snood wrote:Foxfyre wrote:While I do not think Obama resembles or is comparable in ANY way to Hitler, the issue of charisma is valid. Apparently Hitler had sufficient charisma to persuade the people to ignore the negatives that were available to see.
Is pure charisma enough to lure the voters to cast sufficient ballots to ensure a successful outcome on election day? In Hitler's case, it was.
Now there is nothing really sinister in anything Obama has written or said and it all sounds really good especially if you tilt Left. I would expect that prospects of politics without the enmity and rancorousness that currently exist is appealing to just about everybody.
But what about substance? Promising sweetness and light and cooperation and good will and hope and opportunity is all wonderful to say, but without anything substantive in HOW it can be accomplished, it all can go sour quickly after the inaugeration. I point to Jimmy Carter as a shining example of that. I point to George Bush as another. In the case of Ross Perot and John Kerry, it happened even before the election.
Unless Obama can convince America that his wonderful words will have substance to back them up, he will have trouble winning the nomination and/or winning the general election.
Unless, of course, a pretty face and charisma are enough.
What, of his policies or beliefs, have you read?
I've read excerpts of his book and I have listened to a couple of his speeches and I've read a lot of what analysts that I respect have said about him. (Most have been more positive than negative.) I really do like the guy. But in all honesty, sounding good and convincing me (or others) of ability to deliver are separate things. Right now he is benefitting from that pretty face, eloquence, a pleasant vision for America, and the fact that no serious negatives have surfaced other than one shaky land deal that nobody is going to care about.
At some point he is going to have to explain how the vision will be implemented, however, and that's when he will or won't convince the skeptics that he is the real deal.
But given the fickleness of politics these days, it may be that he can be elected just because he is the most likable/personally attractive candidate.
And then we'll just have to hope and hope that he is the real deal because we won't know how he'll govern until he does.
(If the worst his opponents can say about him is that he is inexperienced, though, he'll be the next President of the United States. The GOP won't be able to find anybody that squeaky clean.
)
In other news, water is wet... and I wonder if Hitler was a good swimmer?
