The Politics of Dopes by Ted Rall. This will P/O Obama Supporters

[Paranoid Pessimist]

but I don't mean just to single them out. Rall asks a question that I've wondered about for years though this is the first time I've seen it put to print: Why do these people want to be president? Our candidates seem to appear at election time, not out of people who were involved in the political decision-making, not heads of the "the loyal opposition" but individuals who suddenly capture media attention and start running for president. Before 2000 I didn't even know there was a George Bush Jr. until he suddenly appeared on the cover of Time or Newsweek with the headline "President Bush?"

U.S. candidates don't head up a faction; they find factions and co-opt them, claim to speak for them. They seem to want to be president because that's the biggest thing you can achieve.

To me, Rall's article is a slam not just on Obama but on the whole stupid process.

http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/

[grasswire]

1. who wouldn't want the keys to the goodie dispensation?

Think about it. We never noticed it as much under previous administrations, but the real power of the WH lies in the ability to grant bids, contracts, do or undo regulation, and all the other great and small acts that can make people rich. The people surrounding these candidates often want to be rich by making other people rich.

Sadly, today I believe the empty suit candidates are put up to it by looters.

[bemildred]

2. Kick. nt

[babylonsister]

3. Not just on Obama but on the whole process? Then why did you

put Obama in your title? :think: Please explain.

I agree about the grueling campaign, but I agree with the community activist who, despite the odds against this happening, might just want to try to improve our world and country. Isn't there any room left for an idealist who might just turn this world around?

[realFedUp]

4. The Pale Reflection: Barack Obama, MLK and the Meaning of the Black Revolution

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=149&Itemid=34

by Paul Street
March 21,2007

-"One of the dirty little secrets about Obama is that he owes no small part of his popularity with many whites to the fact that many Caucasians don't think of the biracial Senator as being "all that black" (5)."

"Obama's book refers to the United States' rapacious, savagely unequal and fundamentally ‘materialist' capitalist economy as the nation's ‘greatest asset.