"I Have A Nightmare Today!"

The brilliant Victor Davis Hanson sums it up nicely:

This Democratic propensity to plead poverty and oppression to highlight one's own success — along with the therapeutic anecdote — finally becomes numbing. Obama, who gained his education and found opportunity in the awful Reagan and Bush I years, lives in a mansion, has prep school and Ivy League degrees, made several millions of dollars last year, and was the offspring of two PhD candidates — and is thus a firsthand witness to America's greed and unfairness?

If Obama were to win, no one would infer from the desolation he described in America, that he may well inherit an economy, in a downturn, that just grew at 3.3% in the last quarter, an unemployment rate of 5.7%, and record levels of exportation, one that did not go into recession with $140 a barrel oil, with more students in college than at any time in its history and more than any other nation in the world, with a war in Iraq nearly won, and both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein gone and replaced with constitutional governments — and Europe, whether in France, Germany, or Italy, with strong pro-American leadership.

No one would infer that after our enemies blew a sixteen-acre crater in New York and attacked the Pentagon — and promised lots more to come — we have not been hit since, but in contrast, al Qaeda's leaders are either in hiding, scattered, imprisoned, or killed, with bin Laden and the tactic of suicide bombing with record low levels of support in the Middle East.

His bottom line: our enemies are winning, AK-47s are ubiquitous in our streets, our economy is in depression, and gay people can't visit their dying partners in our hospitals. In short, "Hope and Change" has became gloom and doom and there is something for everybody from government to save us.

I frankly could not stand to watch the convention. The lies spewing from the mouths of every speaker were just too much. My husband, a glutton for punishment, watched a lot of it and especially kept me up on the unbelievable displays by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. Geez, "sycophants" is just too mild...

Based on what I'm reading, Obama gave McCain a whole lot of material to work with tonight. It was a typical Democrat speech...gloom and doom, expensive promises, no details. That works for the uninformed, which is what Obama is counting on. People who actually look at his (very short) legislative record will see the disconnect between what he says and what he does. It's up to the informed among us to educate the uninformed.

JASmius adds: I didn't watch any of the Democratic National Convention for the same reason that I don't watch much TV in the summer - it was a total re-run.  They could have saved a ton of money, forgone the Denver Debauchery and just replayed the Boston Bacchanalia of 2004 from beginning to end and the speeches (aside from the different ticket) would have been interchangable.

Every four years it's the same theme:  

To hear the Democrats at their convention[s], you'd get the sense that a recession [in which we are not] is merely a technical term for the worst human misery ever visited upon a once-great people. You'd think Americans were listening to the Democratic speeches as they huddled around their kitchen tables (if they hadn't already been used for firewood), deciding which of their children to pack off to the orphanage and how much tree bark they can afford to eat next week.

Last night, Barack Obama proclaimed: “Our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.” He went on to describe an America reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath (if not Mad Max).

But this was a week-long theme. Over and over again, Democrats insisted that the “American dream” is being snuffed out, crushed, beaten, stabbed and quite possibly dismembered in President Bush's West Wing bathtub, where Bush and Dick “The Cleaner” Cheney can dissolve the remains in sulfuric acid.

Contrast with Dr. Hanson's reality recitation Jen quoted above.  Compare it as well to the self-congratulatory tone of their conventions in 1996 and 2000, when Bill Clinton took credit for every chicken in every pot, every coin in every sofa, love - exciting and new!, and inventing the nuclear binding forces that hold reality itself together.  It's all such self-serving, heads-I-win/tails-you-lose bull[bleep].  Most times it bears not the slightest resemblance to reality.  As economically ignorant as most Americans are, I still cannot fathom how the casual, "independent" voter can watch such ludicrous, caterwauling economic apocalypticism and not dismiss the entire Democrat Party like a convent reviewing an appeal from Britney Speares to become a nun.

Ditto the Dems' stubborn refusal to acknowledge the success of the Surge, which, in their quantum reality, never happened.  Iraq and its "civil war" went into temporal freeze in 2006 as far as they're concerned.  Fighting wars - even wars forced upon us - is universally bad, and "diplomacy" is universally good.  National security threats can be eliminated by talking to our enemies and convincing them of our peaceful intentions and goodwill by an avalanche of concessions and withdrawals and comprehensive unilateral disarmament.  Iraq and Afghanistan can only be "fixed" if we abandon the Middle East and entrust the job to our "partners in peace," Iran and Syria.  Oh, yes, and Russia, too. 

