Real Change

Cenk challenges Obama to put his money where his change is.

Barack Obama needs to stop talking about nebulous, floating on a cloud change. And start talking about how he is going to kick these people's asses. We need someone to take our government back.

On foreign policy, stop trying to prove that you are as "tough" as the Republicans. Read Robert Gates' new National Defense Strategy. It sounds like it was written by John Kerry in 2004. It talks about reducing terrorism to a nuisance and treating it as a crime-fighting problem. If the Pentagon isn't afraid to say it, why are you? Tell the American people even George Bush's Secretary of Defense thinks you're right and John McCain is full of shit.

Even though I do think he's withdrawn a bit from the airy generalized goals, I couldn't agree more, and now that we're in the 3rd period, I think we'll see a lot more of specific language from Senator Obama. He's walking a fine line and has a crescendo building, we just have to be patient as it unfolds (trust me, I know it's not easy, no one would ever accuse me of being the Queen of Patience). I'll be the first one screaming if they don't start to turn it on, but I still trust we're in wise hands. Before Obama can call McCain "full of shit" the country has to feel that it's OK to believe and vocalize that a 72 year old former Vietnam POW is full of shit. Remember, because of the way they were treated so horribly upon returning home, most of us were taught to respect Vietnam Vets and fervently defend them. We're still a nation of infants with civil boundaries that make no sense at all because those who set them are allowed to change them willy nilly at any given time. I know it sounds stupid, but he can't be the one to point this stuff out to them without an army of respected political figures at the ready to back up those facts every day, on every show (except on FOX, only comedians should do FOX so we can laugh at them as they're totally unaware they're being mocked); hammering talking points as effectively as the party who half-asses it, yet still wins. Undermining praises of McCain by the Clintons set Obama back more than we even realize in real time, and every time one of them (or any other prominent democrat, for that matter) says something stupid, pro-McCain or anti-Obama, we're working from behind.

I still maintain they need to pick at what seems to piss McCain off the most. Call him Bush every day, all day long, generally and specifically. He hates that mother fucker, it gets him visibly angry. Make him defend his support of Bush, while attempting to claim that he hasn't supported him. Sooner or later, through repetition the truth will leak out. That's what people need to see, the indecisive stammering and stuttering, the creepy snake oil salesman overuse of "my friends," while reinforcing that Obama always tells you the awful truth and maintains a calm and cool head. It keeps McCain on the defensive, at least until another "scandal" or "crisis" is concocted. Also, implying that the Russia/Georgia situation was/is complete stagecraft bullshit, and lives were lost and destroyed for a political ploy, would be effective if they could simplify the conflict to the American public, because if they don't, McCain will continue to shape the perception of what it means to us as a nation. We should have prepared for that kind of shit after they acknowledged a boost from Bhutto's assassination.

So often I run into people who have no earthly idea what the Republicans have done to them. Not to the country at large, but to them. They don't realize that when George Bush declared war on Iraq, he took money out of their pockets by wasting the taxes they pay every month and by greatly increasing the price of oil. They don't know that when Bush runs the deficit up, that weakens the dollar and makes the cost of gasoline go up. Before Bush came into office he promised to "jawbone" the Saudis in to lowering the price of oil; instead the price has more than quadrupled under his watch. Every time Americans go to the pump, they should think, "Fucking Republicans!"

How will they think that or know any of these things if the theoretical opponents of the Republicans don't tell them?

Indeed. And everyone who has the information needs to tell their family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, too. It just can't only be one man and the liberal blogs in their echo chamber.
[note: I am not editing much today, and probably won't over the next week because I just don't have time. So please excuse the fifth graderisms, I'll try to get to them at some point.]

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