Candidate File: Obama, Barack H.

superstring01 · Mar 17, 2008

whitewolf said: ↑

Find proof for that statement.
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Exactly. There is proof of this one. It could be that the others are more sly or it could be that it just hasn't happened (secrets like these are hard to keep, especially with hundreds of staffers on both sides of the frontier).

~String

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iceaura · Mar 17, 2008

Find proof for that statement. ”

Exactly. There is proof of this one. It could be that the others are more sly or it could be that it just hasn't happened (secrets like these are hard to keep, especially with hundreds of staffers on both sides of the frontier).
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Hillary's campaign has said - I think "admitted" is the word these days - that they have been in contact with the Canadians over NAFTA.

Does anyone think that McCain's folks have not ? That the large Canadian lobby representing the US's foremost trading partner, longest border, and major source of energy, has been carefully keeping their distance from the big players in the US Senate, let alone the prospective Presidents ?

A reasonable guess would be that so far Obama has had the least contact with the Canadians over NAFTA of any of the major candidates except maybe Huckabee. On Wednesday's and on Saturdays, but mostly on the latter days (the news cycle being what it is), things like Obama's lack of history with the Canadians over NAFTA are supposed to count against him.

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whitewolf · Mar 17, 2008

I didn't merely say prove that statement, I said find proof for that statement, because apparently it's not common knowledge as you make it out to be; and your proof should come from somewhere other than dodgy blog sites. Thanks in advance for the effort.

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Brutus1964 · Mar 18, 2008

Isn’t it ironic that Mitt Romney was drummed out of the campaign for belonging to a ”radical cult” but if you compare the sedate nature of an LDS sacrament meeting to the raucousness of the ”Reverend” Jeremiah Wrights church then you have to ask, ”So which one is the radical cult again?”.

Lord Hillyer · Mar 18, 2008

Brutus1964 said: ↑

Isn’t it ironic that Mitt Romney was drummed out of the campaign for belonging to a ”radical cult” but if you compare the sedate nature of an LDS sacrament meeting to the raucousness of the ”Reverend” Jeremiah Wrights church then you have to ask, ”So which one is the radical cult again?”.
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Both are. They each pretend there is an invisible Grand-Poobah of the universe and that he's on their side. Only, despite his omni-superlatives, he has a little trouble with money, and would appreciate your tax-deductible contribution asap.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

Anybody got a good live streaming link from Philly?

I'm not having much luck at CNN.con

C-Span does NOT seem to have it
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Looks like a feed is ready to go at ABC News (short commercials interspersed on the lead-in, with all the controversial Rev. Wright sound-bites)

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

The CNN feed looks OK now, so far lots more incendiary soundbites. White America is getting an education on the theatrics at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. I hope this may help many Americans to better understand the feedback between politics and religion in the Muslim world, by gaining a little insight to charismatic African-American megachurches. Of course it will be a big stretch for the most WASP ethno-centric USAmericans... we'll see... This is obviously going to be a critical speech for the Obama campaign, because their most manipulative opponents are spinning this circus madly. There are tremendous implications for the future riding on Obama's delivery today. I'm expecting to be wowed.

How many more times are we going to hear Wright's "God Damn America" soundbite before the speech? This would be a great drinking game, although enthusiastic partiers would probably get too plastered to comprehend the imminent speech.

OK it's Showtime!

15ofthe19 · Mar 18, 2008

hypewaders said: ↑

Of course it will be a big stretch for the most WASP ethno-centric USAmericans...
Click to expand...

Compared to the ethno-centrism required by radical black separatists, I don't think WASPs are the ones in need of calisthenics.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

Wow. I hope to get a transcript up, and that we'll talk about this hope and vision for a more perfect union. Obama is addressing our most pressing domestic issues head-on, like no other candidate I've ever seen, and with a sincere humility that no other candidate expresses. More power to that American Dream, and to that hope of the world.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

15/19: "Compared to the ethno-centrism required by radical black separatists, I don't think WASPs are the ones in need of calisthenics."

It's about speaking truth to power. Everything still hinges on the perceived Christian "conservative" base, because that's the demographic that has always controlled the agenda. If USAmericans who most identify with the status-quo cannot be persuaded to profoundly consider a better way forward, nothing is really going to change for the better. A vigorous WASP workout is critical.

