Quote of the day
posted at 10:00 pm on December 18, 2008 by Allahpundit
“It was not the Democratic base, nor the centrists, nor even the center-left, who put Obama where he is today. The progressive movement rose from near death and kept Obama alive in the primary, eventually proving stubborn enough to carry him to victory over the Establishment candidate. And then, in the general election, it was the progressives whose energy infected the nation, whose enthusiasm reminded longtime vote-the-ticket Dems that elections were about the future, and whose contributions, tiny as each individual one was, funded the revolution of Change that swept Obama into the Oval Office.
Now is the time to hold him accountable — even before he takes the oath of office — because once he’s in there, he will be surrounded by the trappings of Power, the machinery of State, and the inertia of Bureaucracy. If we are to reach him, we must act quickly. Though he has shown us that he is not who we thought he was (for the record, we did know he wasn’t the Messiah), he has also, fortunately, shown us the way to keeping him — and our country — on the right track.”
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
They were who we thought they were!
lorien1973 on December 18, 2008 at 10:02 PM
First!
Notice liberals are afraid to call themselves “liberal” they have to resort to the nondescript, “progressive.”
Joe Pyne on December 18, 2008 at 10:03 PM
There’s a Portland Phoenix editorialist born every minute.
Exurban Jon on December 18, 2008 at 10:04 PM
If they are progressive does that mean the rest of us are regressive?
HawaiiLwyr on December 18, 2008 at 10:05 PM
You lose!
lorien1973 on December 18, 2008 at 10:06 PM
Libs have delusions of grandeur, imagining they are more in number and greater in power than they really are.
If the MSM would do their jobs even just once and held up CA and NY as models of where progressives want to take the nation there would be massive opposition to the quaint and dangerous Libs.
DerKrieger on December 18, 2008 at 10:06 PM
So if…he is not who we thought he was… are… they still the ones they’ve been waiting for?
katy on December 18, 2008 at 10:07 PM
There is a word for this…Schadenfreude.
It gives me a Chris Matthews tingle.
Mr. Joe on December 18, 2008 at 10:08 PM
whatever, your crackpot ideas don’t work and as much as you delude yourselves about Bush and Empire, the reality is the USA has many evil competitors out there. I don’t know the calculations of Obama, but I can only hope he realizes playing up to the loony left in regards to National Security was a game for the primaries alone.
rob verdi on December 18, 2008 at 10:08 PM
Don’t worry I am sure Obama will appoint judges right up your alley.
rob verdi on December 18, 2008 at 10:09 PM
What the heck does that mean? It sounds like they have someway of bringing him back in line but if they were honest they would know he is going to play it as close to the center as possible. Just as he started his presidential campaign 143 days into his first term senatorial career, I am pretty sure he will start his reelection campaign on Jan. 21,2009.
Cindy Munford on December 18, 2008 at 10:11 PM
they are admitting in their own way to illegal fundraising practices and the net….
“believe it”
sven10077 on December 18, 2008 at 10:14 PM
So they are saying he can be and has been bought? How in the world is he going to juggle all the people that own a piece of him?
Cindy Munford on December 18, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Obama’s resonating message was never “Progressive Miracle Worker”…regardless of what the “in the know” blogosphere felt about Obama’s supposed socialist views and potential…his “no blue states or red states, united states” message was the one that brought him over the top. It has paid, and will pay divdends…especially as his cabinet choices are disarming just about all negative speculation about the guy (not among the in the know crowd on blogs, of course).
The more I watch the far left squirm at this realization…almost recoiling from it as a slug would salt, the more I laugh.
ernesto on December 18, 2008 at 10:21 PM
“If they are progressive does that mean the rest of us are regressive?”
That is the idea they wish to impart. Ruins a perfectly good word.
Really means, “progressing into far-left lunacy.”
Alana on December 18, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Priceless,there holding out for ‘HOPE’,
for Hopey/Changey,and are now worried
that Obama doesn’t become ‘CHANGED’!
This is really perplexing ain’t it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
canopfor on December 18, 2008 at 10:28 PM
I don’t think they fully grasp what it is they have wrought, and Bambi’d want it no other way.
They think they are going to control him by threatening funding….well kids that ship has sailed he is the new soon to be incumbent PotUS. They also think threatening him with staying home will hurt him but the fact is he feels he can now buy centrist votes so again no dice….in fact if anything he welcomes their tantrums because he feels he needs to remove their stink from himself even if he shares their views in his heart.
