He Came, He Saw, He Conquered!

The corporate media built up the expectations for Barack Obama's speech tonight to a point at which the mainstream pundits were sharpening their scalping knives to proclaim that he didn't meet those expectations. But once again the media blowhards underestimated Barack Obama's talent, his oratorical skills, and his heart.

What impresses me the most about Barack Obama is his grasp of the engine of history. He knows that FDR's New Deal was not passed from on high but was an expression of years of arduous organizing by ordinary workers, struggling to form successful industrial unions for the first time in this country. He knows that the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were not the product of Lyndon Johnson's signature but the result of countless struggles and organizing on the part of ordinary African-American citizens and their allies among the white majority.

Tonight, Barack Obama encapsulated, embodied, and articulated the mood of millions of Americans who clearly see that the last eight years have been a betrayal of America. And the hope he offers promises to restore what this country is supposed to stand for. He seeks to end the divide-and-conquer politics of the Republican Right and begin to heal our nation.

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have given us only fear and misery while they have tried to bully and intimidate the world. Never in our history have we experienced such a lethal combination of arrogance and incompetence in a single administration.

Barack Obama is pointing the way forward out of the darkness and fear and anger and division and toward the better angels of our nature. We are so fortunate to have this extremely talented young man emerge in our politics at a time when the nation needs him most.

Now let's win in it November!

I can't wait to hear his inauguration speech.

Comments

[spyda]

I'm so glad that we had a chance to witness history come together and witness it come from Sen.Obama someone who alot of people have doubted form the beginning and now are beginning to have a new found respect for.How can we not do all we can to elect these 2 brilliant caring men into office.And I can't wait to watch Sasha and Malia grow up in the White House. OBAMA/BIDEN'08

[Citizenofreality]

Obama demonstrated last night why so many Americans are ready and willing for him to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. He inspired my 23 year old, politically disinterested son to get involved in politics. This weekend he will start canvassing for Obama. And that, my friends is the miracle of this election season.

[djarvis]

No doubt he silenced many critics. Even Pat Buchanan had praise for Obama's speech. What a night!

[FaceYourFears]

On Fox last night, Bill Kristol one of Sen O's biggest critics was left SPEECHLESS! The look on his face was that of a man who'd had the most amazing sex. He only had praise for Sen O....He came, He saw, He conquered .....that's how you silence your critics!

[Puzzles]

I hope someone is watching the goings on at Diebold!

[AshevilleVoice]

"Barack Obama is pointing the way forward out of the darkness and fear and anger and division and toward the better angels of our nature. We are so fortunate to have this extremely talented young man emerge in our politics at a time when the nation needs him most."

Beautifully said.

That's what pundits are generally missing- Obama's leadership is emerging out of us. He is leading us where we want to go.

Like Joanna Macy said: "The leader isn’t someone who knows what’s going to happen, who has the answer, but someone who trusts that the answer will arise, who out of conviction and passion for life takes a step."

[openhand]

This is the point. If a listens really hard to us and then stands up and says this is the roadmap to where you want to go, you cannot but feel enthusiastic.

He is not original, he is just willing to listen, he is reflecting our needs.

[provgrays]

Anyone who managed to find fault with that speech only lives to find fault.

Obama is a true statesman and he has the empathy, education, compassion and insight to articulate what this country longs for. He is our true leader right now. It doesn't take an election to know that.

The GOP will throw mud and they will spin deception like never before in their desperate bid to cling to power. November will be a formality. McCain has already lost.

[FaceYourFears]

Anyone who managed to find fault with that speech only lives to find fault: PEGGY NOONAN.

