I’m writing this letter because I know this has been a rough 48 hours for you. I can’t imagine the shock of finding out that your pastor for 20 years, the man who married you, who baptized your children, who brought you to Jesus… has been hoodwinking you for the past two decades. …
Well, if it makes you feel any better Senator… this whole episode has been tough for me too.
You see, two of my five kids are actually my stepkids. We don’t make a big deal out of it. In fact, they’ve always called me “Dad”. Just like your father, who wasn’t around when you were growing up, my two oldest kids haven’t seen their biological father in years. And like you, they’re the offspring of a white mother and a black father. Our other three kids are as pale as milk, so we’ve gotten our share of odd comments over the years. I’m sure you remember similar comments when you were a kid and were out with your grandparents.
But as a parent, you try to deal with it the best you can. You tell your kids that most people are just ignorant, and that skin color doesn’t make you any different. You thank God that the civil rights movement has been as successful as it has, and that the comments you do get are few and far between. You teach your children that people should be judged on the contents of their character, not the color of their skin.
Then Jeremiah Wright becomes the story of the day and now you’re trying to figure out what to tell your 7-year old when he asks if it’s true that he’s different than his older brother and sister, and if we love him more or less than we love them. You wonder if your 17-year old son and your 21-year old daughter have bought into what Rev. Wright is peddling, and if the bond of family is stronger than race-based rhetoric. And yes, you wonder why it took Senator Barack Obama twenty years to figure out Jeremiah Wright when most of the rest of us figured it out in about five minutes.
The concluding paragraphs are… not particularly charitable.
Illinois Senator to go full hour on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on meta-eve of Indiana/North Carolina.
Program generally taped in a studio, begging at least one question, after last weekend’s Fox interview:
Obama on 4/27 regarding debates: “You know, we’ve got nine days we’re trying to campaign and meet as many voters as possible. So rather than being in the studio I want to make sure we’re reaching out the folks where they live and, you know, answering their questions and having as many interactions as possible.”
Two possibly important bits of news. Only one can actually be significant (in a positive sense), in the end:
1. Clinton pulls within 5 in North Carolina, says Survey USA (the most reliable pollster this primary season). [And Governor Easley is set to endorse HRC.]
[Even Rush doesn't know what to do. He has called an operational pause in "Operation Chaos" -- his gut is to tell his people to vote for Obama, but he needs to wait and see how this all plays out over the next 24 hours before telling his troops how to vote in the next primaries.]
***
I can’t take his denunciation seriously — the proposition that he didn’t know what the man was after twenty years of friendship is, well, unconvincing.
But we’ll see how his biggest fans take it. (They’re the ones who count.)
Update the third: For Obama fans’ reactions, it might be worth going to the comments here. (I’m not, but I see 356.) For non-Obama Democrats, this is probably a better place.
I’m reminded of P.J. O’Rourke’s article about talk radio and books by Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly:
Now, there’s a certain truth in what she says. But it’s what’s called a “poetic truth.” And it’s the kind of poetic truth best conveyed late in the evening after six or eight drinks while pounding the bar. I wasn’t in a bar. I was in my office. It was the middle of the day. And I was getting a headache.
Anyway.
I’m guessing a lot of the Reverend’s fans are finding poetic truths in his words (when he isn’t accusing the American government of being Al Queda in a different uniform or of infecting the black populace with AIDS and giving it narcotics, I mean).
I don’t see anything wrong with the ad, per se — seeing as it’s entirely accurate about Obama’s ideology and associations (see this point) — but I really wish that the campaign could revolve around something other than that stuff.
So the Democrat central strategists may now know that it’s open season.
[As we can see, it doesn't matter what John McCain says -- if he won't do those sorts of ads, other people will do it themselves, for their local races.]
“Senator Obama himself says it’s a legitimate political issue, so I would imagine that many other people will share that view and it will be in the arena,” McCain said at a news conference. “But my position that Senator Obama doesn’t share those views remains the same.” …
“I can’t control, and will not in future, control. I will voice my opinion. And I will continue to say that I think that ad should not be run. But I won’t continue to try to be the referee here.”
