False Hope "Bugs The Heck" Out Of Obama

An interesting addition to Sen. Barack Obama's stump speech, based on a line from Hillary Clinton during last night's debate.

“In the face of such cynicism, in the course of this campaign, I was derided… last night one of my opponents said that we should stop giving people false hope, that we need a reality check. What kind of an agenda is that, false hope?"

"The notion of false hopes bugs the heck out of me, if we have a sense of urgency and political will we can get things done."

BTW: Bill Bradley will endorse him tomorrow.

Comments

No more false hopes and lowered expectations. Now that's a message that's bound to bring people out to the polls.

Posted by Helter | January 6, 2008 2:43 PM

It is not good to read every sound bite literally. It is not false hope, people are looking for change with new presidential hopefuls.

Posted by Nascar | January 6, 2008 3:17 PM

ASSOCIATED PRESS-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has lot of explaining to do.
He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. He supported allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons, but opposed allowing people to use banned handguns to defend against intruders in their homes. And the list of sensitive topics goes on. With only a slim, two-year record in the U.S. Senate, Obama doesn't have many controversial congressional votes which political opponents can frame into attack ads. But his eight years as an Illinois state senator are sprinkled with potentially explosive land mines, such as his abortion and gun control votes. recent land purchase from a political supporter who is facing charges in an unrelated kickback scheme involving investment firms seeking state business. Abortion opponents see Obama's vote on medical care for aborted fetuses as a refusal to protect the helpless. Some have even accused him of supporting infanticide.

Go to that website and I think you'll find out all you need to know about what he believes in. The website is
http://www.tucc.org/about.htm.Clinton gave a commanding performance once again! WON the debate!! Once again obama fumbled over words, refused to answer the questions, kept trying to attack Clinton, but he couldn’t get her, she in turn tore both Edwards and obama up. Having the first woman president is a huge change, with consequences across the country and the world. Agree with Hillary, it’s not about a speech you make obama. It is about working hard - we don’t need to be raising the false hopes of our country about what can be delivered. Obama does not have the national security experience and background to lead this nation," McCain said. Obama was extremely uncomfortable and out of his church element. It’s a true picture he cannot with stand the heat! He couldn’t keep up with Richardson on issues; He is lost when you put him next to any other candidate. Clinton stole the show! Outstanding performance. She is the only one that looked Presidential. Poor John Edwards, he is finished… appeared to try to be obamas best friend and then obama turned on him,(ha-ha). Richardson blew obama away. Obama was stumped at every question and would not answer, he kept trying to preach and it didn’t. We need a PRESIDENTIAL leader and that is clearly Hillary Clinton. FINALLY showing that obama is nothing more than a new preacher without substance. Clinton sealed my vote. Obama and Edwards are too inexperienced and childish for such a job.
CLINTON 2008

Posted by Cary | January 6, 2008 4:05 PM

Marc,

I was at this morning's Obama rally in Manchester where Obama adressed Hope issue and while I can't remember his words entirely, your partial quote doesn't really do his response justice. I cannot capture his inspirational tone, but in effect he said that hope is not passively sitting back and waiting for something good to happen, rather it is actively adressing the problems at hand, fully recognizing the difficulty that we will face. In order for change to happen we need inspiration and motivation which Obama offers in spades. Clinton does not inspire (except maybe the Republicans to dig in their heels), she divides. She is not a leader, she is a manager. Obama is a leader, a leader that this country needs.

I, for one, do not want any more of the Bush/Clinton divisiveness. 20 years is already too long. America needs to regain its optimism.

CARY If you are going to be a shill for the Clinton campaign, at least do it honestly. That posting is NOT from the Associated Press.

Posted by Mike | January 6, 2008 5:21 PM

"ASSOCIATED PRESS-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has lot of explaining to do."

It's only dirty tricks. If you pop / Obama "lot of explaining"/ into GoogleNews, you'll find no hits, except for the WP mentioned below.

