The Obama Machine Collapses

David Samuels writing in Tablet: Rapid-Onset Political Enlightenment, about the invincible Obama news-manipulation machine - think fiction writer Ben Rhodes - rapidly collapsed.

I first became interested in the role of digital technology in reshaping American politics a decade ago, when I reported on the selling of Barack Obama’s Iran deal for The New York Times Magazine. By the time I became interested in the subject, the outcome of Obama’s campaign to sell the deal, which had become the policy cornerstone of his second term in office, was a fait accompli. The Deal seemed odd to me, not only because American Jews were historically a key player in the Democratic Party—providing outsized numbers of voters, party organizers and publicists, in addition to huge tranches of funding for its campaigns—but because the Deal seemed to actively undermine the core assumptions of U.S. security architecture in the Middle East, whose goals were to ensure the steady flow of Middle Eastern oil to global markets while keeping U.S. troops out of the region.

It is a good inside-baseball look at media manipulation.

I was reminded of a Facebook argument, back when I was still on, of a friendly acquaintance posting "THANK YOU OBAMA!" because the price of a gallon of gas had gone down to $2.11. I replied that gas had been $1.86/gal when he took office, and presidents don't much influence the price of gas anyway, as other powerful forces (including Congress and other countries) were always pushing and pulling their own donkeys as well. There were four quick replies, all from educators making assertions with no sources, but assuring me that I was wrongwrongwrong. Each switched to a different tangent, about Bush or renewables or Republicans not liking BHO because he's black.  I counter-replied "$1.86," and gave a source. Two more reassertions, and I replied "$1.86."  I was unfriended. 

Trump understands new media and new politics better than they do, but he is not otherwise a good candidate. There is moaning that Hilary was a uniquely bad candidate, then Biden, then Harris and Walz, and that darn Obama destroyed the Democrats' bench, but there's a reason for it. They all believe this nonsense.  Hilary may have been a National Merit Scholar, but she still doesn't understand that "price-gouging" in an emergency is actually the quickest way to stabilise prices so that small businesses don't go under. To be fair, she may know but just lies about it, knowing its appeal. Democrats are masterful at getting you to think in anecdote rather than numbers.