Obama expresses a hope and patriotism that I share, that the greatest and most unique thing about the USA is our capability for meaningful change, toward a more perfect, more empathetic, more aware, more progressive, more realistic, more humble, more successful, more world-leading, and more unified nation.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

Transcript - Barack Obama Philadelphia Mar 18, 2008

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Let me begin by thanking Harris Wofford for his contributions to this country in so many different ways. He exemplifies what we mean by the word "citizen." And so we are very grateful to him for all the work he has done, and I'm thankful for the gracious and thoughtful introduction.

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.

Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across the ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States.

What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part -- through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience, and always at great risk -- to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential campaign -- to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America.

I chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction: toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

And this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own story. I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.

I've gone to some of the best schools in America and I've lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners, an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue scattered across three continents. And for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional of candidates. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts -- that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in this campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every single exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it's only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wild- and wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap.

On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation and that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy, and in some cases, pain.

For some, nagging questions remain: Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in the church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely, just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests or rabbis with which you strongly disagree.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems -- two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change, problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough.

Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television sets and YouTube, if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor.

He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine, and who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who over 30 years has led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth -- by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, "Dreams From My Father," I described the experience of my first service at Trinity, and it goes as follows: "People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters.

And in that single note -- hope -- I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones.

Those stories of survival and freedom and hope became our story, my story. The blood that spilled was our blood; the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world.

Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black. In chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a meaning to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about -- memories that all people might study and cherish and with which we could start to rebuild.

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety -- the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger.

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing and clapping and screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear.

The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and, yes, the bitterness and biases that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding and baptized my children.

Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.

He contains within him the contradictions -- the good and the bad -- of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can disown my white grandmother, a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed her by on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.

Now, some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not.

And I suppose the politically safe thing to do would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro in the aftermath of her recent statements as harboring some deep-seated bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America: to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through, a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect.

And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past."

We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country.

But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist between the African-American community and the larger American community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools. We still haven't fixed them, 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education.

And the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Legalized discrimination, where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire department meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations.

That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between blacks and whites and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persist in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families, a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened.

And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods -- parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up, building code enforcement -- all help create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continues to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African- Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late '50s and early '60s, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.

What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it -- those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations -- those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future.

Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their world view in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years.

That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co- workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians to gin up votes along racial lines or to make up for a politician's own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews.

That anger is not always productive. Indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems. It keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity within the African-American community in our condition, it prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real, it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race.

Their experience is the immigrant experience. As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything, they built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.

Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends.

Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

And just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze: a corporate culture rife with inside dealing and questionable accounting practices and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many.

And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns, this, too, widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. And contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naive as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly...

... particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that, working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice -- we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life.

But it also means binding our particular grievances, for better health care and better schools and better jobs, to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family.

And it means also taking full responsibility for own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe...

They must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American -- and, yes, conservative -- notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress had been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black...

... Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.

What we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change.

America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

Now, in the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- that these things are real and must be addressed.

Not just with words, but with deeds -- by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams, that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more and nothing less than what all the world's great religions demand: that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division and conflict and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle, as we did in the OJ trial; or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina; or as fodder for the nightly news.

We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction, and then another one, and then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option.

Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."

This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native-American children.

This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem.

The children of America are not those kids; they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st-century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the emergency room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care, who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life.

This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that should've never been authorized and should've never been waged.

And we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits that they have earned.

I would not be running for president if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.

And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation -- the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There's one story in particular that I'd like to leave you with today, a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, 23-year-old woman, a white woman named Ashley Baia, who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina.

She'd been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was 9 years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat. That's the mind of a 9 year old.

She did this for a year until her mom got better. And so Ashley told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she had joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now, Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign.

They all have different stories and different reasons. Many bring up a specific issue.

And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there.

And he doesn't bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama.

He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley."

Now, by itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger.

And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the 221 years since a band of patriots signed that document right here in Philadelphia, that is where perfection begins.

Thank you very much, everyone. Thank you.
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Apologies for such a long attachment to the post, but it's a speech well worth reading and discussing.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

For all the USAmerican scoffing at the faults of religious perversions and collisions in the Mideast, the Obama candidacy is building into a towering example of the same. Over at Wonkette there is a humorous summary of the core of what I expect to be the most telling backlash against the vision that Obama articulates, that will become louder the better he articulates it. It's the same sort of superficial, reactionary impulse that so often brings ad-hominem attacks into this forum. Obama seems no biblical figure to me. But the more he captures the spirit of pro-active and positive change in the USA, the more special interests and demagogues are attempting in desperation to hoist this ancient petard:

Barack Obama the Antichrist?

