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Comment by freyr | Hacker News Reader

"My job this morning is to be so persuasive...that a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack,"

In other words, say whatever needs to be said to get elected. Worry about the details later. Or not.

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To quote Richard "Wretchard" Fernandez (http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2013/06/05/toward-a-more...):

"You can’t vote for a Messiah and not expect a theocracy."

And if this was a joke, the only reason it is funny is because so many have treated him like a Messiah. Of course, when he was saying in all seriousness things like "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal" the confusion is understandable....

It's almost as if he's speaking to a cult. Might as well have said something along the lines of "Obama is the savior of the US. Let him into your heart and soul and you will know it to be true. Go forth and vote!"

Wait.. are you being sarcastic or you really don't realize that Obama was making a joke when he said that? I remember when he said it and certain media outlets sort of went crazy - but the audience just laughed.

He's making the same joke for years now. Not everybody thinks it's still funny though.

In his defense, President Obama knows lot more non-public information than ('08) candidate Obama did.

That said, dragnet surveillance of US citizens is still heinous.

The life of an average American is in no more imminent danger than it was 50 years ago, when this technology was simply unimaginable.

Just because it's possible to do something, doesn't mean it has to be done, although I realize it's not how it works with governments.

Then he was irresponsible to criticize the policy. If he ran against surveillance and then continued to escalate it, he's wrong. Whether he was foolish or a liar is I suppose up for debate.

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