The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen issued an obvious challenge:
“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.
However, Cohen then spends almost all of his column on various shifts in positions by Obama and his rival, John McCain, as opposed to examing whether Obama has done anything admirable.
As previously noted here, Obama’s public record is almost entirely undistinguished, so it is not as though Cohen could discover the same. Cohen might also have looked at Obama’s ineffectual efforts on public school reform in the 1980s and 1990s, especially given that Obama manages to get the issue of school choice exactly backward and is clinging to the failed policies of the past in this current campaign.
Cohen could also have looked at how Obama, as an ambitious pol, was so busy plotting his ascent that projects in addition to those education plans were not given follow-through or oversight. As a “community organizer,” Obama’s work at a housing project called Altgeld Gardens left a potholed trail of boarded-up buildings. As a state senator, his housing policies enriched donors like Valerie Jerrett and Tony Rezko, but spawned uninhabitable slum properties and homelessness in and around his district. As a Congressional candidate, his proposed Englewood Beautification Plan left “a field of unfulfilled dreams, strewn with weeds, garbage and broken pavement.â€Â During his short tenure as a US Senator, Obama has failed to honor the pledges of assistance that he made to a Kenyan school named in his honor when he visited there amid great fanfare two years ago.
Instead, Cohen focuses on Obama’s opposition to the invasion of Iraq.  Cohen notes that we will never know how much of that opposition was rooted in political expedience, but fails to note how all of Obama’s subsequent positions on Iraq policy have been politically expedient.
Cohen then goes on to compare Obama to both JFK and FDR, who “were disparaged early on by their contemporaries for, I think, doing the difficult and making it look easy.” Yet anyone familiar with the biographies of JFK and FDR knows both had far more experience and accomplishments to their credit than Barack Obama, whose major accomplishment before winning the Democratic nomination may be writing two autobiographies.
(h/t Memeorandum.)
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 6:57 am #
The media seems to be shifting a little on their coverage of Baracky. Previously, it was the full-on deep throat and swallow. Now, they are still deep-throating Baracky, but they are spitting.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 6:59 am #
You need to edit the first part of the post, I think.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 7:03 am #
Didn’t you get the memo Karl questioning Obama’s lack of experience is teh racist.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/21/obama-suggests-gop-will-use-race-to-scare-voters/
Comment by happyfeet on 7/29 @ 7:05 am #
I heard one time at Harvard Baracky got high score on Galaga at this one Pizza Hut. That’s pretty cool.
Comment by SarahW on 7/29 @ 7:19 am #
BROOMSTICKS! I put a spell on Karl to get a new post, then more….and oh noes.
Comment by Log Cabin on 7/29 @ 7:22 am #
Feet,
I knew this guy who’s brother dated this girl who’s roommate says that she heard Barack could shotgun an entire sixpack of Rolling Rock in like a minute and not blow chow after, either!
So chalk up another point for Barack, dude.
Comment by dre on 7/29 @ 7:34 am #
You do know he was a Community Organizer?
Comment by Ric Locke on 7/29 @ 7:35 am #
As opposed to Obama, who is feted by the Press for failing at the easy and making it look impossible. The Kenya thing, for instance. How hard is it to drop a f*ing check in the mail?
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Karl on 7/29 @ 7:38 am #
Mikey NTH,
Indeed. There were server problems in the wee hours — I caught a similar problem at the end, missed the beginning.
Comment by MamaAJ on 7/29 @ 7:39 am #
After saying Obama hasn’t done much of anything, plus knowing about how many people have been thrown under the bus, Cohen ends with “I know that Barack Obama is a near-perfect political package.”
Huh? I don’t think “near-perfect” means no accomplishments and many campaign stumbles.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 7:46 am #
I think near perfect according to Cohen in the 2008 presidential election simply refers to not Bush and not Republican. IMHO.
Comment by memomachine on 7/29 @ 7:49 am #
Hmmmm.
1. I’m amused, scandalized and terrified. It’s entirely possible that Obama will be President.
I hope we survive it.
2. Obama and the press have to know that this adulation can’t continue for the entire length of Obama’s first term.
I wonder if the media has thought this through. If they turn on him the Obamanians will turn vicious on the media and the media’s stock in trade, their credibility, will drop like a rock.
On the other hand if the media do not turn on Obama and report his Presidency with any accuracy the general public, becoming more and more informed through the web, will lose what little faith in the media.
Comment by royf on 7/29 @ 7:51 am #
Cohen ends with “I know that Barack Obama
ishas a near-perfectpoliticalpackage.â€ÂFixed it hope that clears things up for you MamaAJ.
Comment by Education Guy on 7/29 @ 7:51 am #
Hasn’t done much of anything?
He’s written 2 autobiographies. How many have you written?
