1. Who Cares, Give Me Some Substance
The Media had a huge bias and influence on Obama becoming elected in the way it brainwashed people with what Paul Street refers to as "Brand Obama" in his book Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, to feel and believe what they wanted. (quote) Magazine's such as Rolling Stone and Time magazine are a few among many that only portrayed Obama in a positive light while publishing ugly and distasteful pictures of his opponents such as Hilary Clinton.
Not only this but the debate's have come to an embarrassing level, it's almost impressive how little they can actually cover in terms of key positions of political issue's, but it's not impressive-it has become embarassing. Exhibit A:
Honestly, I don't see the relevance to half of these comments but hey-what do I know. Someone who does know a lot about the behind the scenes moves that allowed Obama to be elected is Paul Street who I have mentioned earlier. He explains in more detail the actual branding of Obama, "Senator Barack Obama and His Senior advisors crafted a strategy to fit the Obama 'brand'" (Street, 120)
Moving on...
2. Creative Rhetoric and a Fresh Image Go Along Way...
In reality, Obama was more conservative than Clinton yet one uninterested in researching further than national news broadcasts and popular magazines and newspapers wouldn't know the better because the Obama campaign did such a good job at avoiding controversial topics by keeping a neutral stand on certain issue's. Not only this but the campaign seemed to emphasize the unity of the country after the divide with the Bush administration by bringing a change and people together, yet not really talking about what exactly that would entail.
Courtesy of Google Images
By dodging the real issue's and focusing on general ideas of unity and change Obama was able to come off as more liberal than His opponents when in reality He wasn't. Just goes to show you what marketing and careful use of dialect can do for you. And if you disagree just look at the war in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan-pretty sure we're still there, not what He promised-pretty sure there's still no health care reform Bill of any significance that I can see, promise not fulfilled-pretty sure the people who need the money are still getting taxed up the A%# and those sitting comfortably and glutinous are still whining that maybe they won't be able to buy that 6 million dollar mansion. Which is their 6th home...or maybe 7th, anyway-who's counting right?
3. Keep Your Promises
The promise of pulling troops out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq was in essence a lie and has not come true. (Black-Water) It's been personally extremely disappointing having voted for Obama thinking and believing that He would deliver on certain promises and now seeing a minuscule change from the previous situation militarily to now. I can't remember reading a headline that says troops withdrawn in the past 2 years since Obama has been elected, at least in the Burlington Free Press- the largest newspaper in Vermont where I live. Seriously though, I feel hurt and lied to having been so excited for what Obama supposedly "stood for" during the election.
Interesting to think of where our country has come from...
And where our countries gone...
-Quick note; I'd like to point out the irony for those who may not be getting my general drift so far. Obama isn't that liberal, and has been leaning toward Republicans wishes just as much as the Democrats.
4. Can you Trademark a President?
At the time it wasn't clear to me just what was happening sub-conciously in my brain, and I give full credit to those in charge of the Public Relation's portion of Obama's campaign team for tricking me in the way they did. Obama was in a sense branded as a trademark before, and during the election in a way that a logo is for a corporation and this was hidden by clever media tactics and marketing tricks in a way that skewed the publics view of who this man really is and what he really stood for in his run for the presidency of the United States.
5. Too Good to be True
In a chapter entitled “Obama’s Dollar Value,” Street shows how Obama was funded and backed by corporate and political elites as far back as October 2003- Which I find interesting seeing as a large part of Obama's campaign strength came from His trash talk, if you will, against his opponents who admittedly took money from large corporate sponsors and wealthy individuals in positions of unspoken power in our government/society.
University of California $1,591,395
Goldman Sachs $994,795
Harvard University $854,747
Microsoft Corp $833,617
Google Inc $803,436
Citigroup Inc $701,290
JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132
Time Warner $590,084
Sidley Austin LLP $588,598
Stanford University $586,557
National Amusements Inc $551,683
UBS AG $543,219
Wilmerhale Llp $542,618
Skadden, Arps et al $530,839
IBM Corp $528,822
Columbia University $528,302
Morgan Stanley $514,881
General Electric $499,130
US Government $494,820
Latham & Watkins $493,835
Direct Quote from OpenSecrets.Org
In reality I think it's time we as American's realize that our government, society, economy is at threat by not terrorists but by what has become of the very system that our founding fathers set in place. Unfortunately it takes reading multiple books and doing personal research to uncover the truth, and really the reality, of what is taking place and occurring in our own country. Yet, when doing so one wonders whether it was worth it or not? How disturbing is this system now that corporate money dominate the political world?
6. In His speeches, Obama uses very carefully planned rhetoric in order to wash over specific political opinions and decisions in order to maintain a neutral attitude and stance.
7. Obama in fact increased military spending within the pentagon when He promised to decrease it during the campaign. Leslie H. Gelb of The Daily Beasts reported on this story in a called "Surprise, Pentagon Spending Hike!" Which I find perfectly suiting seeing as
8. YouTube and Politics-Scary
It's interesting the use of new media formats in Barack Obama's campaign for election as well as his continued use to give his "Weekly address" from the white house. For example: 11/15/08: President Obama's Weekly Address
First thing I would like to say is, Change.Gov - "The office of the President Elect."... Really?
In the book Project Censored 2011, a great fact is brought up that emphasizes my point, and that is that; Daily newspaper reading in the US declined from 58% to 34% between 1993 and 2008, and currently 51% of 18-24 year olds read the news completely online.