Read “The Prince” and Saul’s books and it’ll all make sense right down to Rick Warren.
I was working on a timeline of lies and half-truths from the pre- 1917 revolution days until Stalin killed the NEP with “de-kulakization” I may try to find it and post it.
Recall there was no more strident capitalist in Russia in 1920 than Lenin in government and he was quite earnest in wanting capitalism to (temporarily) thrive, and he was also just as likely to engage in dekulakization as Stalin wound up being assuming Fanny Kaplan hadn’t tried to do the world a really big favor. Bambi grasps he can’t kill “the beast” in year one two or three but more likely year five or six. I fear the GOP through a lack of balls and too many “reach across the aisle” types will find itself a combination of the SRs and the Latvian Guards.
Ah well it was a nice run while it lasted, I am learning to speak Penguin and praying AlGore is right so I can help found “New Texas” down there.
sven10077 on December 18, 2008 at 10:29 PM
“Revolution of Change”. Yawn. Clinton III is about as Establishment as it gets.
ddrintn on December 18, 2008 at 10:38 PM
Who the heck are they polling? I remember Clinton having extremely high polling numbers also, but he got elected with 43% of the vote and sucked as both a president and person.
Tommy_G on December 18, 2008 at 10:38 PM
I actually prefer the term “progressive” to liberal.
I consider myself a classical liberal- free martkets, rule of law, individual liberty, respect for tradition- so “progressive” gives us our word back.
billy on December 18, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Well, I am depressed.
Cindy Munford on December 18, 2008 at 10:40 PM
Another meaningless poll meant to demonstrate the public’s love for our Lightworker. It probably only means “well at least Wright and Ayers aren’t in the Cabinet”.
ddrintn on December 18, 2008 at 10:42 PM
“we did know he wasn’t the Messiah”
What was your first clue?
*Reverend Wright?
*Lack of experience?
*Fact he worked w/ Senator Coburn?
*Fact he isn’t as mean-spirited as a Clinton or a Rove or a Daily Kos regular?
Sorry, couldn’t resist a free jump shot.
HotAirJosef on December 18, 2008 at 10:45 PM
Ok, so maybe one of you didn’t know that…while the rest of you were ogling his ‘magnificant’ package and doodling gay-fantasy pictures of him riding semi-nude on a unicorn, with a rainbow backdrop, through a field of flowers, with beams of light shooting out of his ears, but I digress…
AUINSC on December 18, 2008 at 10:46 PM
So,like,when does the ‘civil war’ break out
between Nancy”It just might take a woman to
clean the House”Pelosi and “Hope and Change”
Barack Obama over the Liberal’s vision of Utopia!
So,like maybe if Pelosi was smart,she’d have her
own ‘National People for Pelosi Civilian Secruity Forces’!
(Sarc!).
canopfor on December 18, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Take heart I didn’t mean to kill your spirits sincerely. One man damn near brought the Reds down in the period of 1918-1926. The thing is their ideology is retarded and they tend to be a bit inbred and narrow minded as well.
It takes, money, balls, and will to beat them. In my opinion Bambi’s “80% approval” is a mile wide and a millimeter deep. The “pocketbook issues” he ran on will dry up if he’s not careful and even the most inbred donk voter will not be thrilled if his policies are overtly responsible for hundreds of dollars in extra costs.
McCain asked us to “fight, fight, fight” while he took a breather and used the Marquis of Queensbury rules against a Daleyesque thug….
I am telling you, FIGHT like your grandkids’ liberty relies on it because well it does….
and we won’t have Senor Queeg acting like a parachute the next time.
All the best,
sven
ps-remember he can’t shock you if you read their playbooks.
sven10077 on December 18, 2008 at 10:48 PM
We meant to do that.
Nevicata on December 18, 2008 at 10:53 PM
ps-remember he can’t shock you if you read their playbooks.
sven10077 on Dec 18,2008 at 10:48PM.
sven10077: Exactly,study their tactics,use their rule books,
use their own words against them,but never ever,
become them!!!!!!!:)
canopfor on December 18, 2008 at 10:55 PM
This Rick Warren nonsense aside, if we get attacked on our soil before Obama closes Gitmo, what will the Tool do?