In a country with the right to free expression protected, that’s simply a concession to reality.
But Obama’s people aren’t happy. And one has to expect that they’ll encourage Democrats to be just as hard-edged in their own ads.
Update again: And, just in case we missed him, Bill Clinton pops up again. [via The Page]
I have an uncle from Marion, Indiana — they have the infamy of being the site of the last lynching in the North — 1930. (Their less dubious claim to fame is being the birthplace of James Dean.)
And now we have a black candidate for the presidency — the frontrunner — doing stump speeches there:
Now, you know, dear readers, that I’m less and less enamored of Senator Obama’s candidacy. But it’s heartening to see that times change.
I’m beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks—including a huge chunk of the media—will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in “The Godfather,” where the watchword is, “It’s business, not personal.” …
There’s never been any love lost between the Clintons and official Washington. The Georgetown dinner parties they rarely attended during the Bill years might as well be in Outer Mongolia for all President Hillary will care. Notables who abandoned her for Obama will get the Big Chill. “He’s dead to us,” a Clinton aide was quoted saying of John Kerry, who along with Ted Kennedy was turned off by the perception of race baiting that led up to the South Carolina primary. A major donor, conflicted between the two candidates and apologetic over his backing of Obama, found Hillary less than sympathetic. “Too bad for you, because I’m going to win,” she snapped. …
Obama may yet discover his inner Rocky and recast himself now that the media is turning on him. It’s hard to be the next new thing for 15 months, which is how long he’s been running. And it’s time enough for Hillary to win ugly, if that’s what winning takes.
It’s time to start cheering for Obama again, I think.
[-But I so enjoy watching Hillary on the warpath! -Yes, but do you want to face her in the fall?]
The third part of Dreams From My Father is easiest for me to identify with — it’s the story of Obama’s trip to Kenya just before he heads to law school. (more…)
I’ve gotten further along in the book — page 299, the end of Part 2, the end of Barack Obama’s first sojourn in Chicago. (He has just met Jeremiah Wright, and he’s about to head to HLS.)
Obama on the verge of heading to law school is a much, much more likable gent.
And much easier to understand, and even (especially for someone with my background) to identify with. (more…)
In 1983, I decided to become a community organizer.
… When classmates in college asked me just what it was that a community organizer did, I couldn’t answer them directly. Instead, I’d pronounce on the need for change. Change in the White House, where Reagan and his minions were carrying on their dirty deeds. Change in the Congress, compliant and corrupt. Change in the mood of the country, manic and self-absorbed. Change won’t come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.
The senator will have to forgive me for the historical observation that California, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois all voted twice, first in 1980 and then in 1984, for President Reagan and his “minions” to do their “dirty deeds” in Washington.
Especially in the scene where he talks about “Joyce”, a classmate of his at Occidental, who is put off by the choosing of ethnic sides that is the norm at liberal American colleges. He’s incredibly cruel in his description of her — and then he says… “I knew I was being too hard on poor Joyce.” (Echoes of bitter and cling there, I’d say.)
***
You can get a read on a person from the way they describe how they think. I don’t like the way Senator Obama thinks.
He’s always the smartest guy in the room (actually, probably most often true — he’s a very smart guy) and everyone else is typical — at least, representative of some larger type.
Obama drops out next week, stating that although he could almost certainly win the nomination by fighting it out until the convention in August, he is simply not willing to drag the party through a battle that will cripple its chances against John McCain. He then pledges to help support Sen. Clinton in her bid—with full knowledge that she will not take him up on the offer.
In one stroke, Obama will regain his messiah creds by making the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the party. His followers will be furious. The mere mention of Clinton’s name will provoke unspeakable acts. They will abandon Clinton in numbers sufficient to hand McCain the election in November.
Losing the presidency again after eight years of Bush will ruin the Democratic Party. It will become obvious that Clinton’s decision to stay in the race was the turning point in the election. The base will turn its wrath on party leaders like Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi, who failed to push Clinton out. Obama, as the de facto head of the party, will broker negotiations to install new leaders loyal to him.
