"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Friday, February 08, 2008

Tapper Strikes Again

Jake Tapper, of the infamous Clinton collage (which I discussed here and here), has now christened the Obama campaign a "cult." From Will Bunch:

Jake Tapper (left) is an ambitious Philly-area kid who parleyed a date with Monica Lewinsky into early admission into the Gang -- now he's ABC's chief political correspondent and when he sees the excitement generated by the Obama campaign, he can only think of it as one thing: A cult.

His alarmist blog post is actually called: "And Obama Wept":

Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand.

It's as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Lord."


He does find a variety of sources to back it up, including Gang leader Joe Klein:

Joe Klein, writing at Time, notes "something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism" he sees in Obama's Super Tuesday speech.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for," Obama said. "This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It's different not because of me. It's different because of you."


Actually, if you read all of Klein's piece, it's not nearly as alarmist as Tapper makes it sound, and it certainly doesn't echo the hysterical tone of Tapper's piece. (Check out his over-the-top conclusion in particular.)


Tapper's conclusion is more ridiculous than anything else, but check out his update. (I'm having real problems with Tapper's site, so follow the link yourself, please.) It demonstrates quite effectively that conservatives are sadly deficient when it comes to detecting humor. (Yeah, I'm lumping Tapper in with the right-wing fringe. He's one of the Villagers, who have been parroting the Kristol/Dobson/Norquist talking points for over a decade now,so it amounts to the same thing.)

I have one thing to say to Tapper and Klein: Walk into CPAC and say "Ronald Reagan." Then talk to me about cults.

FTLOP

Thanks to John Amato, who had this to say:

In essence he’s telling you that exuberance for Obama is bad, Mmkay? If the CPACers were as excited for McCain—then exuberance would be good, Mmkay?

'Nuff said?

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