Obama, the Election, and the Lord of the Rings
[Guest post by DRJ]
In a clever post, Driver at Amused Cynic sees parallels between Obama, this election, and the Lord of the Rings but she needs help casting the roles.
Meanwhile, Rachel Lucas says the lesson of the LOTRs is: No matter how bleak things seem, fight until you can’t fight anymore.
— DRJ
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I wholeheartedly echo that last line. Many claim this election is over. Maybe they’re right. But it’s stupid to give up.
Everyone who believes in conservative principles must go to the polls and vote for McCain and Palin.
Everyone who sees Big Media misstating the facts must call them on it.
No matter how tirelessly they peddle falsehoods, we must fight back with the truth. If we lose, so be it — but if we hew to the truth, we will lose with honor . . . and who knows? We just might win.
I wouldn’t bet money on it. But I’ll pour my heart and soul into the possibility during these remaining days.
Wait. I thought the moral was “When you do get the ring, you’ll fall into the lava.”
That doesn’t sound too happy here.
Al (b624ac) — 10/21/2008 @ 9:51 pmTolkien absolutely hated it when his imaginative fantasy fiction, inspired by his extensive knowledge of northern European pre-Christian history and cultures, and informed by his brilliant linguistic skills, were used to draw parallels to modern political conditions. Because he was right, it’s absolute bullshit to try to do so.
He wrote a short but pointed essay about it once that I couldn’t find with a quick search, but here’s his basic thought on this whole attempt at political allegory.
Aplomb (b6fba6) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:05 pmArtists often lose control of their creations. That’s life.
Patterico (cc3b34) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:12 pmThe Clintons did more hard research into Senator Obama’s shortcomings than anyone, and Sen. Clinton didn’t give up until she was absolutely forced too. I think she was hoping for the Obama Campaign to implode. Perhaps the MSM can push him into the White House but Obama is hiding something else (in addition to Ayers, Wright, Goolsbee and that inconvenient secret Iraqi negociation question) that could sink him for good.
We will see, but the Main Stream Media is working hard for their candidate and it is difficult to even ask questions of The One without getting investigated. When did it become so important to investigate the questioner and give the candidate a pass?
tyree (8dab48) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:18 pmWhen the media calls the election for Obama before the polls close (let alone before Election Day), the conservative mantra should be “Remember the (Florida) Panhandle (of 2000)!”
They duped us once; we’d have to be suckers to be duped like that again.
clark smith (94bb58) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:25 pmThe sheer transparency of the mendacious “Obama has won, just go home Rethugs and forget about voting” mantra annoys me no end.
Obama is trying to purchase the election outright, steal bits of it through ACORN, frighten off others through his Trooth Squaders and thugs … and the last bit is to discourage all the rest into just giving up and letting him have it.
Barry believes he is entitled to the office. That’s why he doesn’t want to earn it.
Darleen (187edc) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:29 pmI have bet money on it (small amounts) with
friends.
McCain will beat Obama, narrowly.
Jack (1d4285) — 10/21/2008 @ 10:45 pmWhat we need is a St. Crispin’s Day speech from McCain.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 10/21/2008 @ 11:10 pmTheir strategy is to break our will.
They wouldn’t need that strategy if they really were guaranteed to win.
Obama’s campaign has been hit with a string of gaffes. Barack is out of action to visit his grandmother, which I can respect. But aren’t presidential campaigns supposed to be able to multitask? Isn’t Biden supposed to step up to fill Barack’s shoes? Where is Joe Biden?
He’s practicing to be the next Dick Cheney–by hiding out at an undisclosed location. He hasn’t given a press conference in over a month.
Obama has plenty of time left to blow up his campaign.
Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c) — 10/21/2008 @ 11:12 pmPeople, as much as I hate to say it, it’s over, and Barack Hussein Obama will win. The reason is simple, and this website reflects it as much as any other: we have our friends on the left telling us why we should vote for Barack Obama, and we conservatives are saying why people should vote against Mr Obama. The conversation about why we should vote for John McCain is barely alive.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight, but it does mean we should recognize why Mr Obama is ahead, and why his lead is growing. Mr Obama may or may not lead us into greater socialism, but yelling “Socialist!” and “Ayers!” isn’t proving to be a winning strategy.
Our friends on the left are preparing for a massive gloat-fest, and I suppose that they’ll be entitled to it. What we have to do is hunker down and work as hard as we can to frustrate Mr Obama’s initiatives, undermine his policies and defeat his nominees; we need to do to them what they have done to President Bush for the last four years.
The disheartened Dana (3e4784) — 10/22/2008 @ 5:37 amDana – they were just a fountain of bipartisanship and goodwill for the first 4 years, weren’t they? 😉
JD (c69925) — 10/22/2008 @ 5:56 amI posted Kipling’s The Quest at Rachel Lucas’.
“My shame ye count and know.
Ye say the quest is vain.
Ye have not seen my foe.
Ye have not told his slain.
Surely he fights again, again;
But when ye prove his line,
There shall come to your aid my broken blade
In the last, lost fight of mine!
We don’t have to win every battle in the campaign to win the war. The USA ‘lost’ the Battle of the Coral sea in 1942, but it set up the victory at Midway.
Newsbusters points out that the Big 3 newcasts continue to lose viewers in the middle of a controversial Presidential race. There have been more than 12,000 newspaper layoffs so far this year, with more promised.
The MSM is dying. Maybe dead. This was their last hurrah.
Obama himself looks spent. His hair’s going gray. Just campaigning is wearing him down.
If he wins we’re no longer on defense. That’s a relief all by itself. He’s burned all his friends, all his money, the credibility of the MSM to get a job he can’t hope to do. We just sit back and pick and choose in a target-rich environment.
