Mark Kraschel throws a little acid
See today’s Oregonian? There’s a strange item of vitrol in the letters column. It has my head spinning, and is worth a whirl. It is Mark Kraschel, who a quick google search shows is not new to tossing acid about. It appears he hates it here and hates the people who populate the city. Go figure.
The letter. And some footnoted thoughts from me.
Your article on Obama’s first year shows there will always be a lunatic fringe that thinks with their heart and not their head. [“Oba-Meh,†WW, Jan. 20, 2010].(1)
Even though he is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon in his first year (2), I have no doubt that there will always be a teeny bopperlike group that carries a crush for Obama. Let’s face it, liberals are too emotionally immature to lead, and electing Obama proves it.
You had a chance to elect the first woman president, and getting eight more years of Clinton—a proven brand(3) and something conservatives could have stomached. (4)But the misogynists(5) in the party squashed that idea at the convention(6), instead going for a Harvard-tongued(7) Soros-backed(8) neophyte in a misguided quest to turn America into France(9). […]
………………………………
(1) If I recall right, there was one respondent who was up on Obama, one was down, and the others were apprehensively in the middle somewhere. But, you know, anything more than complete and utter rejection to the point of making “Obama Opposer” a part of your identity is worshipping the quicksand he walks on.
(2) Wow. Really? More unpopular than Nixon in his first year? Honestly, I would not be able to come up with a more meaningless political marker if I tried. In other news, Zogby polls show that Obama has a lower approval rating at this point in his presidency than anyone since Eisenhower. Think about that one for a second.
(3) It may be that the reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling on Campaign Finance is overblown, and that the corporates have already basically won control of everything in politics. See the ease with which people discuss candidates as “brands”. In the old days, detractors blasted the John Kennedy campaign as a lot of style over substance. Joe McGinnis wrote a book called The Selling of the President charging that Nixon was being sold like soap. Today we don’t even think twice about it, and speak to each other in corporate marketing terms, and accept it as what we want.
(4) See the logjam of now remaindered Clinton books put out by Regancy and other publishers between 2004 and 2008.  For instance. OR. They only then shifted to a boatload of Obama books. For instance. Today’s favorable opinions of Hillary Clinton come from not having any real political stake in her fortunes.
(5) Crack the nut of the racism versus misogyny race.
(6) Or, you know, the primary campaign. Hell, even in PUMA world, the decision was made before the onvention.
(7) Yes We Can!
(8) According to David Horowitz, Soros had dibs on Hillary. But maybe he’s turning to Larouche for the lowdown on the inter-party battle on where the Soros takeover of the Democratic Party is happening. In the real world, he ended up giving donations to both candidates (“Retire Hillary’s debt!”).
(9) Oui nous pouvons !
(10) Honestly, I got bored and will let the rest fall into the ether.
Oh. Okay. I’ve come back to it for the final paragraph.
Cap-and-trade was a swing and a miss (11), socialist health care was strike two (12), Obama is not going to hit the home run you hoped for(13), and the best you can hope for is a walk, resembling something pathetic like a reenactment of the Carter years(14).
Your article is right on one point: The president is only one person. We asked for change, and instead what we got was Pelosi unhinged.(15) Come November, the voters will rectify the mistake of one-party government(16) and our economy can get back on its feet.(17) Mass. proved the system works(18), it’s morning in America again.(19)
(12) There has been no socialized health care proposed. But what the hell — something is about to get through this legislative process.
(14) Carter was a walk? I don’t know. I suspect the worse that we may suffer is a reenactment of the William Howard Taft administration or something. If asked to elaborate, I’ll conjure something out of thin air.
(15) “Pelosi Unhinged”. I thought the real wrangling in the Health Care Policy Process that has dominated this past year happened in the Senate. Reid Unhinged, I suppose? Though, there’s not too much to unhinge.
(16)Â The Democratic Party is incapable of dominating a peanut.
(17) Interestingly, this bodes well for that second Obama Administration.
(18) I suppose it would have had Coaxley won. Failing the Brown victory, was “The Right” going to fall back on these bubbling just under the surface tropes?
(19)Â Our Long National Nightmare … is… over.