Letters to the Editor
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Target is Upmarket?
You mean, compared to Super Wal-Mart?
Really, does anyone have access to an early Bill Clinton speech? I seem to remember him being all about style with little substance but perhaps my memory is wrong?
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A Chimera but not a Greek myth monster
Thanks to the individual waaay upthread for the link to Obama's issues page. It made for interesting reading but doesn't go far enough to challenge the premise of Shapiro's column. It's clear Obama has identified the issues and problems that plague us, but if his notion of "change" is to negotiate with the obstructionists, I fear there will be very little change to be had. He's told me he sees the problem, he's identified (obliquely) the hurdles, but he hasn't told me, in any concrete way, what his vision is. "Tell me how this ends."
I experience Obama as a Rorschach ink blot. I can project just about anything I want onto his words. Obama is simply not special in any substantive policy way. I am free to imagine any end point I want on all of the issues he's identified. Make no mistake, I will pull the lever/touch the screen/punch the card/mark the box for the Democratic primary winner. But I get little hope that Obama's conciliatory approach will produce anything very different than what we have right now. He wants to be all things to all people. That may be precisely the point where Obama kills off my hope. Obama's as much as told me to expect very little of him. If he's nominated, my hope, is he surprises me.
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Obama gets nomination...
... Republicans win White House.
And the opportunity to appoint enuff SC justices to ensure the Republican agenda remains in place for centuries.
No thanks to the Stick Man from Illinois. Hope and desire aren't enough, sir.
Plus, how conventional wisdom annointed him as an inspiring speaker says more about modern oratory than it does about Obama's supposed skills.
The man is boring, uninspiring, intellectually lazy. A wannabe.
After eight years of George W Bush, we can't afford to let such an insubstantial person lead our party.
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"Tomorrow Belongs to Me"
I get a very strong "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" vibe from the Huckabee crowd not the Obama crowd.
I wasn't impressed with Obama from the get go. I tried. I gave him a closer look and I just don't see much there. He sounds more like he's running for high school class president than President of the United States.I'm not sure if he's a vacant as he appears or its deliberate evasion. Either way, its not what we need.
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If It Seems Too Good to Be True, It Probably Is
My problem with Obama has always been an inability I have to know where he really stands on anything, and how he would propose to accomplish anything. The Republicans would simply conclude that they can stonewall him because of his overpowering desire to find common ground.
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Hope
Anonymous (one of them) summed up my feeling -
One may preach hope, but how does one deliver?
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Thank you, letter writer JHRS07
In your letter, headlined "Good Article, Fair Questions," you do a great job of reporting how Obama has been specific on the issues that count, such as the Iraq War, our dependence on Big Oil and the economic needs of the middle class. In addition, his experience in the combative trenches of Illinois politics are a plus, and his background as a constitutional law professor is what we need to help restore our Constitutional rights after Bush leaves office.
The truth is, the people who get elected to presidential office always convey a sense of hope along with a message of change, and Obama is smart to focus on that during his limited time to speak during campaign stops. "Hope" is part of what gives Obama a charisma lacking in every other candidate, Democrat or Republican.
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Bipartisanship won't work
because it takes two sides to be bipartisan!
Just wait until Obama finds out how fierce the Republican/corporate opposition will be to even the mildest attempts to reform health care, to dial back U.S. militarism or support for Israel, or to implement campaign financing reform. All attempts in that direction will be met with rabid fearmongering and obstruction, because Republicans have learned to whip up their base by scaring them and by sticking to their hardline positions.
Edwards and others are right: the only way to change the country's direction is to elect progressives in such overwhelming numbers that the Republicans and their corporate backers simply don't have the votes to stop the reforms.
Still need more proof? Take a look at how Nancy Pelosi and the Dems' Congressional Leadership clique have failed in every attempt to promote a "bipartisan" agenda, even on child health care! That's the future we face if Obama's "vision" wins out.
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Obama is green, and not in a good way
He's a one-term Senator, and his only previous race for national office was a slam dunk. His opponent, Alan Keyes, was widely known to be nuts.
The Republican smear machine will eat Obama for lunch, but they're terrified of Hillary Clinton. They know that she can kick their ass. Her election to the highest office in the land would be the ultimate humiliation for them. That's one of the many reasons I'm supporting her.
Go Hillary! Fuck them!
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Yes, Target is upscale shopping, and so is Obama
To FinFangFoom and others
Don't be incredulous about simple statements. From a marketing website: "The genius of the store's strategy, however, is that because of Target's marketing initiatives, consumers undoubtedly comparison shop with specialty and department stores as well as with mass outlets. When viewed in that light (please see feature on the following page), Target is perceived as the value alternative for fashion-conscious cross-over consumers.
The argument can be made that Target's approach runs the risk of alienating the "true" discount customer, but store results indicate that the segment the chain targets is more than adequate to sustain growth and profitability."
Perhaps only an elitist does not realize that Target caters to the upscale, because it just seems normal to browse there. And an elitist has never been to small town America, where the story is often one big grocery store chain and one WalMart, or super WalMart if the locals get lucky. You find Targets in reasonably prosperous suburbs, not in poor small towns. Love it or loathe it, WalMart gives rural small towns access to a big store and discount prices and some city energy. Now maybe there is some way to demonize Sen. Clinton over this, but it tends to elude me. I'b be more inclined to demonize Obama about it, since he claimed to be normal because he shops at Target, with other "cross-over consumers." He is hoping the Iowa caucuses are filled with Target shoppers and not those poor WalMart schmucks, who are looking for the the bottom line from a candidate who really delivers something they need. WalMart caucusers (and shoppers) aren't fashionable and don't make trendy groupies. Too bad for them.