Oooohh! I Scared Myself

Colbert's very good at this sort of thing. After a friend linked to this meme today, I was inspired to imagine President Obama's strategy, using the same model.  Something like this:

I promise not to take my turn until after you've taken your turn, if that's all right with you, because no American hates success, so I'll give you an extra turn just to be fair. Are you sure you've had enough turns? I have to stand up to my base here, and not let them push me around. They're just going to whine that I haven't done enough, but look at all the turns I've given you! They won't be satisfied until I've turned this country into socialist Canada. Can I have a turn now? No? Well, I wouldn't want to seem unreasonable. But I'm going to stand firm this time. No More Mister Nice Guy!  If you want to fight over your taking another turn, that's a fight I'm willing to have. Take another turn, or you're going to see me angry.

After I posted a version of this under my friend's link, another friend of hers commented in my direction: "'socialist Canada' - you do know Canada is a capitalist country right?"  Sigh.  Today's youth -- no sense of irony.  [P.S.  Of course I know that Canada is a capitalist country.  Obama seems not to know that.]

A Conspiracy of Hope

Jon Stewart did a fun segment on Republican attacks on Obama:

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Indecision 2012 - President Evil
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Indecision 2012 - President Evil 2
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"Republican leaders believe that everything Barack Obama has done in his first term has been a canard so that he can do the opposite in his second term." Entertaining, and on target. But isn't that what Obama's supporters and apologists have also been saying all along? "Oh, he's just pretending to support all these right-wing positions so that he can get the nomination / be elected / to play 11-dimensional chess with the Congressional Republicans / get re-elected. But once he's safely in office, he'll be able to let the real Barack shine through!" Almost nobody in the political mainstream believes that Obama says what he really means, it's always a cover for his true intentions. The difference is whether you believe that his true intentions are evil, or good.

And those of us who, all along, pointed not only to his public statements -- the threats against Iran, for example, which began in 2007 -- but his record, and suggested that these had some relevance? Oh, we were accused of being secretly on the side of the Republicans, of being nasty Grinches who wanted to destroy all Hope, and of being conspiracy theorists.