(Am I allowed to say that?)
All Obama, all the time is a bit much.
This morning Lorrie Goldstein treats us to a tongue-in-cheek column about MOB Canada – which is the Canadian chapter of the ‘Media of Obama’ (MOB now in Canada):
Our job, as a branch plant of our American head office, will be to provide Canadians with objective news analysis of the glorious presidency of Barack Obama, compared to the disappointing prime ministership of Stephen Harper.
Inspired by the "news" judgment of former Democratic party strategist Chris Matthews, president of THE MOB, USA, who, during his duties co-anchoring MSNBC’s coverage of the presidential primaries declared, upon hearing a speech by Obama: "My, I felt this thrill going up my leg! I mean, I don’t have that too often!", we at THE MOB, Canada, will endeavour to bring similar objective news analysis to the table whenever comparing president-elect Obama to what’s-his-name.
Our first order of business will be to wonder out loud — ad nauseam — why we can’t have a leader as eloquent, wonderful, intelligent, sexy, glorious, transformational and messianic as Obama … and then figure out if there’s some way we can blame that on Harper, too …
From there Lorrie goes on to explain how Stephen Harper and Barack Obama share several very similar viewpoints, and yet Harper gets vilified for his, while Obama is glorified for the same policies.
Here’s a great example:
…Next, we must emphasize that while Harper is an unscrupulous, evil, planet-killing, lackey of the Alberta oil industry for having previously opposed efforts to fight global warming, while today hypocritically claiming to be on side, Obama is an ethical, moral, green god for having previously voted, at the urging of the Illinois coal industry as an Illinois state senator in 1998, in favour of a bill condemning the Kyoto accord and prohibiting the state from regulating greenhouse gases, while today sincerely supporting efforts to combat global warming…
And wouldn’t ya know it, here comes MOB Canada’s most loyal pundit, James Traversty with that exact skew:
…It’s that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are, in significant ways, the last George W. Bush Republicans left standing.
While hardly cozy, the two parties share Karl Rove’s acidic political playbook and on defining issues the two administrations are pea-pod close. Until the financial implosion, tax-cutting, big-spending, free-trading neighbours were happiest letting unfettered markets guide symbiotic economies. Had they been in power, Conservatives would have sent Canadians into Iraq beside Americans. On climate change, Harper and Bush formed an axis of apathy …
Well done, Comrade Travers. MOB USA must be so proud.
* * * *
Related: Eric has uncovered the British arm of MOB – The BBC has an Obamagasm
And this self-described ‘recovering politican’ will never be allowed into the secret world of MOB. Presidents can’t solve everyone’s problems? What the…?
