Fear of Fear Itself
Sen. Barack Obama came to my town. I got out of work late and missed a good chunk of his speech. I caught the last two Obama answers to questions from the audience. The atmosphere was like a religious tent revival. Obama was charismatic and preacher-like. I find his way of speaking very similar to Dubya's. The way they talk all folksy and populist-like to the people. Anyways, I saw the same thing I saw at Bill Richardson's political event - people violently nodding their heads in approval when Obama threw them the red meat of MoveOn type argumentation. I think a fair chunk of the people attracted to him are
on the MoveOn wing of the Dems and Hillary is attracting the more establishment types.

Anyways, one questioner told Obama to watch his back! She asked if Obama was ready to be "swift-boated" by the right-wing attack machine. She wanted to know if Obama was ready for them to degenerate his message down to a "minstrel show".....

There was somewhat of a silence after she concluded her question and before Obama answered. I got the feeling that people didn't quite know what to make of her question. Her vehemence. Perhaps even her apparent zealotry. I was standing at the back and I literally felt the need to boo her. I didn't do it loudly. But I did boo. I felt viscerally repulsed by her question. It just seemed to me the usual conspiratorial boilerplate that these people come up with and that clouds their
worldview irreparably. It reminded me of that birthday party for Mrs. Rants' uncle where some clown there said he feared for Obama's life because some redneck rightwing knucklehead was bound to assassinate Obama. I told the guy I didn't believe that at all. I told that guy that I read more calls for assassination on Bush/Cheney coming out of the DailyKos comments section than anything I hear in the right wing sphere. Some people just don't get it. They think their sh*t don't stink....

Anyway, Obama said he was ready for the swift-boating. He said it had already begun, mentioning that Fox News said he came from a madrassa. He said that he knew he was a black man and that he was ready for whatever would come at him....

Ugh. You know, all around him were campaign signs with the word "HOPE" and yet all I heard in the brief time there was fear. Obama said to the crowd that the Bush admin was adept at using fear to manipulate us. I wonder if the rich irony dawned on anyone that Obama right then and there was using fear to motivate his potential electorate. Fear of rightwing. Fear of civil liberties, fear of wire taps, fear of war, fear of takedown of SCHIP, fear of corporations, fear of BIG this and BIG that. Fear of assassination and swift-boatings, and yada yada yada. Don't any of these people notice that they PUSH THE FEAR????