| January 15th, 2007 |
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Señor Hugo Chavez es un cabrón miserable, un insecto insignificante. Los Estados Unidos lo aplastará tarde o temprano. Entonces tomaremos su aceite cual es nuestro de todas maneras. ¡Nadie puede luchar el imperio de americano! ¡Ja ja ja!
Ahora, necesito ayuda de mis amigos quien hablar español. ¿Cuántos errores hago? Tengo dificultades con el tenso subjuntivo en particular, porque no lo uso con frecuencia en inglés.
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I finished Senator Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope yesterday. The title is somewhat of a misnomer because Senator Obama isn't really that audacious. On every issue that really matters he's a conventional liberal. I'd put him slightly further to the left than Bill Clinton on domestic policy. Even before he was elected to his Senate seat in 2004 there was talk of him running for president. Obama is haunted by the idea that his 04 victory was a fluke; when your opponent is Alan Keyes, you only have to keep your own mouth shut until election day. I think that humility is one of Obama's greatest strengths.
I think he is going to run for president. When you're short on political experience you have to run as a biography/personality candidate. Obama certainly has an outstanding personality and a fascinating life story. It's striking how far below the radar he is in the conservative media. He opposed the Iraq war from the start; he supports some kind of socialized medicine scheme; he believes the rich ought to pay more taxes; and he doesn't believe human life begins at conception. Conservatives aren't really mad at him though, at least not the way they're mad at, say, Hillary or Teddy or Kerry. Obama acknowledges the failures of government in the past. He believes it's a good thing the government no longer pays women to have children out of wedlock, and he acknowledges that government schools are dismal failures (only in certain inner-city areas). He's sympathetic to and even agrees with social conservatives on the decay of American culture we see in music, film, and movies.
Obama's solution, of course, is more government action. It's failed every time before but this time we can get it right. He's sure of it. Americans are incorrigible optimists and by all accounts Obama's "happy yet serious warrior" persona on the campaign trail is a big hit. He's as slick as Willie without really being slick. He easily makes passionate friends without making equally passionate enemies, or really even alienating his opponents. His personality is the polar opposite of the Nixonian Hillary Clinton. If her name was Hillary Rodham, she wouldn't be the junior Senator from New York right now. If his name was Joe Smith, he'd be exactly where he is now.
Which is why we conservatives ought to take Obama very seriously. I think he would be a much, much tougher opponent for us. With the exception of Giuliani, any Republican candidate could handily defeat Hillary in a general election. Republicans universally loathe her and a sizable minority of Democrats don't like her either. In contrast, Obama could plausibly defeat almost any Republican in the general election; Democrats universally adore him and Republicans, while not embracing him, think of him as the least bad. I read somewhere that if Obama runs, his opponents will attempt to make hay from his inexperience. He has a handy retort ready: the current administration is filled with men and women with long resumes, and they're responsible for the greatest strategic blunder in American history.
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