On Thu, 3 Dec 2009, Ismail Lagardien wrote:
> Doug, I have the world of respect and admiration for you - you know
> that! But seriously, what did you/we/they expect from a president of the
> United States?..All this bleating about lost hope and disappointment etc
> leaves me cold!
Ismail, you are completely misunderstanding what Doug means by disappointed hope. He's not saying he had hopes about Obama. He never did. Read anything he ever wrote. He gave up before he got elected to the Senate. But Doug's saying many other people did. You may probably noticed that. And he's saying that many of those people are now suddenly shaking with disappointment and anger at the guy. And he's suggesting that just as Hope was the Great Co-opter, so perhaps de-Hope may be the great inciter of something on the Left, which this group of engaged people would now be open to precisely because they've given up hope and because they are enraged and want to attack the guy they once deferred to.
At least that's the hope :-)
Michael