Junk Yard Fight
20 February 2008 10:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Early in his speech, Buffenbarger asked, “So now we have a decision
to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued
orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?”Taking off the gloves, he said, “Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He
took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate.
He took a walk more than a 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All
the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he
never steps into the ring.”But it was Obama supporters for whom Buffenbarger saved his most vitriolic
contempt, and he proved that the Democratic Party’s coalition is nothing
if not fragile. Channeling Howard Beale from the movie "Network,"
he yelled into the microphone, “Give me a break! I’ve got news for all
the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies
crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won’t last a round against the Republican
attack machine. He’s a poet, not a fighter.”
