The Man Who Sold the World: Obama

"Just read the teleprompter, Mr. President" (PR Guru).

(WQ) Having sold himself to the American public and the world as the "peace candidate," promising to bring invading troops home, Barack Obama last night abruptly altered course. It's war full steam ahead. The torture and extrajudicial prison system will continue for the time being. What has changed? It's a nicer delivery system. The words are prettier, the lies smoother, and Bush's dream of a New World Order moves forward just as it would have with Sarah Palin after John McCain's heart attack. But with distractions like Tiger Woods' love life, this hypocritical turnaround and war escalation should all get swept under the rug. Nevertheless, the undeniable thing coming to light is the difference between Democratic and Republican candidates: style not substance. Whoever runs the country, selects its leaders (through political donations and mass media manipulation) and its policies. The "election," it is now clear, was a giant PR stunt telling the world what it wanted to hear while planning its own agenda despite the world. The job of a president, after all, is not to wield power so much as to draw attention away from it. Who better than Obama for that?

• Poll shows lessening support on Afghanistan (NY Times)
• Master of Manipulation
  What a coincidence. Two days before Obama's speech at West Point, announcing at least 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report is released that blames an insufficient number of troops for Osama bin Laden’s escape from American forces in 2001. You could be forgiven for thinking that the chairman of the committee, (former democratic presidential candidate) Sen. John Kerry, is serving his commander in chief's interests (TheDailyBeast.com).
• VIDEO: Afghans mixed on Obama's war surge plan (AP)
• Cheney accuses Obama of "projecting weakness"
  In fact, [President Barack] Obama is doing it far more decisively and vigorously and assertively. The wavering occurred over the last seven years, not now. Dick Cheney says... (Politico).
• U.S.-Afghanistan War Timeline
  Oct. 7, 2001 — U.S. and British forces begin airstrikes in Afghanistan after the Taliban refuse to hand over al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, blamed for the 9/11 attacks....Dec. 1, 2009 — Obama outlines his decision to rapidly expand the U.S. role in the war in Afghanistan, sending an additional 30,000 troops. About 71,000 U.S. troops are currently in Afghanistan. At least 849 U.S. troops [and countless Afghan civilians] have been killed so far in the war.
• Hillary on hot seat: Clinton answers for Obama's surge...
  chairman of the Armed Services Committee, then told Clinton that Obama had gotten it backwards on the surge -- thousands of Afghan troops should be trained... (New York Daily News).
• Hillary Clinton: Obama's Afghan policy "right" for U.S.
  WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling the Obama administration's newly announced surge-and-exit strategy in Afghanistan "the best way..."