What has Barack Obama actually done?
"Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire," I asked a prominent Democrat. He paused and then said that he admired Obama's speech to the Democratic convention in 2004. I agreed. It was a hell of a speech, but it was just a speech.
On the other hand, I continued, I could cite four or five actions -- not speeches -- that John McCain has taken that elicit my admiration, even my awe. First, of course, is his decision as a Vietnam prisoner of war to refuse freedom out of concern that he would be exploited for propaganda purposes. To paraphrase what Kipling said about Gunga Din, John McCain is a better man than most.
But I would not stop there. I would include campaign finance reform, which infuriated so many in his own party; opposition to earmarks, which won him no friends; his politically imprudent opposition to the Medicare prescription drug bill (Medicare has about $35 trillion in unfunded obligations); and, last but not least, his very early call for additional troops in Iraq. His was a lonely position -- virtually suicidal for an all-but-certain presidential candidate and no help when his campaign nearly expired last summer. In all these cases, McCain stuck to his guns.
He ends by saying, "The question I posed to that prominent Democrat was just my way of thinking out loud. I know that Barack Obama is a near-perfect political package. I'm still not sure, though, what's in it."
You truly need to read everything in between the portions I quoted to get a feel for Cohen's piece, but finally liberal writers, at least one brave one by the name of Richard Cohen, has dared asked the relevant question.
I would certainly hate to be the one opening his emails today because he has liberals howling over the audacity of his question and declaring he has gone to the dark side. Others think Obama's "plans" and rhetoric counts as accomplishments. Never mind that many of his "plans" change on a dime depending on what audience he is talking to or when the issues actually come up for a vote. Never mind that his "plans" haven't come to pass and are just words. To them, his words, his "message" is enough, who needs actual accomplishments????
Pffffft... We don't need no stinking accomplishments to admire Obama!!!
We are Obama Zombies
How dare a writer for the MSM ask about Obama's admirable accomplishments....not speeches, not being against the war when he was a "mere Illinois state senator, representing the (very) liberal Hyde Park area", not his paper ideas, not his biographical books, but instead what true accomplishments has Obama produced for this country?
Worse yet, in the minds of those throwing a hissy fit about Cohen's column, how dare a liberal writer ask that?
Others discussing this:
Sister Toldjah
Soccer Dad
Flopping Aces
Just One Minute
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