Comment by Mr. Pink on 7/29 @ 7:56 am #
Do not worry the MSM will be sure to convince us in the next couple months that a 2 week photo op and campaign stop thru Europe counts as substantial foreign policy experience.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 7:58 am #
Cohen’s admission that he is still uncertain what is in the package sums neatly into the reason I quit reading his stuff 15 yrs ago. He’s a dunce, plain and simple. He doesn’t have any way to add to anyone’s current state of knowledge. He can often serve to confuse the helpless though, so he has his uses to the Post.
Comment by MamaAJ on 7/29 @ 8:00 am #
Much too clear, thank you very much!
Comment by sashal on 7/29 @ 8:07 am #
R.Cohen should be a little more humble about his gay love for McCain.
Typed “Richard Cohen,†“Kerry,†and “2004″ into the Google. First thing that came out was this. Check some of this Cohen shit:
Either by happenstance or design, I’ve been with John McCain for three nights in a row and have watched the magic he works on people. At a dinner one evening, someone asked the secret of his appeal. A colleague and I looked at each other in disbelief. It’s his honesty, his willingness to (mostly) say what’s on his mind. He just clears his throat and says what has to be said. John Kerry ought to try it. It could make him president.
Shorter Richard Cohen, when considering John McCain: Bow-chicka-wow-wow.
Sdferr is correct. Cohen is embarrassment.
But what you would expect from WaPo really, when the editor is Fred Hyatt.
Comment by SAM on 7/29 @ 8:09 am #
Two points about Obama: one not mentioned in the post, and the other mentioned in the post.
Not mentioned: Why have no reporters revisited Obama’s purchase of his residence next door to the now-convited Rezko. Sellers simply don’t knock $300,000 off an asking price in a heated market because they are nice people. Sorry to echo conspiracy, but something is going on there. That seller got his money from someone–Resko or some other source, and he was probably happy to do so because then the $300K wasn’t run through the sale and didn’t need to be reported to the IRS. For the value of the home that Obama purchased, I’ll bet that seller was exceeding his available exclusion ($500K if married, $250K if single). In short, he’d save $45K by taking the money under the table. The key question is whether Rezko was paying off a favor he owed Obama or making a payment for a favor to be determined–say a pardon? Forgive the suspicion, but that transaction makes no sense.
And then Obama later paid Rezko $100K for a sliver of property appraised at $40K–which is a taxable gift from Obama to Rezko. Have we seen the gift tax return, and why is Obama making a $60K gift to a guy who’s eventually convicted of crimes. More unexplained favors.
Second thing is the comparison to JFK. People forget JFK is the president who originally got us going down the road in Vietnam. Obama seems hell-bent-for-leather to beat his chest by running troops into Afghanistan. Isn’t that a different kind of situation requiring a different strategy? Let’s ask the Russians how they liked fighting a conventional war in Afghanistan. I was disappointed to see McCain jump on Obama’s bandwagon. I’m not suggesting bailing out of Afghanistan. Instead, like JFK with Vietnam, do we really want Obama leading the way into Afghanistan especially when the doesn’t seem to hold the generals in high regard. Obama gives me the impression that he’s a teenager sitting down to play a game of “Battleship” or “Risk.” He has no idea what he’s doing.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 8:12 am #
Cohen has been in the Post stable of columnists for many years Sashal, through the tenure of many editorial page and general editors. Hyatt has done nothing to merit singling out in this regard.
Comment by Khomentary on 7/29 @ 8:13 am #
JFK said, “I am a jelly doughnut”, empathy and sympathy. Der Berlinens were not impressed, let alone “euphoriated”. Reagan said, “Tear down this wall”, freedom. Now “The Obamassiah” wants to recreate JFK’s hopefulness while ignoring Reagan’s helpfulness. The wall didn’t fall. It was torn down with confrontation over clear lines, the same approach that cowered Lybia and is beginning to cower North Korea.
Comment by Sdferr on 7/29 @ 8:21 am #
“…Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. …”
JFK, Berlin, June 26 1963
A promise to keep fighting in a serious war, entailing hardship for everyone involved. Hope is here held out for some distant future only dimly visible in 1963.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 8:25 am #
Hasn’t done much of anything?
He’s written 2 autobiographies. How many have you written?
I intend to wait until most of my contemporaries are dead or addled.
Comment by Ouroboros on 7/29 @ 8:38 am #
So Obama has no qualifications? This isn’t news.. it’s an inside joke that O! is in on.. With a mischievous twinkle in his eye he openly proclaims himself to be a ‘blank slate’ that his people can paint their dreams on… His total stock in trade is his changiness… and he’s delivering on that.. Look how many positions he’s changed already and we havent even reached the election yet… Think what he’ll do when he’s king of the world.
