Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Looks like Obama has decided to cut out the fainting girls and just go for the whole giving water to people act. Here he is in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on Saturday:

Here is a good rundown of some of the fainting schtick

From Hot Air comes the news that Obama’s wife hasn’t been proud of this country since 1982, the beginning of her adult life.

“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” she told a Milwaukee crowd today, “because it feels like hope is making a comeback.”

Bryan:

Nothing America has done in Michelle Obama’s adult life, which at 44 goes back 26 years to 1982, has made her proud of her country? Nothing? Not winning the Cold War? Not our regular and orderly transitions of power based on the rule of law? Not the fact that we feed and defend the world, not that we lead in science and technology research, not that we elected the first black president in 1992…nothing? Not the fact that she and her husband were able to go to Ivy League schools before embarking on extremely lucrative careers? Not the fact that we help out in disasters wherever they strike in the world? Nothing has made Michelle Obama proud of her country in her entire adult life?

Nope….nada. We’ve been a horrible horrible country up until now, nothing to look back at and be proud of….

Sigh….

Can Obama be Beaten?

How do you overcome an emotional phenomenon with rationality?

By now most of us have seen the news stories describing the Cult of Obama, or Obamania. People cry when he speaks. Despite holding signs that say “Stand for Change” his speeches are interrupted by women fainting and falling to the ground. (Wordsmith has photos and video).

Hillary Clinton, the once annointed Queen of the Democrat Party has done everything in her power to overcome that flood of raw emotion and remind people that it takes a President, not a good speechmaker, to get the job done.

Hillary: Talk is Cheap
Warren, Ohio
MSNBC
Feb. 14, 2008

“Over the years you’ve heard plenty of promises from plenty of people in plenty of speeches and some of those speeches were probably pretty good, but speeches don’t put food on the table. Speeches don’t fill up your tank. Speeches don’t fill your prescriptions or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night. That’s the difference between me and my Democratic opponent: my opponent makes speeches. I offer solutions,” she said to applause. “It is one thing to get people excited. I want to empower you. This is not about me. This is about you.”
…
There’s a big difference between us: Speeches versus solutions, talk versus action. You know, some people may think words are change, but you and I know better. Words are cheap.”

If Hillary’s desperate appeal for substance over style fails, what makes people think that a 71 year old Republican, even a maverick like John McCain, can bring this Obamaphoria down to earth?

It’s true that McCain will draw a starker contrast ideologically between himself and Obama in a way that Hillary Clinton cannot. Both Hillary and Obama basically agree that the answer to America’s problems is to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and give poor people their last good meal. But McCain has also said that greedy Wall Street types should be “punished.”

McCain will contrast his national security policy and experience with Obama who feels we should talk to our enemies and invade our friends. But will that be enough to overcome the flood of millions of new voters who don’t seem to care about anything except the fact that they get emotional and tend to keel over when Obama speaks?

My 2 cents: And as a reminder:

The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore has done the math on Mr. Obama’s tax plan. He says it will add up to a 39.6% personal income tax, a 52.2% combined income and payroll tax, a 28% capital-gains tax, a 39.6% dividends tax, and a 55% estate tax.

You get what you vote for…..

Update:

The Obama Echo

I’m hearing an echo. You hear it?

But her dismissive point, and I hear it a lot from her staff, is that all I have to offer is words — just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words – just words! ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words! ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ Just words! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words!
- Deval Patrick (D)

Don’t tell me words don’t matter! ‘I have a dream.’ Just words. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ Just words! [Applause.] ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself.’ Just words — just speeches!
- Barack Obama (D)

Some are calling it plagiarizing but apparently Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Obama are good buddies and he gave Big O his permission to use his lines:

In a telephone interview on Sunday, Mr. Patrick said that he and Mr. Obama first talked about the attacks from their respective rivals last summer, when Mrs. Clinton was raising questions about Mr. Obama’s experience, and that they discussed them again last week.

Both men had anticipated that Mr. Obama’s rhetorical strength would provide a point of criticism. Mr. Patrick said he told Mr. Obama that he should respond to the criticism, and he shared language from his campaign with Mr. Obama’s speechwriters.

Mr. Patrick said he did not believe Mr. Obama should give him credit.

So its not plagiarizing. But it does show us that this man whom make women swoon, who has been compared to JFK and other great politicians (even though he has no accomplishments), and is supposedly a man of character is nothing but the same old calculating politician ie. Hillary Clinton.

And from The Politico we find that apparantly the “plagiarizing” goes both ways:

Obama also used “Yes, we can!” — now a staple of his presidential campaign — as a rallying cry in his successful race for U.S. Senate in 2004.

The Globe reported: “After Patrick employed the same phrase at a state Democratic Convention in 2005, a reporter alerted the campaign that it was Obama’s signature line, and they went back to the drawing board,” said Dan Payne, a Democratic strategist working for Patrick at the time. (Patrick would adopt “together we can” instead.)

I wonder how the MSM and the MoveOn peeps would feel about this if both those (D)’s were changed to a (R)’s?

There would be hell to pay.

UPDATE

Obama responds with…..it’s no big deal:

Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that he probably should have given his friend — the governor of Massachusetts — credit for using his lines over the weekend.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Obama of plagiarizing Gov. Deval Patrick. Wolfson said that raises questions about the premise of Obama’s candidacy — his rhetorical skills.

Obama, D-Ill., says that’s going too far. He says he really doesn’t think it’s a big deal to use Patrick’s words because they share ideas all the time.