Whoop Dee Doo isn't a Platform

Sometimes people you hate say things you like. The link goes to an article about the campaign in Pennsylvania, where Hillary Clinton was taking a swipe at Barack Obama by promising

"I don't want to just show up and give one of those whoop-dee-do speeches and get everybody whipped up," she said. "I want everyone thinking."

OK, so we all have our guilty pleasures. I don't mean to suggest any kind of support for Hillary Clinton, but Barack Obama seriously gets on my nerves - and for exactly that reason.

There's a bumper sticker from the last campaign that I think of when I hear Barack Obama speak. It reads "'Yee-Haw!' is not a foreign policy" - a criticism of Bush, obviously. The idea being that you can't just say "freedom" endlessly and talk about how great America is and expect things to work out. At some point you have to get your hands dirty and work with the world as it really is - and that's a complicated thing that doesn't admit of a one-size-fits-all solution. Well, that's more or less how I feel about Barack Obama. You can't just say "hope" and "unity" endlessly and expect things to work out. At some point, it doesn't hurt to outline a program.

I wonder, actually, how many people with those "Yee-Haw" bumper stickers are now canvassing for Obama? Wouldn't it be fun to know?