While this is not the whole story about the backlash to Obama's appeal, I think it's illustrative of the mudslinging that is sure to follow any idealistic surge, which I think is what the USA needs the most. Our greatest national strength is rooted in ideals of inclusivity, innovation, and reform. Our most vexing problems stem from losing touch with our ideals. But I'm expecting the typical hue and cry over idealistic talk, because statusquoniks do perceive that shared idealism does bring change, which they hate with a vengeance. This country is ready for a real change, and Obama does exhibit skill at defusing political landmines.

15ofthe19 · Mar 18, 2008

I wouldn't worry too much about Wonkette. I'm a big Gawker fan myself, but judging by the bias of most of that network of blogs, it's a Manhattanite thing that doesn't resonate too loudly outside of the 25-35 web addicted demographic. While that is becoming an increasingly important voting bloc, it still doesn't elect the next POTUS.

What Obama needs to worry about right now is the double digit lead Clinton is commanding in Pennsylvania, and the looming threat of Michigan and Florida being in play at the convention. Never underestimate the power of the Clinton machine. This thing is far from over.

Nice speech today, but as another farker put it, you can't say "I only go to the KKK rallies for the BBQ..." and expect to convince anybody.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

"15/19: Never underestimate the power of the Clinton machine."

It's a big machine, but with a lot of miles on it, and it doesn't accelerate, stop, or corner well. If USAmericans do get on board with the idea of positive change and not the status quo (McSame or Billary) we are going with Obama. He's way more responsive.

""I only go to the KKK rallies for the BBQ..."

Hey. I'm suddenly hungry. I could be tempted to go to one right now, although I usually hate to eat and run like hell.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

On the subject of landmines, there was one sour note in this speech for me:

...a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
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That tempers my appetite. That is not an accurate description of the origins of Mideast conflict. I do understand that this is Obama defusing the most fearsome political booby-trap of all in US politics: If he so much as tweaks the Israeli-exceptionalism tripwire, the Israeli political and religious lobby will immediately blast his political legs to shreds.

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Read it again, Hypewaders. That's interesting... I both heard it and read it out of context on the first pass (I think)

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

...the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
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Well, maybe I heard him right the first time. It's open to some wide interpretation ... but do watch that tripwire, Obama.

otheadp · Mar 18, 2008

B.O. said:

...a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
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He has convinced me at least a month ago that he'd be pro-Israel. Maybe it is because of, not inspite of, his unique experience with Muslims, that he understands the scourge he mentioned.

A very nice speech. He should be a preacher or a "Secretary of Healing and Reconciliation" or whatever. But just as extreme leftists here in Canada, he offers beautiful words with no specifics. At least he's not setting up class dichotomies with righteous vengeance. Kudos to him for that. That kind of speech is what leftists excel at.

Come on, B.O., let's hear some specific policy proposals
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Becoming more protectionist with NAFTA will really turn off voters in a country that is the most pro free trade in the world. So no wonder he touts beautiful words instead of specifics. As a Russian saying goes, "you can't put 'thank you' in your pocket".

Read this Der Spiegel article to understand just how empty (but moral and uniting) this suit is.

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

otheadp: "he offers beautiful words with no specifics."

On NAFTA, I admit he's not been very clear so far. He gave it a brief broadside against NAFTA in Ohio, that wasn't very convincing to me. I've got mixed feelings about NAFTA myself. Free Trade is tricky; needs more debate in public and in the Congress

On the Spiegel piece:

Politics in a democratic society is a balancing of interests, not a revivalist meeting.
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I think it's both. Without communicative appeal, there is no way to build a consensus for change. When I compare Obama's platform with the other two leading candidates, I find he puts forward by far the most substance. He's not all "style".

What specifics do you find conspicuously lacking in the Obama platform?

nirakar · Mar 18, 2008

hypewaders said: ↑

Well, maybe I heard him right the first time. It's open to some wide interpretation ... but do watch that tripwire, Obama.
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Obama said:

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country, a view that sees white racism as endemic and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
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If I understand what you heard hypewaders, then I heard the same thing and had a similar reaction.

Wright tells the truth, but America can't handle the truth. So far what I have heard from Wright have been simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice.

Maybe Obama has to say these things to get elected, but I am tired of whimpy Democrats. My enthusiasm for Obama just faded quite a bit.

Who's job is it to debunk "the crazy Islamic people hate us for no reason" lies?

hypewaders · Mar 18, 2008

Ours.

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