really?

Haley's comet come again?

6 days left!

"spiritual connection"!

San Francisco is the most easily caricatured liberal, elitist, tree hugging city in America. That's just true. You may resent and disagree with those who make fun of the hippies on the panhandle playing in drum circles, or professionals who load their lattes into their SUV's to drive up Mount Tamalpais to go biking. I certainly do. For me, San Francisco is a city to be proud of no matter where you live. It is an example of tolerance and social innovation that should be a model for intolerant and bigoted areas of this country and the world.

But that's not the point. Joan, your whole argument is based on some narrow, cherry picked version of realpolitik. "Obama is risky because he is easily portrayed as elitist and out of touch." By that logic he should not only have stayed away from San Francisco, he should have based his campaign around ridiculing those Rolls Royce liberals in San Francisco, LA, and New York that make thousand dollar donations to Democratic candidates - and the politicians who seek their support then claim to represent the people.

The fact is much of Blue and Purple America don't like San Francisco, don't like the values many of the people there represent and wouldn't like you and your lifestyle.

To validate the bigotry of these people in the name of realpolitik is both sad and ultimately self defeating. People must be appreciated for the better angels that live within them so that they don't have to - yes- cling to their darker angels. We all have that choice and we all go negative when we worry that our positives aren't adequately appreciated.

That is the promise of Barack Obama. He has already established that he has a greater ability to unite and inspire people to reach for their better selves than any other candidate in the race and perhaps any candidate in a generation.

I lived in San Francisco for eight years and love the city and its people. I truly do wish the whole country had its values. But my biggest disappointment over this flap is that Obama was there to receive big money donations from people with names like Mark and Susie Tompkins Buell in the first place. Surely they represent the working man and only want what's best for the hard pressed blue collar voters in Pennsylvania. Kindred souls indeed.

Obama tossed a slow fat one over the plate to conservative commentators just for being there (there was skeptical talk of his West Coast swing on the news even before his "bitter" comments became public). His greatest strength is his base of regular people making small amount donations. This is his best, most resilient, and politically most compelling base. Going hat in hand to uber-wealthy socialite types is neither necessary or wise.

So yeah, I blame San Francisco for Obama's "Bittergate".

i somehow feel that chris is on my side - so watch out wes!

I think that people are looking for a reason, any reason to discredit Obama. He's an elitist. He's a secret Muslim. He is anti-American because he belongs to a church which at one time was headed by Christian Reverend Wright. He is young. He is a visionary. All of it is politics at its lowest. The Democratic Party needs to wake up. Meanwhile, McCain is getting more and more support from the same conservative Republicans who a few months ago wanted him boycotted at the election. If we don't watch it, McCain will get the same kind of vote Nixon got in 1968. Earlier this year, I had no problem with Hillary. Now, it will be very difficult for me to vote for her in November. I wonder if she has Karl Rove on her team, now that Geraldine Ferraro has left Hillary's camp.

Sedona/Arizona - i had my aura picture taken six years ago and the photographer told me "the messiah" is coming - latest by jan. 2008 and i was always "wandering" - but last week another angry x(no gender preference) on the next table talked about that "f...wit of a messiah" - Does anybody know who she/he was talking about?!

and she/he for sure was talking about a "male" so it couldn't be Hillary - Is it perhaps... Bill?

Joan, Joan, Joan. I love what you're doing ;). I'll contribute.

You say:

On first reflection, I think it's that Obama says he stands for a new kind of politics, but his slash-and-burn supporters are the worst of the old politics. I also think even some of his nicer, more well-meaning supporters represent another dead-end kind of old politics: the politics of liberal self-righteousness, where we know we're better than those benighted supporters of those other guys (or gals), and that cheers us, even if we can't convince a majority we're right.

On another thread, one of the more "aggressive" (to put it mildly) supporters of Obama called me a "fascist" (I laughed in his face -- but that's another story). That term has been so beaten to death that it has lost meaning in this day and age. However, the entry for it in wikipedia contains a paragraph that I believe should be studied by many of his supporters:

One basic point of these perspectives is that a libertarian or emancipatory outlook requires openness of social space, tolerance or celebration of difference and opposition to arbitrary authority; an absence of such an outlook contributes to social closure and exclusion, thus producing social effects similar to a fascist regime (oppression of minorities, lack of basic liberties and so on).

-- wikipedia (emphasis mine)

There is no natural law that assures us that liberals cannot create their own version of "fascism". But the first step in that direction is blind adulation of a charismatic leader. In this parallel universe the poor, white male hunter would be the "oppressed minority", for example.

I will be blunt. Everything that I have seen in Obama's campaign makes me distrust him -- especially his skill in manipulating people and how his supporters take everything he says at face value or even ascribe higher meanings to his words that were never there in the first place. And -- especially -- how they vilify anyone who questions him.

Maybe it is because of their youth. Maybe it is because of their rage at the damage the Bush administration has done to this country over eight years. Maybe it is because they are not familiar with how -- throughout human history -- "political movements" have a perverse way of taking on a mind of their own and eating their young. But they believe... how they believe.

In my short 46 years on this earth I have learned one thing -- be very suspicious of whatever someone else is trying to sell you (including what I am saying right here :-). Everyone has an agenda. Always question -- never take anything at face value. It's just the smart thing to do. For you. For the human race.

And remember: nobody is

always

right. Even your political enemies may be right on some things.

Listen to them. Don't be a fascist.

Peace