"Why is it that, like, I can't just eat my waffle? ... I'm just gonna eat my waffle right now."
-- Senator Obama campaigning at a diner in Pennsylvania, April 2008
It's not exactly the equivalent of “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.” Nor has it yet risen to the level of Dukakis-in-a-tank, but the cautious waffle may soon become the symbol of the youthful, energetic junior Senator from Hyde Park, Illinois. Suddenly the bold advocate of HOPE and CHANGE is just another careful, calculating pol! Who could've hoped that he would change so quickly? Republicans? Who knows, they don't appear to even be awake.
A web-based operation called The Politico apparently monitors the crazy lefty blogs (they politely call those fever swamp denizens: "liberal internet activists") and they report that the wackos are not happy with this new Senator Waffles. Poor babies are disappointed to find out that his handlers realize a guy to the left of George McGovern can't get elected President of the United States. BXO promised to filibuster the recent terror surveillance bill but he didn't do it, and now he isn't even acting like a full-blown gun-grabber. The horror. Add to that a few waffles that the fringe nutballs care somewhat less about: town hall joint campaigning with the crusty old Republican nominee and the public campaign finance renege.
Now you can look at this as a post-primary centering that any smart Marxist would do to become more electable. Frankly, that's how I see it. But he gave his opponent a tremendous opening with that "I'm just gonna eat my waffle..." moment. I see foam flying discs that look like waffles with different Obama position reversals printed on them flying around at spirited McCain campaign events, roaring crowds, TV ads with the video of the waffle moment edited in with reneges and position shifts, it's beautiful I tell ya, and then... oh, wait, there aren't any spirited campaign events for McCain. That's right, he's running away from his base. I almost forgot. Scratch the order for the nerf waffles. Nix the TV ad idea. Big Mac wants a "civil" campaign.
Yawn.
