http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5987
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4084
by Peter Hitchens
It is fascinating to see how seldom my critics respond to what I actually say. What seems to get them going is the fact that I exist at all.
I wrote an article which http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5667 for George Washington (Merci, Messieurs Rochambeau, Lafayette and De Grasse, and so much for all those American jibes about cheese-eating surrender monkeys and non-existent French military victories) – English people haven’t really had much business in deciding who is the Head of the American State or Government.
I wrote an article which contained not one word of endorsement for John McCain or http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5721, nor one word of defence of George W.Bush. A tiny bit of research would reveal that I have long been a strong critic of Mr Bush and his actions, that I have shown no enthusiasm for Mr McCain and I delighted in Mrs Palin only to the extent that she annoys ultra-feminists.
Two weeks ago, I would have said that – in the unlikely event that I swore allegiance to a foreign power and became a US citizen – that I probably wouldn’t have voted at all in the Presidential election. I believe many have fought and died for the immensely precious right not to vote. I think people should exercise that right a good deal more when presented with an insulting or excessively http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5864 by the political party machines.But after spending some time in the US during the closing days of the campaign, I came round to the view that, granted a vote, I would have cast it for Mr McCain if only to annoy the Obama cultists, and emphasise the fact that a sizeable minority aren’t wholly fooled by hype, humbug and brain-bypassing advertising techniques.
Even so, I still think both abstaining and voting for McCain were reasonable options, even if you disagree with them. I also have no personal criticisms against those who voted rationally for Mr Obama on the basis that they knew exactly what he was and what they would get. I disagree with them, but at least their action was rational and informed. You could even – as some I know have done – vote for Obama because you desired a Democratic White House , even if you didn’t think much of the man.
What I don’t think any wise or educated person should do would be to vote for Barack Obama on the basis of the weird utopian cult which seemed to have come into being around him. People shouldn’t swoon at political rallies. They shouldn’t ( as 17,000 Obama fans did once in Dallas) applaud when Obama stops a speech to announce that he needs to blow his nose. They should listen carefully to what is being said, and you can’t do that while in a swoon. It is well known that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose (the politest way I know of expressing this problem) . But the contrast between the supposed promise of Obama and the likely reality is so great that it is likely to discredit the office and the constitution.
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2008/11/obamaniacs.html