BuckeyeSam on December 18, 2008 at 10:56 PM
“we knew he wasn’t the Me$$iah”….
and that is why they are wailing away for one man to fix their messes and enact their hopes and dreams….
it sucks for them….
My God sent his son to walk the Earth 2000 years and through Him and His Father’s power there is no force that cannot be overcome if it is within His grace….
they just elected a man whom they want to be Lenin Delano Roosevelt but if they are not careful he may wind up being Stalin Pot Mugabe…..
as Gid is my witness the last sound I’ll make if it comes down to it will be ribald laughter at all the “progressives” the ONE destroys along with us “evil conservatives”….
sven10077 on December 18, 2008 at 10:58 PM
Gid=sG*d
sven10077 on December 18, 2008 at 10:58 PM
They use the word “progressive” 10 times, and that’s not counting in the comments, as if by repetition that will make them what the are the opposite of.
MB4 on December 18, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Well, “moonbat” isn’t good marketing.
ddrintn on December 18, 2008 at 11:02 PM
They got used like a cheap whore. A propos.
SouthernGent on December 18, 2008 at 11:08 PM
You can’t argue that Obama owes the extreme Democrat wing anything. Just like the social conservatives on the right… they can’t elect anyone on their own… they have no real power. Obama won by winning over Independents and even many Conservatives.
lexhamfox on December 18, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Yeah, those 1 million $5 contributions from single entities really added up.
I want an FEC probe, and I want it now!
AZfederalist on December 18, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Obama won by not being John McCain. A RINO if ever there was one. I still don’t know what either of these two stand for. Hope and Change. Well I hope I have more than change in my pocket after Obama institutes some of his policies.
Tommy_G on December 18, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Sorry, I really don’t get that. How could anybody who is really a conservative ever have voted for someone with Obama’s credentials? The people claiming to be conservatives who did so proved that they really aren’t or else are really really stupid, there’s no other explanation.
AZfederalist on December 18, 2008 at 11:20 PM
duh1 got 52% of the vote. 40% of that is the poor, the remembers-FDR elderly, the unionites, the criminals, public employees, academics, burnouts, etc. that every donk gets to start with. the remaining 12% was a combo of minorities, youngings, and blueblood wannabes who thought they were getting some sort of political novelty. a portion of them fit into the portland phoenix crowd, and best case they will be first in line to throw out the donks in ’10 …
Buckaroo on December 18, 2008 at 11:28 PM
Well-put, lefty!
CK MacLeod on December 18, 2008 at 11:28 PM
I guess there they mean Good Will, Adolf Hitler, Mickey Mouse and Hjsghdsa Gjkjshjfg.
ddrintn on December 18, 2008 at 11:35 PM
This quote is timeless:
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”—C.S. Lewis
Fundamental Fred on December 18, 2008 at 11:38 PM
The progressive movement rose from near death
They must be referring to escaping the Rovian gulags and barely surviving the murderous fascism of Bush.
Please, these morons were never “near death” just as their beliefs aren’t mainstream. Progressive asshats make a lot of noise but they are as fringe as any other fringified fringy fringe fringe’s are.
Bishop on December 18, 2008 at 11:40 PM
The progressive movement rose from near death
They must be referring to escaping the Rovian gulags and barely surviving the murderous fascism of Bush.
Please, these morons were never “near death” just as their beliefs aren’t mainstream. Progressive asshats make a lot of noise but they are as fringe as any other fringified fringy fringe fringe’s are..
Bishop on December 18, 2008 at 11:40 PM
So far.
Johan Klaus on December 18, 2008 at 11:48 PM
“Johan Klaus on December 18, 2008 at 11:48 PM”
as much as we [rightly] tar duh1 for his association with those 2 subhumans, they will NEVER be with him in an official capacity — this is where the fact that duh1 is not an idiot works against us; he put rev. wrong under the bus during the primaries and bomb boy there during the general election. guy benson was on hugh h.’s radio show today and pointed out how much rahm must be sweating right abotu now because [paraphrase] “if obama thinks you are a detriment to him, YER DONE. he will get rid of you very quickly. so rahm has to worry not only about blago and fitz, but about what his boss may do to him too!”
Buckaroo on December 18, 2008 at 11:56 PM
… and they won’t be. However, you can bet they will be providing advice behind the scenes. Bush had to fight the “shadow government” from foggy bottom that sabotaged his presidency. Obama is going to have a “shadow cabinet” of advisors and his puppetmasters who will be pulling the One’s strings.
