Saturday, July 16, 2011

Is It Time for Obama's Scroll?

Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, turned into a scroll and unfurled at UAA - November, 2007 - from the top, looking down
metamars's firedoglake diary, Have scientists discovered the cure for Obama-bot-ism?, prompted me to ponder whether it is time for me to make a new version of Hugh's Scroll.

Looking at Hugh's new Obama list, and comparing items on it to his well-known Bush List, I find the compilation disheartening.  Hugh has given me at least as much footage for a scroll on Obama in less than three years, as Bush gave us in almost seven years.

I was able to take Hugh's Scroll of Bush Scandals to several local and area Democratic Party events in the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign.  Naturally, the scroll was positively received, and praised as an effective visual aid.  How well will an Obama Scandal Scroll be received at our monthly Democratic Party dinner, if it turns out to be even longer than Bush's scroll was?
Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, turned into a scroll and unfurled at UAA - November, 2007 - from the bottom, looking up
We'll find out in August, when I roll it out. Looks like I need to buy about three new ink cartridges, eh?

[Later] -- I just compiled Hugh’s Obama List into Pages (Mac word processor).

Hugh’s Bush List was 50,285 words. The scroll is about 60 feet long.

Hugh’s Obama List is currently 105,067 words.  

When constructed, Hugh’s Obama scroll will be about 123 feet long.  

As a paginated list, it is 241 pages in 10 point helvetica.

That being said, there were 281 items on Hugh’s Bush list when I made it into a scroll. There are now 260 items on Hugh’s Obama list, but he has documented each entry in more detail than was the case for the Bush list. There may be a need for this, as it was easy to convince Democrats, for instance, of Bush’s perfidy, but you have to go into more detail to get the point across on Obama to these same people

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a time when I would have been outraged by this finding, and upset that the man I voted for was not truly progressive.

However, that was before 2000. Because there were some voters who felt Gore was not "progressive" enough--along with the outrageous assists by the Supreme Court and Katherine Harris--we all had to live through 8 hellish years of Bush-Cheney.

President Obama was handed a huge plate of steaming manure (via Bush-Cheney) and he's supposed to make it all just go away? Sorry. That's both naive, and impossible. Government doesn't work that way.

Has there ever been a U.S. President who would NOT have one of Hugh's long scrolls? Or any modern world leader? Has Hugh rated all the presidents of the 20th century? I guess Gandhi and the Dalai Lama would probably do all right. But they would never have been/be elected in the U.S.

Philip Munger said...

excellent points, @10:01. Please scroll down to Glenn Greenwald's talk, posted below. He brings up your observations, and, in my view, refutes them. Please take the time to hear Mr. Greenwald out.

Anonymous said...

Really, Munger. Really?

Philip Munger said...

@ 11:06,

so you read Hugh's Obama list? gotta laud your speed-reading abilities, my friend.

anonymous said...

Mr. Munger,

I was impressed by your post "Backing Away and Moving on to Create Music," which I heard as a lovely, crystal-clear solo soaring above the dissonant din that passes for Serious Commentary in the blogosphere. So I'm disappointed to hear the sour note you're hitting today.

Philip Munger said...

"I'm disappointed to hear the sour note you're hitting today."

--- the sour note you hear is the sound of alleged progressives braying in support of an administration that is continuing to erode American civil liberties at a pace that might make GW Bush blanch. And is continuing Bush's torture practices at secret prisons, such as the one reported this week by Jeremy Scahill.