip-flop on financing could give Obama a three-to-one spending advantage over McCain. To put that in perspective, sports fans, here's gleeful Dem operative Chris Lehane:
"It'll be like George Steinbrenner's Yankees in the '90s — an All-Star at every position — against the '90s Kansas City Royals, barely able to meet their payroll." (ABC)
Time to take out your wallets, my friends. We've got payroll to meet.

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