“Sincerity and honesty can be easily learnt and projected. All con men, all liars convinced someone they weren’t.”

I know this only too well from experience – well not from advertisers who are unable to hide the fact that they are lying – but in general. I can’t expect anyone to believe this, but I have a pronounced sixth sense for false sincerity and con men, and so far I have never been wrong. (I could recount many examples). I have never been conned.

To consider the whole of Obama’s speech as a deliberate excersise in conning and false sincerity seems a bit over the top, especially as he knows what risks he is taking and that there is quite massive opposition to his plans. – I still hope he won’t be assassinated. -

Gene, you are right. I was remembering wrongly and Obama did talk about the working people.

It’s OK by the way- Jon Stewart savaged Acorn and the media’s shameful attempts to conceal this story two days ago. It’s kosher to go after them now and admit that what went on in those offices was deeply disturbing, whatever your political stance.

No, what you’re describing is entrapment. A sting is where people voluntarily do something illegal when it’s explicitly explained to them, e.g. buying cocaine from a federal officer.

I didn’t hear Obama use the phrase “working class” in the speech, although I might have missed it. But it’s far more common to hear politicians (and even labor leaders) in the US speak in terms of the middle class, or “working people,” “working men and women,” and “working families.”

You mean like Bernie Madoff (ok not a politician but an honest looking face), The Kennedy’s, Clinton, Dhimmi Carter…..

Sincerity and honesty can be easily learnt and projected. All con men, all liars convinced someone they weren’t.

There is no indication that Obama wants to topple capitalist enterprise. He is simply talking about a humane society. My impression is that the word ‘humane’ arouses disgust and fury in hardliners who prefer a bulldozing logic.

I once wrote to another literary blog, saying that, but for the welfare system, I wouldn’t be sitting at the computer writing to them. The answer from a headmistressy moderator was that I shouild kindly stop writing about the horrors of the welfare system and have the cheek to distrust ‘our’ polìticians (ie. Palin).

You come close to the anti-christ and medecine man conspiracies. If Obama says “middle class” this is a code word for some horrible OTHER THING. The president is eminently middle class himself.

An anecdote to lighten the discussion:
I was considered a witch doctor myself by blacks in Namibia. A worker on our farm was horrified because his nose was bleeding. I said, “Don’t worry! Come and stand under the shade of this tree, and wait for me.” I went and fetched some damp clothes and put these under his arms ( as taught to do by my mother). His nose stopped bleeding and as of then I was regarded with awe by the blacks. Some were terrified because an ‘evil eye’ had been cast on them. I did a little ceremony, like putting stones in a circle and uttering some strange words and told them the evil eye had now been defeated.

Obama is trying to defeat the evil eyes in America.

That’s the point of a sting. When the stingers brought up their desire to import child sex slaves, the ACORN folks went right along. The latest tape has what purports to be an ACORN worker in San Diego offering to assist in the smuggling of child sex-slaves through Tijuana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbL-dDMpbSw

And if you had been to a top dollar tax adviser, do you really think they would have done anything different? Read the financial papers.

In our somewhat impoverished discourse (in which labor issues no longer exist) there are only three classes, ‘poor’, ‘middle class’ and ‘wealthy’. Occasionally someone will mention the ‘upper middle class’ which I suppose means wealthy but not able to buy your own island or football team.