I have a dream
Holy Moly, I just heard heard Barack slit his own political throat:
"We cannot fix the problem of America [if we get distracted] . . ."
What we're being distracted by was the fact that racists (he only implied this, wasn't gutsy enough to say it directly) had taken 30 years of three a week sermons and boiled them down to half an hour -- oops he misspoke and had to restate it, half a minute of . . . of what, exactly? Is Obama apologizing for that 30 seconds or denying it?
In any case, none of that is the point. On that score, Obama's in a hole and he's digging.
But the real problem is his vaunted bringing together: We cannot fix . . .
The Problem of America.
There's an historic address for you: "The Problem of America."
Good luck with that, Barack. I'll bet it has really strong appeal, in its market segment. Instead of trying to appeal to 10 percent and another 80 percent with the wonder of America, he''s going to persuade 80 percent to feel like the 10 percent, on the count that this country really, really sucks.
posted by ColumbusGuy @ 9:12 AM
10 Comments:
Keep reading. In the next paragraph he explains that it's a problem that used to exist pervasively, that continues to exist to some extent, that has already gotten way better -- as exemplified by his own candidacy -- and that can continue to be addressed. To me, that's treating us like grownups who can stand to hear the truth, even when it's less than ideal.
Treating us like grownups? Give me a break. He keeps saying Rev. Wright's statements were taken out of context and don't really reflect Wright's beliefs. All this in an obvious attempt to let the racists who agree with Wright to keep voting for Obama. He also has changed his story so many times on how aware he was of what came out of that church for 20 years that even he can't recall what he's suppoed to think about it. Essentially, he thinks we're chumps. I'm just afraid with all the idolatry around (where Obama just acknowledging the other side before he comes to his preordained leftist conclusions) that we might be buying this nonsense.
"He keeps saying Rev. Wright's statements were taken out of context." Why, no. Actually he said precisely the opposite:
"[T]he 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. . . "
You, anonymous, are listening to your own hatred of his "preordained leftist conclusions" rather than the words the man actually said.
I'm not denying he's speaking out of both sides of his mouth like any politician. He's clearly said in several speeches recently that people have taken a few paragraphs from what Wright has said to misrepresent the man, as if Wright's ingrained racist view of America isn't something down deep in him. So Obama's saying he's against Wright and he's sticking with him at the same time. That's why he thinks we're chumps.
As to his preordained leftist conclusions, name one time he, as a Senator, didn't vote the leftist way on anything significant. I can name you tons of Times John McCain has gone against his party, but the only way I've ever seen Obama go against his party, such as when he voted against confirming John Roberts, was went he went further left.
I seriously believe it would be worth your while to read the entire speech, because it's one of the few times I believe a politician was NOT speaking out of both sides of his mouth about race. He addresses your point a few paragraphs later:
"The [black] 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 bias 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."
Do you really have nobody in your life who you love, respect, and associate with despite the fact that they harbor some ignorant and even hateful views? Hell, I know I do. They're good people, with blind spots. So long as I don't see them actually act on those blind spots, I can look past it.
With regard to whether he's really a hardcore leftist, I think the analysis is pretty easy. His votes are what they are, and he lays out his proposals on his website and in his speeches. You like or don't like. But the venom on the race issue has been truly disappointing to me.
I'm not talking about him sticking with Wright The Friend, I'm talking about Obama trying to claim that Wright's speeches have been mischaracterized by others, and that he's not the anti-American racist crackpot his words seem to make him. If you don't believe me, just check out any speech Obama has made about Wright in the past week.
Obama is playing us. He disavows Wright for those who want him disavowed, but he's also saying to the not inconsiderable part of his base that believes this vile nonsense that they're right, Wright isn't so bad, it's okay to be on his side politically.
Honestly, I'm not going to go search for inconsistencies based solely on your (maybe just a wee bit biased?) recollection. If you've got cites to his actual words, I'll be happy to follow and reconsider my views.
More broadly, I'm really not a fan of the "you're a flip-flopper!" line of argument against politicians. I find people who are unwilling to change their opinion based on reasoned debate to be unworthy of substantive conversation. Hell, if I worried about being a flip-flopper our CG and some other similarly bright, patient friends never would have been able to open my eyes to the Second Amendment having . . . what's that stuff called? . . . oh yeah, "meaning."
Why do you keep mishcharacterizing what I'm saying? I never called Obama a flip-flopper. I'm saying he's playing both sides of the issue. If you hate Reverend Wright, he's with you. If you love Reverend Wright, he's with you.
I'm sorry I can't quote him since I only saw him three times on TV in the last week claiming his opponents are taking a stray paragraph here and there from Wright to give a false impression, as if Wright's nasty anti-American beliefs aren't a regular feature of his speeches and a deep part of his philosophy.
Sorry, I guess I misunderstood part of what you were saying, then. Your point is that he's still saying one thing to one group and another to another group? Well, if so, that mystery won't last long. There will be a youtube video with him going from one to the opposite before you know it. Nobody pays much attention to those when they make them about George Bush any more, presumably because he's been completely written off by the vast majority of those capable of using a computer. But a well constructed one of Obama would be pretty devastating.
Sort of a PS here. Obama was just on ABC's The View, where they treated him very well. He said, among other things, that Wright was brilliant, just stuck in a time warp (so blaming white greed for all the world's problems used to make sense), that Wright has admitted what he said was inappropriate (must have missed that), and that Wright's been taken out of context. As Obama put it" "What you've been seeing is a snippet of a man. . .What if somebody compiled the five stupidest things you ever said, and put them on a thirty second loop, and ran them for two weeks straight?" So, since he makes five speeches on helping the poor for every one where he says whites created AIDS to kill blacks, he's okay.
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