The Big Rock Candy Mountain: Obama's "Change" Acceptance Speech Offers Recycled Rhetoric

by PEP | August 29, 2008 at 06:52 am | 43 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

Analysts are arguing that Barack Obama's acceptance speech was only a change in speaker, not in rhetoric, as meaningless phrases beloved by leftists took center stage. All in all, Obama seemed to be singing about the lemonade springs and free lunches at the bars in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

What the temple acolytes haven't yet figured out is that behind the stage settings, the only Big Rock Candy Mountain Obama and crew are offering is the real one in the less well-known version. A realist speaks "

Sandy,

I've hiked and hiked and wandered too,

But I ain't seen any candy.

I've hiked and hiked till my feet are sore

And I'll be damned if I hike any more

To be buggered sore like a hobo's whore

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.""

Even back in 1945, the Big Rock Candy Mountain, staged as part of a sticky-sweet warble of American life, didn't sell. But it made a comeback this year on Maryland ballots on video gaming and, potentially, slot machines.

And, of course, the Big Rock Candy Mountain loomed over all at the Democratic National Convention. The only thing missing: the actual lemonade trees and lake of gin--but Obama and worshippers did manage to verbally hang "the jerk that invented work".

Because, you see, actual work is never needed, there, in the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

I wrote a quick post before bed last night giving my off-the-cuff reaction to Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, arguing that, despite all the talk of “change,” it was basically a speech that Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry could have given.

The NYT has a six-page transcript of the speech as delivered. Let’s skip the biography and gotcha attack lines and go through the policy pronouncements. These are problems for which he’s blamed George W. Bush and has promised to fix if elected president.