[Avembe]

I just hope this time, ALL the votes, ALL the votes, ABSOLUTELY AAALLLL the VOTES will count!!!!!!!!!!
Obama's camp has to find a way to be totally SURE that there will be no controversy that curiously ALWAYS benefits to the GOP...Each and EVERY person MUST be COMPLETELY assured that his or her vote will be CORRECTLY registered...Guyz you do know what i mean
It's the GOP you know...so guyz...we will HAVE to be VIGILANT
I would even suggest a presence of international observers because I JUST CAN'T imagine that the GOP will do things fairly...they WON'T, they just CAN'T!!!!!so they will cheat!!!!!!!!Mc CAIN already proved it and it was just for a so called religious event,so imagine what he will do for the GE!!!!!!
So NOT this time, NOT ----------­-THIS-----­----------­TIME!!!!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!

[johnie2xs]

If there is ANY....ANY­....ANY...­.question what so ever, concerning the voting process this time. there will be, NO ACQUIESCEN­CE,.....NO ACQUIESCENCE,....NO EFFING ACQUIESCENCE !!!!!!!!!!!

[LanceJetson]

That's why I think, at this point, if McCain wins, I'll be convinced that our system is corrupt and elections are a sham.

[JC1c1]

I think you would see alot of ticked off Americans, who would not take this laying down. We would be heard. As Hillary put it no way, no how, no McCain. No More BUSH!

[urbanliterati]

For the last couple of years I have been hearing people saying that this country, like other empires would collapse soon due to our own actions. Last night showed the world that we still have some fight. This country as a symbol with Obama at the helm will once again be the model for the rest of the world.

[CatfishJohn]

...a necessary tour de force indeed with plenty of substance and inspiration!..dems need to put away bob shrums flowery language and let obama go full bore against these plutocratic republican frauds masqerading as patriots!...but the nagging concern lingers mr palermo- the corporate media will continue to give mccain free passes on his flops, make him seem independentr form the bush agenda run with the racist-tinged repub campaign ads to keep the bushco. crowd in power..the MSM agenda IS the corprate agenda...so you hinted during a post a few weks ago the magnitude and effort ready to be unleashed as "obama's ground game". can you give us a quick synopsis of what is in store ?

[veracity]

Thanks for that, Joe!

And thanks for HuffPost pointing out Keith Olbermann DEMOLISHING, knocking out, AP "reporter" Charles Babbington's lying "no specifics were given" spin on the Obama speech, here -
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003844063


Not wanting to be disappointed by too much "lofty rhetoric" and not enough RED MEAT, I only saw the speech at a sports bar, competing with some great football games.

The Rethuglicans have been FEASTING on RED MEAT like lions in Roman gladiator games for the past 2 decades, often nothing but lying character smears of Democrats -

- eg the Kerry Swiftboaters who implied that they had served WITH Kerry in Vietnam combat, but were actually either in entirely different region of Vietnam, or arrived at the same region at a later date,
- or the even more dastardly "WHITE HOUSE TRASHING!" "scandal" that the WaHoPost and NY lyin' Times ran with for weeks on end - taking Karl Rove & Ari Fliescher's lying talking points WITHOUT ONE SINGLE PHOTO of evidence to prove the allegations of criminal mischief & vandalism made against departing Clinton-Gore WH staffers in January of 2001!

[MPeter]

Great assessment Joe. Obama hit the ball out of the park. We saw history last night. A politician speaking to a crowd of 84000 willing listeners and millions and millions across the country and the world. It is unheard of. But Obama is Obama. He is a gift to us all. Now let's work to put this guy in the White House.

[jeanrenoir]

Thank God for Olberman, Huff Post, and the Net itself. The forces of evil in this country have done all they could to buy things like the AP and practice Hitler's Big LIe over and over again. But thought control is now impossible in America because of Olberman, the Net, etc. The truth will OUT now in nanoseconds. Our long night is almost over. Obama's eloquence and moral force have not been seen in this country since those of the first Illinois president. If he doesn't win in an outright landslide of historic proportions, every voting machine in the country will have been rigged once and for all. That's the only thing that can prevent him, and us, from taking this country back from the goons now.

[omaro]

I just read the Babbington "analysis" linked above. Not only did he wrongly state that no specifics were given, he didn't even understand some of the widely-reported specifics he discussed. Example: "But he [Obama] didn't mention his main proposal, which is to add a new Social Security payroll tax to incomes above $250,000 a year." Backwards: he intends to raise the ceiling on Social Security tax withholding up to $250,000. Babbington SHOULD find a new line of work.

