Stop, just stop, please stop

When Ignatieff supporters favourably compare their man to Barack Obama, I just don't know what to say. It's the kind of "words mean what I want them to mean" nonsense that, frankly, I've come to expect from Republicans. About the only thing the two men have in common is some time at Harvard. Note even then that Obama was a student, and Ignatieff was a professor.

Exactly what point of similarity is there between the two men? Their views on the Iraq war, or the consistency of those views? Their views on torture? Their histories with their respective political parties? Their charisma? Their demonstrated political acumen? (Note: Obama's habit of "winning" and Ignatieff's one demonstration of "losing" are, in fact, very different things. If you don't believe me, look it up in the dictionary.)

Finally, there's the obvious point that Obama won his candidacy, and his election, in the face of real, nearly-insurmountable challenges. (The primaries really were a very close thing.) Obama had to fight for every vote, and he did, and he won. Ignatieff has had the red carpet rolled out for him twice now, and the second time the party conspired to make sure nobody could interfere with his nomination. The closest parallel here is not to Obama, but to Clinton c. Fall-winter 2007, as the front-runner's campaign locked up early endorsements and money, but before the Obama campaign emerged as the serious challenged in Iowa. Now imagine that somehow Clinton had managed to short-circuit the DNC and win the nomination before even the Iowa Caucuses, and you'll have some idea of what Michael Ignatieff has done in the last few weeks.

Look, I know in some ways it's a branding exercise, but for God's sake we're talking about current events here: 2008 is still happening, and it's kind of insulting to be told that up is down, black is white, and that a patrician carpet-bagger is the same thing as the President-elect. I have eyes, and ears, and they're all attached to a brain that functions moderately well. To try and convince me of things that are manifestly untrue starts at tiresome and very quickly becomes aggravating.

As you can tell.