AZfederalist on December 18, 2008 at 11:57 PM
No, it was the puss between your ears that has you believing what you write. In reality it was 2 years of acorn working for hussein that won this election.
We wont make that mistake again. I’m sure hussein knows that, and for 4 years he will work with Conservatives, if he wins again we will see the wrath of liberalism sweep across America.
christene on December 18, 2008 at 11:57 PM
The way I see it, it only seemed that the ones he said were the ones they were waiting for were the people who thought he was who he wasn’t, but, in fact, they were not the ones he thought were the ones they were waiting for. Simple. I mean obviously, because if he had been the person they thought he was, then they would have been the people he thought they were waiting for. And you don’t get that, then you didn’t believe in hope and change.
smellthecoffee on December 19, 2008 at 12:17 AM
Yes he does and he will stay in the center on foreign policy as long as he can. But he will move left on domestic issues and spend a lot of money just as soon as he can. And I’ll lay odds that the centrists that you see in his cabinet now will not be there at the end of 4 years.
Texas Gal on December 19, 2008 at 12:26 AM
What y’all are forgetting in your analyses is that the Green Party for the Far Left is a much more viable option than the Libertarian Party or Constitution Party are for the Far Right.
The Greens are part of an international environmentalist movement based in oh-so-fashionable Europe, while the Libertarians smoke too much pot, and not all conservatives belong to Neal Horsley’s church.
When conservatives kamikaze, they stay home. When liberals kamikaze, they fill the ranks of third parties that in turn gain organizational power and nip even more at the Democrats’ heels.
There will be some seriously high expectations from liberals from a government completely controlled by the Democrats. These expectations will either be fulfilled, with a concomitant loss of centrist support, or we will see a huge revival in leftist third parties.
Sekhmet on December 19, 2008 at 1:00 AM
Ya know, I’m really enjoying watching the cannibalism of the far left. Watching Obama piss off his own base is invaluable entertainment to me.
:)
I mean, if I’d have known he was going to cause this much of a disturbance on the left I’d probably have just gone ahead and voted for him.
HAHAHAHAH!!!
… well not really but still…
One Angry Christian on December 19, 2008 at 1:04 AM
“Sekhmet on December 19, 2008 at 1:00 AM”
oooh, so they’ll get 5% of the vote instead of 2%?
/whatevs.
Buckaroo on December 19, 2008 at 1:09 AM
………. that’s because every Democrat given a job, even pushed from power, is still on the payroll.
………………… you try that.
Maybe in the next hundred years or so, when the “Conservatives” get power back, they will remember this, and when in power, clean house….. clean out the bureaucracies, slash government to the bone………. but we don’t have that chance right now do we?
Elections do have consequences………………. enjoy the ride.
Seven Percent Solution on December 19, 2008 at 1:24 AM
Guys, OT: “Deep Throat” dead at 95.
Had his daughter and friends not persuaded him to reveal all to Vanity Fair three years ago, we would have known of his name for the first time today.
Of course, you know Pat Buchanan and Ben Stein have plans to dance on his grave…
newton on December 19, 2008 at 1:29 AM
Look at the late 1960s and pre-Watergate 1970s for an example. The Far Left was destroying the Democrats up until then.
Sekhmet on December 19, 2008 at 1:31 AM
I like to think I’m a regressive, since there really isn’t much left to conserve anymore.
TMK on December 19, 2008 at 2:25 AM
Let ‘em reclaim the Man from C.H.I.C.A.G.O. Let ‘em write all the mamby pamby nanny state tolerance mumbo jumbo laws into the books. Don’t hide in the bushes though because these fools are damn sure going to set the woods on fire.
Limerick on December 19, 2008 at 2:51 AM
The Joker:
“And I thought MY jokes were bad.”
Hawkins1701 on December 19, 2008 at 5:26 AM
Every day I see evidence that he is exactly who I thought he was: As vile and dirty as any Chicago thug politician and as low as a whale turd. Of course, during the campaign, I was sorely afflicted with a lack of white guilt and never saw the connection between “hope and change” and intelligent public policy.
I was constantly reminded of Dr. Laura who often said that hope was just delayed disappointment. How fargin right she was! Just how delayed for the rest of the country is yet to be seen.
SKYFOX on December 19, 2008 at 5:48 AM
Now I remember where I’ve read of people like Barack Obama and his post-election machinations. He’s straight out of Machiavelli. Now that he has power, his next logical step is to keep power. In other words, he has started his re-election on 5Nov2008. And he knows that he only really needed the left-wingnuts to get him past the primaries. He won’t have any such worries in his re-election campaign, so it’s time to start getting those moderates into his corner now, in hopes that they will vote Democrat in 2010, and will re-elect him in 2012. Which makes sense; given that all he’s done is run for elections, what else does he know? Lord knows he hasn’t actually done any of the jobs he’s been elected to do, because he was too busy looking for the next step up the ladder. it’s worked for him so far; why change?
Spc Steve on December 19, 2008 at 5:53 AM
It is funny, for now. But as others have said, the game with Obama is always one of “who’s the rube?”
By that I mean we all – supporters and detractors alike – need to be extremely cautious about anything Obama says or does. This is not a guy who acts from a basis of personal integrity, principled conviction or devoted service to others.
Obama does what’s best for Obama. Only and always. That’s why although good arguments were made that his presidency would resemble a second Jimmy Carter term, it’s instead Nixon he most reminds me of.
I won’t descend into ODS and I sincerely hope for all our sakes that Obama’s administration is a rational and intelligent one but he’s sure not wasting any time in demonstrating that he can’t be trusted. Even by his most rabid activist fund-raising fans.
Gilda on December 19, 2008 at 6:08 AM
“We voted for the Barack Obama we fantasized — the progressive miracle worker. We voted for Change.”
Okay, honestly JEFF INGLIS + DEIRDRE FULTON you’re both a couple of naive gullible dumb $hits.
DSchoen on December 19, 2008 at 6:21 AM
Thanks, sven10077, I am definitely going to have to become better educated. As to the polls, I would love to hear the questions. Even if you loathe (?) the man or nervous about his term I bet it is hard to answer in the negative.
Cindy Munford on December 19, 2008 at 6:23 AM
Ah, but as others have pointed out, the word “progressive” is anything but nondescript; in fact, it implies that everyone who is not “progressive” is obstinately standing in the way of progress — in other words, a bunch of dimwitted, backward rubes (perhaps the type who stubbornly cling to their guns and Bibles).
Words (and labels) matter, as Bambi himsef once pointed out. Liberals want to be called “progressives” now because the word “liberal” has bad connotations for so many people. It’s the same reason that illegal aliens are trying to force people to stop referring to them as “illegal aliens.” They want to force the use of such terms as “undocumented immigrants” instead. “Illegal aliens” are foreigners willfully violating our immigration laws. “Undocumented immigrants” are just hard-working, American-dream seeking families who neglected to do a little paperwork.
Control the language, and you control the debate. Control the debate, and you win the debate.
AZCoyote on December 19, 2008 at 7:14 AM
He will do some of the same things bush did but people will like him for it.
tomas on December 19, 2008 at 8:14 AM
They knew he was a snake when they picked him up and now they are snake-bit. Why are they so surprised?
And now the whole country has to suffer for their ignorance.
abcurtis on December 19, 2008 at 10:28 AM
I think they mean the “left” track.
abcurtis on December 19, 2008 at 10:31 AM
But we do know who “He” is.
He is the biggest liar to ever be selected to the Presidency.
notagool on December 19, 2008 at 10:50 AM
I was expecting the campaign to be a real blood-letting, particularly from the dem side. I was kind of disappointed there but I think Obama’s administration is going to rival Clinton’s in corruption and scandal. And I dont really find any joy in that, the country is in trouble and has no time to trifle with corrupt politicians.
And, it’s Chicago politics, it’s in their nature.
abcurtis on December 19, 2008 at 11:08 AM
I have discovered in my lifetime, as I’m sure most of you have, you can call a steaming pile of horse dung “rose food” but you will still have a steaming pile of horse dung. The same is true for liberal/progressive.
abcurtis on December 19, 2008 at 11:10 AM
I’ll have to admit, during The Time Of Clinton’s Trouble I was skeptical of the polls. I could not believe the American people were so accepting of corruption and immorality. But I’m not so sure any more since America has elected her first Pimp-Daddy.
abcurtis on December 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM
Hmmm, no mention of the millions of Bush voters in 2004 who stayed home in 2008. Kind of hurts their analysis.
Vashta.Nerada on December 19, 2008 at 12:31 PM