[veracity]

(pt 2 of 2)

** IN case the DC Democrats ain't noticed yet, ATTACK ADS and RED MEAT _won_ the Republicans the "Super Trifecta" of politics and government in 2000-2001. **

Riding the relentless wave of ATTACK ADS vs Democrats (culminating in the impeachment of Bill Clinton after Ken Starr's $70 million financial investigation "Whitewater" morphed in to "MONICA- DID SHE, OR DIDN'T SHE?" trial) - that "Super Trifecta" included CONTROL of the HOUSE, SENATE, WHITE HOUSE, USSC, most federal benches, dominant control of all federal govt. agencies, & of course Repub. control of all major corporations, & dominant control of the "4th Estate" PRESS-MEDIA as well.

( AT NO TIME in American history has the Opposition Party NOT had a single newspaper of its very own, one that could be reliably counted on to forward the party agenda, defend its leaders, and confront opposition leaders and policies. THAT is the predicament the current Democrats find themselves in today - NOT ONE single US paper reliably touting the Democrat POV.)

It was ONLY when American voters became DISGUSTED with the Bob Ney / Duke Cunningham / Jack Abramoff / Ken Lay (et al) OPEN CORRUPTION & FELONY CONVICTIONS (plus "character" scandals like Mark Foley & Jeff Ganon) that Nancy Pelosi and her Dems were finally able to take the House back, and, barely, the Senate.

IF Democrats want to WIN in 2008 and beyond, they BETTER SHARPEN their scalpels, meat-cleavers, & axes, because the Rethuglicans are NOT going to give

[jeanrenoir]

It's up to the Reagan Democrats, as always. Are these guys going to buy the Bush-Cheney-McCain smear job and destroy themselves and their families and their country yet again? Their union leaders will do all they can to wise them up. But if these "hard-working, WHITE" guys are turned yet again by appeals to their racism and their resentments about life--if they hang on to their addiction to the cynicism of O'Reilly and Hannity--they and the country have had it, and we might as well just set up the Gestapo and get it over with. Moreover, these guys will deserve exactly what they get, the final destruction of their economic way of life. Obama demonstrated last night that he is more capable of fighting for these guys and their families than any Democrat since FDR. If they are so stupid as to reject him, the country will be lost by them. Every other major demographic group (we need not count the fat cats supporting Bush-Chene­y-McCaiin-­Fox fascism so they can keep looting the country and using its kids to fight and die for their economic interests, since they couldn't swing an election for dog catcher anywhere outside Nantucket) GETS IT about Obama vs. McCain. It all comes down to OH and PA. Will the Reagan Dems support Obama the way they once supported Hillary? Will they fight for HIM, the way he's fighting for them? The whole world is watching.

[notthistime]

"Barack Obama encapsulated, embodied, and articulated" -- you forgot one more word. He EMASCULATED the Repulican party.

[KMan1]

Amen!

[joanno]

Obama as a man is the embodiement of the American Dream. Obama, the presidential candidate is the embodiement of the country's dream of itself. He took us back to that wellspring and reminded us of its center...hope. He's reminded us that the potent dream needs only to be remembered to spark again our greatness. This is why he is so incredibly popular around the globe. This country is a beacon of freedom and has inspired over the years and the continents a veneration born of that dream, and we have drawn covers over that dream of late. Obama has drawn back the veil and invited us to reclaim the power and energy of that dream. He invites all of us to believe again, not in him, but ourselves...we the people. The many people around the world who yearn for the dream yearn to see its birthplace restored. Obama is the leader who has reminded "we the people" yes we can and the energy he has unleashed cannot be contained.

[BARRISTER]

Let us accept, now, thst when Senator Obama speaks, he speaks to, and for, ALL AMERICANS!
He will serve us ALL!!

God Bless America, we are coming of age!!