He’ll be alone in the open, and those who funded him to the tune of half a billion dollars will be wanting something for their money. Oh, yes, they will. He’ll have to start dancing faster than ever, knowing he’s about to fail.
After all, Biden‘s already promised a spectacular Obama failure if the Democrats win.
Looking Glass (30d005) — 10/22/2008 @ 6:02 amHow do you reach liberals? I was getting these insulting email jokes about Palin, for instance, so I finally said, I’m voting for McCain, you know, and she went ballistic. They assume everybody agreed with them! Wouldn’t let me finish a sentence. Never heard of Fannie Mae’s policies that caused the meltdown. Then bemoaned how we all have to work together.
Is it wasted effort?
Patricia (ee5c9d) — 10/22/2008 @ 8:24 amTHEY MAY TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT THEY’LL NEVER TAKE…OUR FREEDOM!!
Oh, wait, that’s exactly what they’re going to do.
Roy Mustang (2f688e) — 10/22/2008 @ 8:33 amI will be voting for McCain for only one reason – he is not Obama. That is okay for me. In nearly fifty years of voting, I have often been forced by circumstances to vote for the lesser of two evils. In fact, on the presidential level, that is why I voted for Ford, Bush 41, Dole and Bush 43. They were marginally better than than their opponents. So, I held my nose and voted.
longwalker (963843) — 10/22/2008 @ 8:40 amThe Dem MSM wants everyone to think that its over so they’re polling 60% to 70% Dems, no wonder OBiden has a 10 point lead! The MSM wants to discourage Republican voters soooo much that they don’t even turn out. The thing is, this could very well backfire and bite them in the *ss. If Dems think its OBiden in a landslide, then maybe many of them won’t bother to vote because it’s unnecessary.
Never surrender! Keep on fighting. Don’t let the Dem MSM get you discouraged, instead let them anger you and use the energy of that anger to a positive purpose. I still believe it’s a McCain victory and it will be by a bigger margin that anyone predicted. And the MSM and Dems will be going absolutely nuts with RAGE! There will be riots.
November Surprise? I saw on Hotair last night that Fox News is negotiating with API in order to get some tapes of Michelle Obama ranting and raving against America and Whites. Could be another line of BS, but if true and Fox gets it out there the last week of the election, OBiden would not have enough time to recover from such a harsh blow. All I want is for the truth to be told and it’s not being told by the MSM, but God always finds a way, usually from an avenue that is unexpected and a pleasant surprise. Nothing can shake my faith. Moreover, either way there will be advantages and disadvantages to an OBiden Presidency and we’ll have to use the tools we have to continue to make the case for conservatism.
J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3) — 10/22/2008 @ 8:55 amPatricia wrote, “How do you reach liberals? I was getting these insulting email jokes about Palin, for instance, so I finally said, I’m voting for McCain, you know, and she went ballistic.”
Tell them Biden has pointed out that Obama will be a disaster.
Looking Glass (30d005) — 10/22/2008 @ 9:03 amPatricia,
Some more. Tell them you have to vote for Palin, Madeleine says so.
“There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t help other women.” – Madeleine Albright.
And from this very site,
http://www.patterico.com/2008/10/05/wow-las-now-president-endorses-palin/
“America, this is what a feminist looks like”
“Who said that about Sarah Palin? Would you believe the president of LA’s National Organization for Women, Shelly Mandel? Amazing! This is quite a moment for her to push back against the pressure from the feminist groups who see Sarah Palin as a traitor because she’s a Republican and pro-life who actually lived her principles. Let’s hope more mainstream, liberal feminists come out of their closets and support Sarah because, as Shelly said, Sarah supports women’s rights, equal pay, Title 9, and the middle class. She has integrity and demands it from others.”
E-mail it around.
Here’s a nice image to print out and display.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3QqO8EXd-II/SP9DJav8ouI/AAAAAAAAhPs/9ZnZ6w-o5Kc/s1600-h/varvel.jpg
If you can’t trust Biden when he tells you Obama is a ticking time bomb, then you can’t trust Obama’s judgment in picking his Vice Presidential candidate.
Looking Glass (30d005) — 10/22/2008 @ 9:25 amButter-up Barack: He’s Toast. I still stand by this article written months ago. Who knows? I may go down with the ship, but if I do, it will be with my head held high. On RCP polls they have McCain withing 2-3 points in most battleground states. If that holds, McCain will win.
http://jraymondwright.blogspot.com/2008/07/butter-up-barack-hes-toast-written-in.html
J. Raymond Wright (d83ab3) — 10/22/2008 @ 9:34 amThe same lesson from GALAXY QUEST: NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER SURRENDER.
Ira (28a423) — 10/22/2008 @ 10:08 amAt least in Galaxy Quest, you knew who the aliens were. In this election, Obama the leftist illuminati hero is the one we should fear, but millions upon millions of Americans are buying into his Socialist rhetoric.
Jeff (86606e) — 10/22/2008 @ 12:55 pmThanks–good suggestions, guys.
Patricia (ee5c9d) — 10/22/2008 @ 4:28 pmAll polls show Obama leading and continues to gain each week. Since the VP pick McCain unites the conservatives and continues to lose the independents. The Latino vote is steadly moving toward Obama. Today the polls are showing a movement of the elderly and men moving toward Obama. Remember the youth use cells and not land lines. The newly registered is not on the pollsters list yet. With the large turnout of youth and new voters this will probably be a land slide like we haven’t seen since Goldwater in 1964. Lets put this 72yr old power hungry ego manic to bed and get on with the business of the nation. If you want to vote for a conservative vote BOB BARR.
packeryman (46bcec) — 10/22/2008 @ 7:32 pmMoving votes away from McCain is a brilliant idea, packeryman. It is almost like you want to see a landslide.
JD (6248dc) — 10/22/2008 @ 7:34 pm