If you pop / Obama "lot of explaining"/ into Google, you'll find a variety of people quoting the alleged AP article in the comments tails at various news and blog sites.

Dirty tricks? Who would've guessed?

Cary is either "Cary" or "Sherry Lansing" (Boston.com) or "Davey" (Baltimore Sun) or "dyck21005" (Washington Post)...

Clean up your act. Either Clinton approves of what you're doing (wouldn't be a surprise) or you're an overly ambitious volunteer. Either way you're doing no favors.

Posted by Sal | January 6, 2008 6:08 PM

Hillary Clinton flip flopped on herself last night. In August she chastised Obama for saying if Pakistan was unwilling to take action against Al Qaeda he would strike if there was agreed. She said a presidential candidate shouldn't talk about he would do. Well last night she talked about what she would. She talked how she would deploy crusie missles and drones. Another case of Hillary vs. Hillary.

Hillary repeatedly says candidates should stop engaging in personal attacks, then her and her surrogates, engage in personal attacks.

Last night she accused Obama of saying things he didn't say about Edwards and it backfired on her.

Her phantom experience argument fell flat against the real experience of Bill Richards.

Hillary tried to claims osmosis credit for balancing the budget.

Obama commended BILL Clinton for balancing the budget. But then went on to say express the failure of the Clintons to create wide enough support to take care of other issues. In fact the Democrats lost congress in 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000, 2002, and 2004. No Clinton coatails to be seen or desired to be seen. Democrats won congress in 2006, thanks in part to Barack Obama energizing Democrats and helping other Democrats win elections. Now how's that for action?

Posted by Mr. Unite Us | January 6, 2008 6:12 PM

It's only dirty tricks. If you pop / Obama "lot of explaining"/ into GoogleNews, you'll find no hits, except for the WP mentioned below..

Ah. There it is.

The reason the AP quote does not show up in a GoogleNews search is because the reference is to a Ryan Keith (AP) article from Jan 2007.

Point remains, however, that someone(s) are spiking the comments threads in political arenas.

Who? Why? Duh.

Posted by Sal | January 6, 2008 6:28 PM

The desperation that the Clintons are showing is not very becoming and very obvious. How many times is she going to change her campaign slogan? It's even on her bus now. CHANGE. Why didn't they do an outreach to the youth or to independents? Because her campaign has no vision. They are living in the past. This country needs to move forward, without the Clintons in the white house.

Obama 08

Posted by Carolyn Grace | January 6, 2008 6:53 PM

Here are more excerpts from that AP article:

Allies and opponents alike say (Obama) listened to those who disagreed, cooperated with Republicans and incorporated other people's suggestions for improving legislation.

"He was looked upon by members of both parties as someone whose view we listened carefully to," said Republican state Sen. Kirk Dillard from Hinsdale, Ill.

During his last two years, Democrats controlled the chamber and he was the go-to guy on a variety of issues. He helped pass legislation overhauling Illinois' troubled capital punishment system and was a key figure in requiring a massive statewide study of traffic stops to look for signs of racial profiling. Although police groups opposed the legislation, they say Obama listened to their concerns and accepted some of their suggestions to improve the bill.

Even when he was in the political minority, Obama sometimes played a critical role. He helped write one of the rare ethics laws in a state known for government corruption and worked on welfare reform with Republicans.

Posted by Mark O | January 6, 2008 8:49 PM

Credit where it's due: You know who helped Democrats win elections in 2006? Howard Dean and his 50 state strategy. Although that Obama convention speech didn't hurt. As James Kunstler put it [I forget his exact words], when Democrats heard that speech they wanted to return John Kerry like a bad wedding present. And a lot of non-Democrats heard it too.

But yeah, telling people to keep their hopes down is kind of, um, counterintuitive inspirationwise.

Posted by Phoebe | January 7, 2008 4:50 AM