Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, awakening from their sleep

Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, awakening from their sleep, begin to realize that they don't really know much about Barack Obama. Most likely they voted early too, like the millions of followers have been encouraged to do ... to vote early before the spell wears off and you realize what you're about to participate in ... the election of an American dictator, in our time! Journalists who are clueless, but hey, they're still allowed access to the plane I bet. From the Rush Limbaugh show.


"RUSH: Now, on Charlie Rose Show last night on PBS. Are they doing their pledge drive yet? Is PBS doing their drive? Because, you know, "Without your Pledge, we cannot dust." He had on Tom Brokaw last night, ladies and gentlemen. Here's a montage. Now, this is last night. As you listen to this, keep in mind everything you've heard from Brokaw and others in the Drive-Bys can for the past six months, three months, two months or whatever. This is a montage of Charlie Rose and Brokaw trying to figure out who Obama is.

ROSE: I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.

BROKAW: No, I don't, either.

ROSE: I don't know how he really sees where China is.

BROKAW: We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.

ROSE: I don't really know. And do we know anything about the people who are advising him?

BROKAW: Yeah, it's an interesting question.

ROSE: He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational (sic) speeches.

BROKAW: Two of them! I don't know what books he's read.

ROSE: What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?

BROKAW: There's a lot about him we don't know."

Brokaw & Rose: Who Is Obama?

Change me, change me

This opinion piece in the WSJ likens Obama to a leader from the author's boyhood Arab political culture... the unending expectation of the big crowd and their placing hope in a leader and not in themselves. Amazing to see the USA turning it all over to an authoritarian so willfully, so blindly, flooding the streets like some Pakistani crowd chanting for change.

"Save in times of national peril, Americans have been sober, really minimalist, in what they expected out of national elections, out of politics itself. The outcomes that mattered were decided in the push and pull of daily life, by the inventors and the entrepreneurs, and the captains of industry and finance. To be sure, there was a measure of willfulness in this national vision, for politics and wars guided the destiny of this republic. But that American sobriety and skepticism about politics -- and leaders -- set this republic apart from political cultures that saw redemption lurking around every corner.

My boyhood, and the Arab political culture I have been chronicling for well over three decades, are anchored in the Arab world. And the tragedy of Arab political culture has been the unending expectation of the crowd -- the street, we call it -- in the redeemer who will put an end to the decline, who will restore faded splendor and greatness. When I came into my own, in the late 1950s and '60s, those hopes were invested in the Egyptian Gamal Abdul Nasser. He faltered, and broke the hearts of generations of Arabs. But the faith in the Awaited One lives on, and it would forever circle the Arab world looking for the next redeemer.

America is a different land, for me exceptional in all the ways that matter. In recent days, those vast Obama crowds, though, have recalled for me the politics of charisma that wrecked Arab and Muslim societies. A leader does not have to say much, or be much. The crowd is left to its most powerful possession -- its imagination."

Obama and the Politics of Crowds by FOUAD AJAMI

Obama Followers: Vote Early, Vote Often

The Obama campaign is pushing hard to get people to vote early, and why not? Once a person has voted, it doesn't matter anymore what they learn about Obama, who was practically on top of the Democratic ticket before people knew a thing about him beyond the fact that he has written plenty of books about himself, and had authored almost no legislation, or led any large organization besides his own campaign. And that is actually run by his PR firm and some extremely wealthy patrons. Obama is a professional speaker and that's all, and over time many people are realizing this. McCain over time, despite having less than half the money, is picking up followers and gaining in the polls. The Democrats' goal is to just get Obama elected by whatever means, and answer the tough questions later. (Or rather than answer the tough questions later, why not say then that it's just more Republican bickering and attacking. Can we Move On?) For example, what about the illegal online fund raising via credit cards that have not been verified. What really went wrong with Fannie and Freddie?

A U.S. Congress committee said last week that it would examine the financial collapse and federal takeover of the companies on November 20, after the U.S. presidential and congressional elections.

Again, let's elect a Democrat, regardless of who it is or whether he has any experience, or belief in American values of liberty, free markets, and capitalism, and then deal with any nagging questions about who or why after the fact.

"We were asked -- or required -- to expand lending, to conserve capital while providing liquidity, to meet housing goals for the undeserved, to serve shareholders and homeowners alike," Mudd told the paper. Hmmm... while McCain was asking for stricter regulations to reign in Fannie and Freddie, who do you think was all for more lending to the poor, undeserving urban communities who really deserve their own houses just like those rich fat cats? Let's figure that out after the election, shall we? We don't want to upset the imbalance of the election by actually reporting news now, and finding answers now, do we?

Ex Fannie Mae chief wishes he had said no more often

Obama's early vote push