McCain will be eminently more beatable in 2012. Demographics will continue to shift in Obama’s favor as his 14- to 17-year-old supporters come of voting age. Anyone foolish enough to challenge Obama for the nomination—and don’t rule out Clinton—will go nowhere. Obama’s utopian vision for a Democratic party unified around him will be complete. QED.
Of course, let me list the ways it could go wrong:
1. Clinton wins the presidency. (Very possible.) No opening for eight years, whether or not she wins re-election.
2. McCain turns out to be a great president — Reaganesque. Obama goes the way of Fritz Mondale in 2012.
3. 2012 rolls around. Barack is yesterday’s news. So four years ago. (The John Edwards problem.) A new guy is flavour of the month.
4. Who knows what may come? Remember Gary Hart, the man who would have won the presidency in 1988?
Obama’s not dumb. He knows that, win or lose, this is his moment — Clinton or no Clinton.
TORONTO — A visibly angry David Miller said he has secured an agreement with the province to bring in back-to-work legislation as soon as possible after thousands of transit riders found themselves stranded Saturday morning when TTC workers went out on strike.
Subways, streetcars and buses ground to a halt at midnight.
The mayor told a late night, hurriedly arranged press conference at city hall that the union’s decision to walk out after the failing to ratify a tentative agreement, and abandon an earlier pledge to give Torontonians 48-hours notice of any strike, was “unacceptable” and “irresponsible.” …
In the minutes before midnight word of the strike spread among TTC riders unsure of how they’d get home.
“Fuck TTC, Fuck TTC!” chanted one group of disgruntled riders outside the Davisville subway station. …
One passer-by hurled her frustration toward those in the yard.
“Bunch of selfish bastards,” she hissed as she walked by.
Really, would it have cost them much to postpone the strike till, oh, say, 3 AM?
Right now, I bet a poll would show that a majority of people in the GTA would support the province going Ronald Reagan on them.
Update: A freelance journalist’s take here. See also the National Post here and here. And the Toronto Star here and here.
Don’t we usually wait until the Democrats have already lost for the start of the cries about the United States of Canada and Jesusland?
The coarsened sensibility that this now-dominant Southernism and frontierism has brought to our national dialogue is unmistakable. We must endure “lapel-pin politics” that elevates the shallowest sort of faux jingoism over who’s got a better plan for Iraq and Afghanistan. …
Still, something deep and basic has changed in our country. …
Another expert on the mores of the South, author Michael Lind, notes this change is also attributable to the rise of the mass media and the eclipsing of the patrician culture that produced both Adams amd Jefferson. “Both the New England Yankee and the old Southern colonel are gone,” he says. “It’s a battle between folk cultures, and it seems the Jacksonian is the more dominant.” It’s not a clear-cut victory, but the South has won the day.
Anyway. I welcome these sorts of articles.
Write more, dear members of the intelligentsia. Columns, articles, books — I want it all.
Even if John McCain wins the presidency, the GOP is going to lose something along the lines of 15 seats in the House and 5 seats in the Senate.
His would be a presidency like that of George H.W. Bush. Which might even be to the benefit of some Democratic senators and congressmen.
If he does win, it won’t be about him exactly. It’ll be because people have decided that this Barack Obama fellow, though he seems like a nice guy, is just too inexperienced, too liberal, and too much of a panderer to be the 44th president of the United States. It’ll be the country balancing out its soon-to-be very Democratic congress with a sort of Republican president, much like the state of Massachusetts had done from 1990 to 2006.
Oh, and it might be an expression of buyers’ remorse about the last eight years: “Sorry John, we should’ve picked you in 2000. Take four years to clean up Washington.”
To all of the techies among you, dear readers, I send this request.
Can you recommend a webhosting service, preferably in Canada, which can host a website for a small to medium-sized business while not taking control of the e-mails (i.e. they’ll leave the nameservers alone)?
I know it can be done. But my company had a bad experience just recently with a webhost that took control of our e-mail domain without telling us, thereby cutting us off from the world for a week — so we’ve told them to get bent, retaken control of our e-mail, and taken our website down for the time being.