Comment by Salt Lick on 7/29 @ 8:40 am #
“…doing the difficult and making it look easy.â€Â
Does he really think George Bush could have run for president if he’d belonged to the Klan for 20 years and said “That’s not the David Duke I knew?” Obama has done the damn near impossible and made it look easy.
Comment by alppuccino on 7/29 @ 8:47 am #
“Senator Obama, you cannot bring your camera crew in to visit these wounded soldiers.”
“So you’re telling me that it would be inappropriate for me to visit the soldiers at this time. Because dammit, I really wanted to visit, but if you feel it would be inappropriate to visit, then I’ll have to respect the soldiers wishes of not wanting to be visited at this time. I will honor all of these fallen heroes next Memorial Day.”
Comment by JD on 7/29 @ 8:48 am #
What in the world has Baracky done that would fill up 2 autobiographies?
Comment by Karl on 7/29 @ 8:56 am #
JD,
That’s what makes it an accomplishment.
Comment by BJTex on 7/29 @ 8:57 am #
They’ll all be in the crowd, no doubt.
Comment by afall on 7/29 @ 9:00 am #
“Does he really think George Bush could have run for president if he’d belonged to the Klan for 20 years and said “That’s not the David Duke I knew?†Obama has done the damn near impossible and made it look easy.”
To be fair, the Klan is a terrorist group, not a church. The impossibility isn’t quite what you think it is.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 7/29 @ 9:26 am #
Sounds like thor’s rubbing off on you. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Comment by Neo on 7/29 @ 9:54 am #
And did I mention he’s white?
Comment by maggie katzen on 7/29 @ 10:53 am #
whoa, I was gonna say something about beating Anne Richards and being Governor of Texas for eight years, but never mind.
Comment by Karl on 7/29 @ 11:06 am #
What is Comment Spam?
Pitiful Time Wasters are comment spam and will now be treated accordingly.
Comment by Salt Lick on 7/29 @ 11:46 am #
To be fair, the Klan is a terrorist group, not a church.
How about we throw in Ayers and Dorn and get terrorists and an hate-preaching church?
The impossibility isn’t quite what you think it is.
Yogi Berra? Is that you?
Comment by Lurking Observer on 7/29 @ 12:23 pm #
Okay, afall, point taken.
Do you think someone could belong to the World Church of the Creator for 20 years and get by, claiming that they’d not noticed its message?
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 7/29 @ 12:24 pm #
Yeah, the column started out pretty well then it degraded rapidly into various attempts to justify supporting and defending Senator Obama. Every comparison was to a glowing luminary (in leftist eyes), more time was spent on how McCain was a rotten flip flopping bugger than Obama’s achievements. In all it was pretty weak.
Obama has done the damn near impossible and made it look easy.
He hasn’t done much of that at all. He’s been given a free ride because he’s black and because he’s a Democrat. He could be a Satanist who rapes then sacrifices infant boys every full moon on national television and he’d be helped out and pushed along by the left, the media, and the Democratic Party. But I repeat myself.
Comment by thor on 7/29 @ 2:16 pm #
Opinion as fact, just pull the string.
Comment by Squid on 7/29 @ 2:31 pm #
What in the world has Baracky done that would fill up 2 autobiographies?
I’m pretty sure the second book was mostly about writing the first book.
Comment by thor on 7/29 @ 2:38 pm #
You’re a big reader, it shows.
Comment by kelly on 7/29 @ 3:03 pm #
Obamasemen…mmm,mmm, good!
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 3:33 pm #
Richard Cohen is just one opinion columnist – and that cannot be forgotten. He has been on the national scene for years – decades – and is syndicated out of the WaPo. He isn’t in danger of going anywhere unless he chooses to go. The cracks in the media crush on Sen. Obama will likely start with someone like him. We will have to see if he follows up with anything stronger after someone else follows his lead. If that happens the erosion can happen rather quickly.
Comment by Swen Swenson on 7/29 @ 4:34 pm #
I’m working on an unauthorized autobiography as we speak! If I reveal too much I may have to sue myself, but that’s okay, I’ve got good insurance.
BTW, why don’t you have pictures of naked women? Do you have something against naked women, Hmmm?
Comment by Mikey NTH on 7/29 @ 4:41 pm #
The pictures of nekkidd wimmen would cause problems with work servers and cut down the commenting here by a lot.
Save those for the weekend, like the (shudder) furrie stuff (shudder).
Comment by jon on 7/29 @ 4:52 pm #
“I will honor all of these fallen heroes next Memorial Day.â€Â
“They’ll all be in the crowd, no doubt.”
Only if they need more white people on the stage.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 7/29 @ 4:55 pm #
Does he really think George Bush could have run for president if he’d belonged to the Klan for 20 years
Doesn’t seem to have put much of a crimp into the political career of Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va.
But then, he has a D after his name, so it’s all good.
Pingback by The Baltimore Reporter on 7/29 @ 9:09 pm #
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