You suggest a trojan horse, an unseen manipulator. Some power that has guided and shaped Obama’s career. Perhaps Obama is an avatar of Shiva who will bring about a new world order in 2012. There is no question that forces have gathered that will bring about major Change.

We live in interesting times.

Thank you, Capital L, for triggering some disturbing associations, and causing me to have this, hopefully interesting, revelation.

Though you are on the right track in your very astute observation, closer examination reveals that it is not quite right.

Since it’s the act of scrutinizing him that forces him to appear to have multiple opinions, he’s the exact opposite of a quantum that has multiple potential trajectories until collapsing it’s probability wave forces it into a specific one. His behavior is just the other way round from real quantum particles.

Why, if we were to just “believe” and “have faith” and “hope” in him, (i.e., not bum him out by collapsing his happy-wave), he would only have one opinion (though we wouldn’t ever know what it was)m abd everything would go along without a hitch. It’s our interference that is causing his seeming confusion. At least that’s what he keeps telling us when he accuses us of racism when we do that. (Collapsing happy-waves = “racism,” you see).

So, since he behaves exactly opposite of what one would expect from a quantum, he must really be an anti-quantum, (…unless, of course, we look even harder and find he isn’t? But that’s just too freaky to even contemplate, so let us forget I even brought it up, OK?)

Actually, it seems he “isn’t” (in the sense of “well defined”) a lot more than he “is,” (unless we make a “racist” observation), so what we may be dealing with here is more a figment of our imagination than reality. It only seems real to those who worry about where he wants to take us, because we see that his message of “hope” and “change” doesn’t behave the laws of classical causality, as we would expect it to for the scale of the events under consideration.

In contusion, he seems to be (or not, depending on how “racist” you are) that rarest of phenomena, a Left-handed anti-quantum virtual particle-tician with full Democrat spin

Will it vanish as swiftly and completely as it appeared, hopefully without disrupting reality overly much? Or will it hijack reality, and annihilate it in a burst of quantum darkness as yet unknown in our universe?

In their fantasy universe, the Left program is just what the nation and the world need, and only evil conservatives thwart them from bringing about an Age of Gold. Given this potential upside, is it surprising that many of them want him to be their Trojan Horse?

BTW, there is no great clash between “Leftist hopes and dreams” and “stodgy foreign policy advisers”; the Left captured the “international institutions” like the U.N. long ago. They have been calling for U.S. submission to these bodies for decades, just like the Old Line foreign-policy types. Indeed the Left has comforted itself with the idea that their agenda is “mainstream”, and Bushism is radical.

The bottom line: libertarians and conservatives may consider their “progressive” acquaintances misguided or foolish, but not evil, while most (but not all) of the libs here in the Bay State look at anyone not toeing the Democratic Party line as evil or brain damaged.

It’s the people who, to paraphrase the aforementioned Neal Stephenson, try to condense fact from the vapor of their beliefs that beggar the imagination. Facts seem to be their enemies.

But, I will leave my comment up as a general statement, even though it is not particularly responsive to Brutus.

Brutus, don’t do this.

The lack of civility is getting me down.

Make your point courteously. It is more effective.

It is going to be a vicious and contentious campaign year.

Let’s all take the high road in our conversations and arguments.

Nothing less will be tolerated on my posts.

This goes for everybody. Me included.

If you see me fall below that standard, say so in a comment.

Turfman, DEVAL Patrick (with Obama’s man Axelrod helming his campaign) ran a content-free campaign against a weak Republican candidate and won going away, which is no surprise in the people’s Republic of Massachusetts, where 75% of voters with party affiliation are Democrats. There was the same disconnect between what people heard and what they projected on his cult. Now, 16 months later, Patrick’s approvals are in the toilet and he’s been at odds with the 80% Democrat legislature. People who supported him are now coming to me in the coffee shop and saying that I must be happy that he’s been such a failure. I tell them, no, I’m not happy, and I’m especially not happy with IDIOTS LIKE YOU who voted for someone that you disagreed with on 70% of the issues but voted for him because he seemed like a good guy (the Biden clean/articulate black guy quote most assuredly obtains here).

By the way, the $25K Deval spent on his office drapes brings them up to the level of “window treatments”!

And Mwalimu Daudi correctly points out, education is NOT intelligence. I was out with friends this past Saturday evening, and one stated that he may be ready to jump on the Obama bandwagon because he really didn’t like the McCain 100-years in Iraq policy. I asked if he got any information other than what he read in the Boston (Pravda) Globe; he said he hadn’t. I told him he had to go home and Google the two Michaels, Totten and Yon. Until then, his license to talk about Iraq was revoked, and I would personally beat him senseless if he did (as you can with someone you’ve been friends with since 1st grade).

And that’s the problem. There are many out there willing to spit on their franchise by not being informed, which in the Internet Age is criminal. I have personally cost Obama three votes in the general election just by educating lazy family members. Not every Obama suppoter has drunk the Kool Aid, and they need to be informed as to what this guy really stands for.

When Carter won in 76, I remember my father saying it wasn’t so bad — because that guy was sure to turn people off in a hurry and lead to something better next time around. Prophetic words. But while we recovered from Carter, we may not be so lucky with Obama. It just may not be possible to put things back together.

I fail to comprehend this.

Sorry, but I don’t deserve that.

Capital L, the box opens on November 4th. Or perhaps January 20th.

While my reading of Albion’s Seed suggests that Obama will go the way of Humphrey, Muskie, McGovern, Mondale, Tsongas, Dukakis, Kerry, et al, if he does not, look for some very decisive action between 11/4/08 and 1/20/09, including Israeli termination-with-extreme-prejudice of the Iranian nuclear program.

[One tiny, itty-bitty nitpick: tabla rassa would be some sort of Indian drum originating from a small town in Italy. tabula rasa, otoh, is "blank slate."]