AsianWeek/ Obama: A Cliche is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Arthur Hu for AsianWeek 9/1/2008 www.arthurhu.com

docweb200809AWObamaClicheIsATerribleThingToWaste.doc

Blogger Taylor Marsh proclaimed Obama's speech was "unmatched ... in U.S. history", and "met Martin Luther King, Jr." What a load of bitter melon. There is nothing post-partisan about blasting Bush with "Eight is Enough", an old 70s TV show. A cliche is a terrible thing to waste. His warm up speaker already used up the Einstein insanity quote. Compare that with "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live..." King did not undermine John F. Kennedy's commitment in Vietnam to "bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe". It was George W Bush, not Obama who proclaimed "We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail" after 9/11. Bold leadership is driving Al Queda out of Afghanistan, not leaving Iraq. Obama's "Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Tear Down This Wall" was "we have not lived up to our best intentions".

Obama can "End dependence on oil in ten years" by raising gas prices well above the $10 a gallon it already costs in Europe. Offering the expensive Congressional health plan to everybody is brilliant. Michelle never mentioned her $200,000 raise to "outreach" to tell the uninsured to not use her hospital. Folks, nothing Obama will EVER say will hold a candle to best of MLK, JFK, the Gipper or even George W. Bush.

Sarah WHAT?

McCain is playing Obama's game when Palin stole the headlines from THE SPEECH. He's got the Democrats complaining how McCain can run somebody like Alaska Governor Sara Palin for VP that rivals Obama in youth and inexperience. But instead of soaring rhetoric, she's got a solid track record of shaking up government of a state that now adores her. Compared to Hillary's wooden "as I recall we did it before", and Michelle Obama's contrite celebration of how proud she is of America (now), Sarah's honest speech was a breath of fresh air. Palin was Alaska's youngest as well its first woman governor. Her 3AM wake up call was to hunt for moose with her folks. "Sarah Barracuda" played a mean game of high school basketball. She was runner-up for Miss Alaska, a TV sports reporter, and she worked with her steelworker husband summers in commercial fishing, and went back to work 3 days after giving birth. So far, everything I've heard about her I like. She didn't have to quit a hate-spewing church, pretend she was never a Muslim, or apologize for ex-terrorist friends. A real-life Wonder Woman who is proud to own guns, hunt, fish, owns a float plane and doesn't think it's her above her pay grade to declare that life starts at conception is a leader we can believe in, not a man who sells the magic words "hope" and "change".