Rose-colored glasses, removed

In any rightwing venue these days one will probably find the mildly annoying attempt to slur Obama and his supporters by referring to him as "St. Obama" or "Obamamessiah" inferring, of course, that his supporters are all mindless cultists who have fallen for an empty suit. This is not a new line of attack - they used it on Al Gore, too - and I guess it's a notch better than the racist bull, but it does carry a few extra pounds of irony coming as it does from the political faction that gives cover to the religious right, one of the most noxious and destructive (not to mention being the antithesis of actual spirituality) cultural elements in our society today. Whatever. As someone who is older than dirt and who has been following politics since the days of JFK and whose dreamy-eyed idealism is but a dim memory, I find the epithet as ill-fitting as my high school uniform. On the other hand, how sweet is it to see the wingnuts squirm so ungraciously in response to the massive popularity of Obama and Gore, in stark contrast to the flaming disaster of today's Republican Party? Heh, indeed.

But we older-than-dirt coots have ridden this pendulum back and forth many times and as pleasant as it is to be backing a winner this time, it's not in the least bit shocking to discover that our guy doesn't always fit the template as we might like him to. Atrios puts it well too. Anyway, I think the telecom amnesty issue is important and if you agree, now is the time to let the Obama campaign hear from you about it. See the contact information provided in the Greenwald link.