'Enough of this foolery'
OldSouth sets out what I suppose is the central thrust of the Republican case against Obama this November with the suggestion that he is the latest in the long line of Democratic Party secular Messiahs.
It is a reasonable case though I fear the line "Don't vote for Obama, he's just another Roosevelt!" might backfire a bit...
Here is the deal - which came to me in a flash the other day. Obama is no Roosevelt. He is no Kennedy. He is... .
The date is 12th March 1906 and the Liberal Party leader has just become British prime minister after an election in which his party won a big majority. He is up against the brilliant Conservative House of Commons debater who savages the new government with a typically aggressive opening speech - think lapel pins and former pastors and and bad bowling and being a Muslim and talking to tyrants and voting present etc etc etc. Balfour sits down to general congratulation on his side and the Liberals look worried.
Campbell-Bannerman rises and gives a speech I first read as a schoolboy and which still gives me pleasure today; it lasted four minutes and made his career:
"The Right Hon. gentleman is like the . He has learned nothing. He comes back to this new House of Commons with the same airy graces - the same subtle dialectics - and the same light and frivolous way of dealing with great questions. He little knows the temper of the new House of Commons if he thinks those methods will prevail here. The Right Hon. gentleman has...asked certain questions which he seemed to think were posers. ...I have no direct answer to give to them. They are utterly futile, nonsensical and misleading. They are invented by the Right Hon. gentleman for the purpose of occupying time in this debate. I say, enough of this foolery. ... Move your amendments and let us get to business."
This is the crux of the Obama case - "enough of this foolery". If America buys it, McCain is sunk. If America treats this as a conventional election - in which what Obama regards as foolery is as important as ever - McCain will win...
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