On the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal today, Daniel Henninger takes Barack Obama to task today because his message is "a downer." "What one hears is a message that is largely negative, illustrated with anecdotes of unremitting bleakness." Henninger thinks that Obama's failure to talk "sunshine in America" is going to make him vulnerable in the general election. Of course Henninger invokes Ronald Reagan as the right kind of optimist.
What Henninger doesn't get is that the Republicans have succeeded in generating an awful lot of bleakness for the average American. People are having a hard time figuring out how to pay for their houses, their health care, their kids college education, and their retirements. They see an economy sliding and an endless war. Henninger also seems to forget that Reagan's refreshing optimism was only refreshing because everyone felt everything was so crappy in the late 1970's. Ronny would have been a fool to go out and tell people how well they were doing under Jimmy Carter.
If the cluelessness of the Wall Street Journal is representative of Republicans in general, I don't see how McCain has a chance.
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If Henninger thinks Obama's message is gloomy, then McCain's positions must make him want to retreat into an underground bunker.
ReplyDeleteAh, the effects of Mr. Murdoch are being felt.
ReplyDeleteSo wait, I thought, according to McCain, that Obama was handing out platitudes and empty promises. When did that switch to gloom and doom? Likewise, when hasn't a Republican in recent memory not been gloom and doom?
For me, 100 years in Iraq is a vision of "unremitting bleakness," but I guess I am just a pessimist.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal has always been filled with such crap. My fear is that Murdochism will infect the news coverage.