Friday, August 29, 2008

Obama "Analysis"

You'll recall that I tried to preemptively top the praise of Obama's speech by doing a mock analysis of it earlier in the week. Other readers sent in their own attempts at parody. Below I'm going to reproduce a bunch of the parodies interspersed with the "real analysis" by various bloggers, commentators, etc from the last 12 hours. I defy you to tell which is which.

(A) Stunning. Simply stunning. This is the speech that changed America, that restored her to her erstwhile glory. Tears flood the eyes--and I am not someone who cries easily.

One forgets the native beauty of our founding commitment, and then one is reminded in words so powerful, so simple, so true. Mark my words: decades hence, we shall all look back on this speech and remember the brief shining moment when we were, truly, one nation, under God.

(B) This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.

Know hope.

(C) Indisputably the greatest political moment we have witnessed in many generations. Behold, America. You have been offered redemption. Seize the opportunity. Remind the world of the better angels of your nature. Now is the time. This is the place. Yes we can.

(D) But the dark moments pass, and this is why. There is still goodness in the land. It lives and walks among us, calling us back to our better selves. With this speech, Barack has brought light to the hinterland. No honest person, no decent person, could vote against him.

Know hope.

(E) It was as if the first three days were the Democratic Party's convention, when the usual lineup of pols and dignitaries got rewarded for their service, and the final night was Obama's convention, where Obama, all on his lonesome, defined the contours of the campaign and laid out what he meant liberalism to look like on his watch.

(F) In many ways it was less a speech than a symphony. It was a masterpiece.


Go ahead. Three of these are parodies and three are from various commenters. I'll even give you a hint by telling you who they are: Andrew Sullivan, Ezra Klein, and David Gergen. Tou tell me which is which.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll give it a shot:

A, B and C are the parodies.

D is Klein

E is Gergen

F is Sullivan

Anonymous said...

B is Sullivan (thanks to a commenter on JVL's earlier "tomorrow's analysis today" post); F is Gergen - read that somewhere else online; A, C, & D are parodies that were posted to JVL's earlier post; that leaves E for Ezra Klein.

What *will* these people do when they lose their faith or their god disappoints?

TubbyLover69 said...

G.) From Burke to Oakeshott, the conservative mind has long been wary of attributing too the temporal order the attributes properly belonging transcendent realms. (That is the principal reason I have so despaired of watching the GOP succumb to objectively demonic possession.) So much more acutely do real conservatives feel it, then, to know that it will be Obama's duty to exorcise the land, to purify our souls, and to redeem the very spirit of this almost chosen people.