Comments | aida_kun: I'll confess it: Obama irks me.

aida_kun

I'll confess it: Obama irks me.

Mar 22, 2008 15:18

The man is such a cipher. I haven't seen him say anything of substance that could possibly be taken as controversial. Reduce dependence on foreign oil! Stop obsessing over race! Stop getting troops killed in Iraq! Preserve net neutrality! Make America better ( Read more... )

Comments 7

thesixthring March 23 2008, 02:32:26 UTC

http://lessig.org/blog/2008/02/20_minutes_or_so_on_why_i_am_4.html

Net Neutrality is controversial, but the people that are against it don't speak as loudly as those who aren't. I have heard not horrible arguments against it from an ISP, something about giving the little guy an edge when it comes to honesty and another dimension of not-crapiness over the big boys.

Also, there's the whole 8 years without charm, or much else.

Lesser of two weasels.

aida_kun March 23 2008, 04:51:03 UTC

Meh. Rhetoric from a lawyer for a lawyer. I know Lessig isn't stupid enough to think Clinton meant "less than a year" when she said "the next year," making his month-by-month Wayback Machine checks that only run through October suggest that the speech was pulled in November or December. Am I nitpicking? Sure. But he's a lawyer applying rhetorical tricks, and I know Stanford doesn't retain stupid law professors ( ... )

aida_kun March 23 2008, 04:55:48 UTC

Yikes. Re-reading this, I've gotten so cynical! Next thing you know, I'll be a disaffected ex-liberal Republican or something.

tabaquis March 24 2008, 15:47:44 UTC

The "Present" votes in the Illinois State Legislature don't mean "Oh, I'm here but I don't want to vote" and very few of Obama's critics have bothered to take the time to understand that, including Clinton. It's in fact NOT a "maybe" vote, nor is it a non-statement. In the Illinois Legislature, "Present" means that you do not want the bill currently under vote to be defeated, but you have serious issues with it that preclude you approving it at this time. It's a "let's rewrite this thing some" vote. That's not a nothing vote, it is in fact MORE of an action vote than a simple "yes, no, get it off my lectern" vote.

Obama voted "present" on bills that he himself had a hand in writing, which were then changed so that he couldn't in good conscience vote yes on them anymore. He wanted to continue to debate the content of the bill, not simply move on.

aida_kun March 24 2008, 22:04:21 UTC

I was referring to his D.C. career, FWIW. I can't really compare them on Illinois State Senate votes, can I? ;-)

Totally Agree anonymous March 28 2008, 09:32:03 UTC

I couldn't agree more -adam

fmk March 30 2008, 10:35:21 UTC

I've noticed that I've become an Obama supporter, but I would be hard-pressed to tell anyone a single thing I actually like about him in particular other than the fact that I like the way it sounds when he talks. I think it's more just that I violently (irrationally?) dislike Hillary.

Also, my main source of political information is the Huffington Post, which I believe is generally regarded as a shill for Obama in this context.