It reminds me of Orson Welles' famous 1938 War of the Worlds radio dramatization that panicked people across the country.  So many Americans really believed that Martians were invading Earth.  My maternal grandmother was also listening to that broadcast.  After it was over, she went outside, looked up at the Red Planet in the quiescent night sky, shook her head, chuckled, and went to bed.

It's all madness and self-parody.  Democrats proclaim intractable war, poverty, pestilence, and filth when Republicans are in power and inexhaustible peace, prosperity, and all-around Shangri-La when they're in charge.  Not so much because it convinces any voter that was not already brainwashed, but because that's the psychological red meat their Fifth Columnists demand.

And that's what Barack Hussein Obama gave 'em at Mile High last night.

***He continued concealing his true radicalism and extremist affiliations:

If all you knew of Obama was what he presented to you in his speech, you would think of him as a typical Democratic politician improved by the addition of a bit more thoughtfulness and idealism than the average representative of the class. You would be amazed to learn of his extremely close relationship to a radical anti-American preacher; or that he has followed a no-enemies-to-the-left approach to politics that put him in the company of an unrepentant terrorist. You would not suspect that he favors taxpayer-funded abortion or drivers’ licenses for illegal immigrants. You would not realize that he has crossed party lines far less often than McCain. You would not imagine that he had ever voted against funding for troops in war zones. It would not cross your mind that this denouncer of hardball, self-interested politics might be having his campaign intimidate reporters out of looking into his record.

***He shoveled Surge-denial with both hands....

Obama was less successful in making the case for himself on foreign policy, but no less dishonest. He did not acknowledge the success or even the existence of the surge. He presented McCain as the lone holdout against a consensus on withdrawal from Iraq that includes President Bush. If he had had his way, we would have been out of Iraq a long time ago and the country would be in far worse shape — but by presenting a timeline of the Iraq debate that excludes the last two years, he kept all but the most attentive listeners from noticing.

***....and had plenty of "energy" left over for the domestic policy sump-pump:

For instance, Obama said it’s time “to protect Social Security for future generations.” But he didn’t mention his main proposal, which is to add a new Social Security payroll tax to incomes above $250,000 a year.

He said he would “cut taxes for 95% of all working families,” but did not say how.

He briefly mentioned abortion, gun rights, gay rights and other hot-button issues without delving into their sticky details. “Passions fly on immigration,” Obama said, “but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.”

First of all, once again, EVERY family is a "working" family.  Except lazy, shiftless, no-account clans like those of Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, Billary Clinton, John Edwards and....Barack Obama that have never worked an honest private sector day in their misbegotton lives.  But, of course, they don't count.  Nor do they do REAL "tax cuts," as Lucifer was referring not to reducing individual rates on income or capgains (which he wants to double, if you'll recall), but another blizzard of "rebate" checks stolen from the bottom lines of energy companies.  That's not supply-side stimulus, it's undiluted Robin Hood-ism.

Yes, my friends, red meat for the "blue"-sheviks.  Predictable and implausible, said J-Ger, as well as, remarkably for an erstwhile agent of hope, change, and unity, angry:

Of all the aspects of this speech, the anger was the part that surprised me the most. I didn’t expect him to take it easy on McCain, but after McCain’s “well done,” ad, I wondered if they would take out some of the sharper or snippier lines. I can't imagine anything came out, unless this morning's version included him dropping the F-bomb. The red tie fits Obama tonight, because he was angry. As another blogger noted to me while Obama was giving the speech, McCain’s congratulatory ad looks out of place tonight, as he just made a nice gesture to a guy ripping him six ways to Sunday.

Obama clearly was offended by the “Celebrity” ad. He ought to blame his organizers, who treated this night as a mega concert, not a key step in the democratic process.

The line “McCain said he will follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives,” was disastrous. Obnoxious.

“I’ve got news for you John McCain. We all put our country first.” First of all, no, some people don’t. Second, he made that line into an attack line.

Obama was bitter. Clinging, I guess you could say.

You'll recall that I predicted such ungraciousness from The One.  Just not almost concurrent with McCain's "job well done" spot.

The assembled cultists ate that bile up like it was steak at a Saturday Catholic barbeque.  But as has been pointed out many times, anger is not a commodity that sells very well to the public at large, especially in a presidential nominee's acceptance speech.  Convention time is generally when the public starts to pay attention in election cycles, and the nominee's final-night address is his/her opportunity not just to preach to the choir, but to speak to the nation at large and present a positive vision of how they plan to govern the country over the next four years.

