Barack Obama – Page 33

The race card

In the euphoria surrounding the Obama nomination — the first black presidential candidate to represent a major party — and the discussion of what Hillary Clinton and her supporters might do, we have allowed an issue that played out as subtext to much of the primary campaign to fall from sight: Race.

Andrew Greeley, writing in The Chicago Sun-Times, cuts to the chase, reminding us that what we saw during the primary — the veiled playing of the race card by former President Bill Clinton in South Carolina, the pandering to “hard-working whites” (implication being, of course, that non-whites might not be hard-working), etc. — will not go away.

(R)acism permeates American society and hides itself under many different disguises. The nomination of an African-American candidate was a near-miracle. Only the innocent and the naive think that the November election will not be about race.

The odds against the replication of the primary miracle in November, even against a disgraced and discredited Republic administration, are very high.

Race will silently trump the war, the economy, the cost of gasoline, the disgust with President Bush. One may wish that it will not be so, that if Obama loses it will not be because of the color of his skin but because the country genuinely wants another Republican administration.

Greeley is not wishing for a McCain win — on the contrary, he is just reminding us that the issue of race is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and that progressives interested in seeing Barack Obama, and the candidate and his campaign, will have to work that much more diligently to overcome the historical blight of racism.

Sums things up I think

Just way too funny — courtesy of my good friend, Jim.

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The pastor-gate the press won’t talk about

John Nichols in The Nation reminds us that John McCain has a pastor problem — the Rev. John Hagee — and it is potentially more dangerous to the republic than the overblown outrage directed at Barack Obama’s former pastor.

Hagee, whose views about a host of social issues give new meaning to the term “hateful,” is not McCain’s pastor. They have no personal or spiritual relationship. Rather, Hagee is a close political ally of McCain and an ardent supporter of the Arizona senator’s presidential bid.

McCain sought Hagee’s endorsement and continued to defend and embrace the pastor – saying he was “glad to have the minister’s endorsement – even after Hagee said that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans because of the city’s “sinful” acceptance of homosexuality.

Nichols adds, “McCain has wed himself to Hagee politically. The senator is not linked to minister on spiritual grounds, he is linked to him on political and policy grounds.”

Thus, as McCain today visits New Orleans – a city that has suffered greatly as a result of political neglect and policy malfeasance – it is reasonable to ask whether the senator who says he is “very honored” to have Hagee’s support shares Hagee’s view that thousands of people in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana died and lost their homes because God disapproves of gay-pride rallies.

Indeed, it is far more reasonable to demand that McCain talk about where he agrees and disagrees with Rev. Hagee on questions about the causes of natural disasters and the response of a Republican administration to them than it is to ask Obama about the Rev. Wright’s statements. Obama turned to Wright for spiritual sustenance.

McCain, far more significantly, turned to Hagee for political sustenance – and, if we are to presume that neither of these men are hypocrites, because of their ideological compatibility.

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The Rev. Wright speaks

The talking heads — not the band — on cable were wondering why the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would consider appearing on television — on Bill Moyers Journal tonight at 9 and Sunday at 7 p.m. — and what his appearance might mean. Interesting way to approach it, I guess, but one that completely missed the point.

Imagine if you had three or four snippets of sermons you had given over a multi-decade career broadcast out of context as weapons in a presidential race, weapons designed to inject the issue of race at a time when a black candidate had become the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination and the favorite to win the White House. Imagine that the furor resulted in your name being transformed into an epithet, that the substance of your critiques is ignored and the inflammatory language used is all that survives in the public’s mind. You’d want a chance to respond, to restore the context to your words — especially knowing that they will be replayed over and over again for the next six-and-a-half months.

As for the impact that his interview might have, well, how could it be anymore damaging than the way his sermons had been misused up to this point? That’s Dana Milbank’s take, speaking on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, he offers this:

Well, the tape will be there and available now. But this story would reignite if and when Obama is the nominee and then John McCain and his surrogates bring it up again. So, probably no harm in just getting that on the record.

Here is Barack Obama’s response today.

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Willie Horton is alive and well and on the interweb

I received what can only be described as a hideous and blatantly racist e-mail today from an organization called Right v. Left, which is launching something called exposeobama.org and plans to run something it is calling a “Horton” ad. You know, “Horton,” as in Willie Horton.

The rhetoric of the e-mail is rather ugly and I’ve gone back and forth over whether I should share any of it. But I think it is necessary so that everyone understands the kind of ugliness that still exists in the hearts of too many Americans.

A taste:

“President Barack Hussein Obama,” those have to be the scariest four words in the English language!

Ask yourself… do you really want the next President of the United States of America to be a man with ties to known Marxists such as Frank Marshall Davis and terrorists such as Bill Ayers and former PLO operative Rashid Khalidi?

Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama refuses to wear the flag on his lapel, or that he does not place his hand over his heart in the presence of the American flag.

Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama embraces Jeremiah Wright, a man who has preached the most vile racial hatred and anti-American sentiments from the pulpit for twenty years, while at the same time Barack Hussein Obama accuses decent hard-working Americans of bigotry when he says things like, “It’s not surprising that they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them… .”

Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama’s wife Michelle said that her husband’s candidacy marked, “the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country.”

But what really makes “President Barack Hussein Obama” the scariest four words in the English language is that fact that HE CAN BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

The Web site is no better. The organization bills itself as the National Campaign Fund and says it is not affiliated with any candidate, but it boasts the man who crafted the original Willie Horton ad and a former advisor to rightwing Republican candidates as members of the “team.” the organization is seeking to raise $300,000 so it can start running Swiftboat-style ads that distort Obama’s record in an effort to cut the Democratic front-runner off at the knees.

It is a despicable way to campaign, but the GOP has never been shy about resorting to such tactics — especially the rightwing fringe. The list is long and brutal, beginning with Ronald Reagan’s visit to Philadelphia, Miss., in support of state’s rights in 1980 (actually, he’d made the use of coded racial language a central element of his political rhetoric as early as the mid-1960s when he first ran for governor of California); the Willie Horton ad; Gennifer Flowers and Paula Jones; Whitewater; the Swiftboats, etc.

Admittedly, this e-mail and ad come from a group at the fringes, one working at the margins of acceptable GOP discourse. But that does not mean that the Republicans won’t be happy to have them working the dark side for them. Groups like the Swiftboaters and Expose Obama allow people like Karl Rove to stay a little above the fray, allowing this nonsense to seep into the public discussion without it appearing to come from the mainstream.

In case Keith Olbermann is reading this blog (not likely, I know), I nominate the folks at Expose Obama and the National Campaign Fund for today’s “Worst Persons in the World.”

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