Liberalguy

The Etch-A-Sketch Candidate By Monica Crowley (bio)

Barack Obama has the erasure talents of a wizard. With fantastic “1984″ Orwellian flair, Team Obama has scrubbed from existence some highly important statements made by their candidate. Most recently, they sanitized the Obama campaign website of all of his previous criticisms of the U.S. military surge in Iraq, particularly his description of it as a “problem.” The surge is, of course, a major military and political success, so Obama needs to chuck his previous position on it (which got him nominated) and go neutral. He can’t actually embrace the right side of history, of course, because that would be a bridge too far. On July 2nd, Obama gave a “call to service” speech that included his desire to create a “civilian national security force” that was just as big, “strong,” and “well-funded” as the military. Huh? He is calling for a separate military and police force with the same power and resources as the existing (and constitutional) military, and no one noticed? No one raised any questions about its constitutionality, cost, and reach? What, exactly, did he mean? No one knows, because you’re not allowed to ask. And no one knows because this statement has also been scrubbed from the official transcript of that speech. It still exists in YouTube land, but with the Obama erasure experts at work, there’s no telling how long it will stay there. All of this is very Stalinesque: making inconvenient or controversial statements just disappear, vaporized into thin air, as if they were never spoken. “What? I didn’t say that. You must be crazy!” The guy has us questioning our own sanity. Now THAT’S an effective–and totally terrifying and creepy—presidential campaign. Something tells me that the second he becomes president, all of these statements will become policy, and he’ll say, “What? I told you I was going to do this. Didn’t you hear me?” Until then we are witnessing the Etch-A-Sketch candidacy: now you see it, shake shake, now you don’t.