Instead of availing himself of the chance to renew his optimistic, inspirational, uplifting, "post-partisan" bona fides with Middle America, as Ensign Ed observed, BO settled for mailing in his standard stump speech:

Obama made the same mistake that plagued the entire Democratic convention; he ran against George Bush.  He railed about the previous eight years, which certainly is de rigeur for the party out of the White House, but failed to present any clear idea of what different policies he would apply.  He did almost nothing to present any specific, positive plan for the American people beyond the sloganeering to which Obama has bitterly clung while his polling has dropped by double digits this summer....

In the end, this was an opportunity lost, both by Obama and by his party.  Democrats had the chance to show America that they had grown beyond their obsession with George Bush and had a positive, rational plan to govern.  Instead, they essentially ran a re-run of their 2004 convention and forgot that Bush will retire in five months, not four, as some of their mathematically-challenged speakers stated.

Perhaps if Obama hadn't cast off that phony "hopeandchange" cloak over the past five months all the BS in his O-cropolis oratory would have slid down the mental gullets of TV viewers without a second thought and with scarcely any less enthusiasm than the assembled Invesco worshippers.  But he did, and it didn't, at least not to the degree he needed.  His refusal to acknowledge his need for Hillary Clinton on his ticket raised the stakes for his nomination acceptance remarks into the stratosphere.  He had to convince Joe Sixpack and Jill Q. Public that the past five months never happened, that he is still the black, left-wing Reagan that his 2004 keynote speech harbinged.  From all (objective) reports, he not only failed, but didn't even bother to try.

And no, "objective" isn't a loaded term, unless you consider Juan Williams to be Dick Cheney's unacknowledged love child:

Of course, Barry's "bipartisanship" is just rhetorical.  EVERYTHING with this guy is rhetorical, because he HASN'T DONE ANYTHING.  If Bill Clinton was "the man from Hope," Barack Hussein Obama is "the man from Hype".  I've written on more than one occasion that if Obama were white he'd be the Democrats' Dan Quayle, but that's unfair - to the former Indiana senator and Vice President.  Quayle had eight years' Senate experience when Pappy Bush tapped him in 1988 and several legislative accomplishments to his credit.  All BO has done since entering the U.S. Senate is run for president, which is fitting in a backhanded way since he's scarcely any less unqualified for the office he holds than the one he's seeking.

Ken Patera used to say, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up."  The sheer length of a national presidential campaign does not allow sufficient evasion of public scrutiny to conceal an inability to back up ill-considered boasting.  If Barack Obama had any measurable degree of modesty or humility, he would have let Hillary Clinton collect her lifetime payoff for putting up with Mr. Bill, focused on building a respectable legislative record over two senate terms, and planned a presidential run in 2016 when he was, shall we say, "a little more seasoned".  Instead he jacked up his arrogance in inverse proportion to his resume.

THAT's the deal he sealed last night.  It just may not be the deal that puts him in the Oval Office - unless the public at large now see presidential politics as just another "celebreality" show.

UPDATE: Can you believe Barry didn't try to play up his candidacy being the crown jewel in Martin Luther King's legacy more?  Or does he consider himself the god to whom Dr. King was praying?

The civilrightsers won't like that.  Maybe his blowoff of Uncle Jeremiah was sincere.

UPDATE II: Here's Brother Meringoff's live-blog.  My favorite section:

10:44 After almost half an hour, we finally get to foreign policy and national security.

10:45 “We must take out Osama bin Laden if we have him in our sights.” Who said Obama doesn’t grasp national security issues?

10:46 He accuses McCain of not being willing to follow bin Laden into the cave where he lives. If Obama loses the election, let’s hope he gives McCain the address of that cave.

10:47 Obama is setting a low bar for McCain next week.

10:48 Obama says he’s the one who will deter Iran. You remember Iran – that tiny country we don’t have to worry about.

10:49 Obama is also the one to deter Russia. You remember Russia – the country Obama was slow to denounce after it attacked Georgia.

10:50 Obama looks forward to debating McCain. . .as soon as he’s done turning down opportunities to do so.

10:51 Obama is not going to question McCain’s patriotism. That’s big of him. But he’s just accused McCain of being unwilling to go after bin Laden.

UPDATE III: Here's the Obama biographical video that must have gotten misplaced: