A Man of Peace Pushed Too Far (HuffPo)

[Waiting For Everyman]

Pete Cenedella
Huffington Post
September 12, 2008

A Man of Peace Pushed Too Far: Yelling 'Liar!' in a Crowded Theater"

"I was a Man of Peace," Barack Obama said today. "But this time, they pushed me too far. I came into this election to talk about substance, and they got nothin'. So they started lying. Last time I checked, we've just suffered through 8 years of liars. Lies have consequences. More than 4,000 servicemen and women have died as a result of Republican lies. Thousands more maimed, wounded, and dumped in sub-standard VA facilities that have been left underfunded by my opponent the veteran. Iraq was behind 9/11? A lie. Trumped-up phony evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction? A lie. Mission Accomplished, Osama on the run? We'll wrap this up, greeted as liberators in Baghdad? Lies, all lies. George W. Bush is a liar. Dick Cheney is a liar. John McCain is a liar. Sarah Palin is a liar. It never ends with these people. Apparently, it's in their blood -- runs in the Party's bloodlines like a bad gene, like a disease. Enough. It's time for new blood."

Sound good? Well I'm sorry to report that nobody affiliated with the Democratic Party said anything like that today.

We've been hearing all week how the Obama campaign was gonna come out with six guns blazing after September 11. Well, it's September 12, and what do we have? High Noon? More like Blazing Saddles.

C'mon, Plouffe, a 2,500-word memo to the media? And an ad calling McCain old? Wow, now they're running scared.

Note to the Democrats: the general election is a movie, not a seminar. People watch it like a movie, look for plot points and strong characters. They want good casting too. They want a blockbuster in broad strokes, not a lengthy discussion of policy or a footnoted freakin' laundry list of the other side's missteps.

...

The mean-but-strong Bully can go from being the anti-hero of this movie to the straight-up villain in a heartbeat. It's screenwriting 101, the plot point that spins the story into a new direction for Act 3 and the final showdown, the gunfight, the car chase, the whole satisfying enchilada. Your candidate needs to be the hero. And no role is more archetypal in this country than the Man of Peace Pushed Too Far.

Now excuse me while I get back to my movie trailer:

In response to a question, Senator Obama said, "There are no 'half-truths.' There are no 'distortions.' There's the truth, and then there are LIES. And the lying liars who tell them. Bush-McCain Republicans. And judging by what it's cost us these past eight years, we can't afford another LIAR in the White House. Say it with me, America: LIARS! LIARS!! LIARS!!!" With that the crowd took up pitchforks and torches and headed out to call the bad guys into the streets, where they would be met with the fury of the righteous mob.

Voiceover: Barack Obama is the archetypal American hero in his greatest role yet: The Man of Peace Pushed Too Far. Coming soon to a theater near you.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pete-cenedella/a-man-of-peace-pushed-too_b_126023.html

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I had to admit... at first-read, I was really hoping it was being reported that Obama had said just that - at the top of the piece. Yes! It's the lies for me too! The lying, present and past, IS the problem, spreading out in multiple directions... the war(s), the economy, civil liberties, the Rove-machine, the "Lying Theocracy Party", all of it... the hustling, conning lies. It's the underlying theme of this disaster.

Ah, I dunno... maybe it isn't possible to go at this so "head on". Maybe what's being done now is the way to go. (At least the word "lie" is being used directly now lately, thank goodness.) But I just don't see, on a gut-level, how we win this carrying around the lies and the role-switching that the doubletalk propaganda machine has accomplished already. It just seems like something has to happen to strip it off fast and effectively. Maybe it all really rides on the debates for that. Or maybe one of the brewing scandals will become real enough in time.

I do think though, that the fear we Dems see and feel about a McC/P election, has to be communicated to the public at large too somehow. They have to see how scary what they're about to do really is. They need a "Goldwater moment"... about security, the economy, everything. It DOES need emotion injected into it. That does take drama of some kind, at the least, rhetorically if nothing else - backed up by video images. (I wish the wolf-hunting images could be used in an ad somehow - I FEEL like we're those wolves, being picked off economically now.)

I like Obama's recent ads. I just wonder if they're enough? Enough, at this point? I just "feel" people out there slipping away from the reality of this. This is a tough world. If the other side gets elected again and nothing gets any better, a lot of us aren't going to make it. "Katrina big" is what I see coming. It isn't McC or Palin themselves that worry me - it's what's coming if we have 4 more years of this. Not only here, but globally.

(Maybe that's it - maybe Obama could liken this to advance warning of a hurricane, since we're going through Ike now? On a national level too, this is our last chance to prepare for serious problems coming our way, as in a hurricane. Later once it hits, it won't be possible.)

Yes, I know it takes hammering the issues, the issues are the substance. But it also needs a "Dead Zone" moment somehow - a crystallizing realization moment, whether natural-occurring or ad-scripted.

Just two cents, fwiw, on a Saturday morning. :donut:

[Captain Hilts]

1. Man of peace?? Why did he keep voting to fund the war? nt

[Mike Nelson]

2. I wish our candidate would speak like that

but they think it's a losing strategy