McCain could spoil fairytale's happy ending

[depakid]

Interesting read from an Aussie journalist:

BARACK OBAMA'S explanation of his position on the Iraq war was "a fairytale", according to Bill Clinton. The former president intended this as a slur, but after years of watching a George Bush war movie, a swelling throng of Americans crave a fairytale.

Obama is offering more substance than a mere piece of children's whimsy. Yet it is also true that he is promising America a fairytale, and that is central to his appeal.

It's an appeal so powerful that in recent weeks he has been gaining an average of about one-half of a percentage point every day in the opinion polls. After only three years with a national profile he is now within striking distance of seizing the Democratic nomination for the presidency from Hillary Clinton, who has been a household name for almost 20 years and was, until recently, the "inevitable candidate".

It is the magical and fantastical element of his campaign that has so many Americans allowing themselves to submit to what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called "the willing suspension of disbelief".

"I'm asking you to believe," reads the slogan across the top of his website. Consider the titles of his two books. His autobiography is Dreams from My Father. His political paean is The Audacity of Hope. He unfailingly repeats in his speeches that he offers "a politics of hope". His wife, Michelle, in a campaign appearance on Sunday, said: "Dreams are everything." Believe, dream, hope."

More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/us-election/mccain-could-spoil-fairytales-happy-ending/2008/02/04/1202090322204.html

[shayes51]

1. I agree.

[depakid]

3. Yet how about this?

"Although Marshall does not think Obama is the perfect candidate, he doesn't think Clinton is either: "We have two good candidates but they both have weaknesses. In Hillary's case, she has a ceiling to her appeal."

She is so loathed by the Republicans that she "could galvanise a demoralised Republican Party", he says. Obama "provides the excitement that she lacks, and she provides the heft and the toughness that he doesn't".

As these two near the end of their contest, it is likely the victor will face McCain in the presidential election."

[sellitman]

2. Either candidate offers hope.

They are Democrats.

Period.

[Gman]

4. The problem with fairy tales is they aren't true

and the willing suspension of belief means willingly submitting to a scam which is what all the Obama campaign is.

[JimGinPA]

5. I thought the Fairy Tale was...

"I did nothave sexual relations with that woman - Ms. Lewinsky"

[Jamastiene]

6. Is that you, Sean Hannity?