As the Wind Blows

Obama's case against the war has been whatever he needs to to say to get him elected to the Senate and the White House. It has never been about the truth. It has always been how the wind blows.

On July 27, 2004, he told the Chicago Tribune on Iraq:

"There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage."

In his "best selling" autobiography, The Audacity of Hope, published in 2006, he wrote, "

"...on the merits I didn't consider the case against war to be cut-and-dried."

In 2006, he said,

"I'm always careful to say that I was not in the Senate, so perhaps the reason I thought it was such a bad idea was that I didn't have the benefit of US intelligence. And for those who did, it might have led to a different set of choices."

Obama voted to fund the war when he could have opposed it. He is a fraud. He is not anti-war, as he claims.

Where does Obama stand now? He stands with his minister, Jeramiah Wright - not his white grandmother. His grandmother made him cringe. Did his minister also cause him to cringe?

Hunger in White America for Racial Innocence.

Writer Shelby Steele, a black man who specializes in the study of race relations, and multiculturalism is the author of "A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win" who writes,

"...Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance." [WSJ]

"Mr. Obama's extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence." (Shelby Steele)

Mr. Steele has written in the Wall Street Journal about the firestorm over Geraldine Ferraro's statement that Obama would not be in the position he is in if he was a white man.

If Obama Was a White Man?

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position." Barack Obama is, of course, a very talented politician with a first-rate political organization at his back. But it does not detract from his merit to say that his race is also a large part of his prominence. And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else." (Shelby Steele, WSJ, March 18, 2008)

"The novelty of Barack Obama is more his cross-racial appeal than his talent. Jesse Jackson displayed considerable political talent in his presidential runs back in the 1980s. But there was a distinct limit to his white support. Mr. Obama's broad appeal to whites makes him the first plausible black presidential candidate in American history. And it was Mr. Obama's genius to understand this. Though he likes to claim that his race was a liability to be overcome, he also surely knew that his race could give him just the edge he needed -- an edge that would never be available to a white, not even a white woman." (WSJ)

Shelby Steele says it is a bargain blacks have with whites about America's history of racism. It is the bargain to put them at ease and wipes aways their sins. He calls it a feeling of "affection for the bargainer" and says,

"Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease."

Guilt

Whatever that appeal is, it presents as a pass that whites, including women don't have. My mother would have called it guilt.

But I don't have any guilt for the way blacks have been mistreated because as a Jew I lived during the time of the Holocaust and I experienced enough antisemitism in America to be guiltless and I have also been shown the door in a lot of places because I was Jewish or was there with someone who was black. A black man was my best man at my wedding. I am not sharing their burden. I have my own. As Christians, they need to carry their own cross. Someone else put it there, not me.

No Hugs For Grandma

And Obama has proved he is no unifier. It would have been more unifying to hug his grandmother and renounce his minister. But for the 20 years Jeramiah Wright was his minister he never once rejected his sermons. He sat there and listened to them. Saying he didn't hear them one day and then admitting he did a few days later is an admission he lied. We don't need anymore liars - though it is hard these days to find a politician who doesn't lie. However, once caught, he ought to go. Why would Obama think he is more important than the job of President?

He has proved that words like "change" and "hope" are mere words and being "present" during 130 votes in the Illinois state legislature is not a record which qualifies him to be President.

It is time for Obama to concede he is tearing the Democratic Party apart and can't win the general election. He should give it up.

Hank Roth

All (if any) quoting per the Fair Use Doctrine
for educational and discussion purposes pursuant to
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright Law.

Is this about white guilt? Why is he still getting a free pass for his minister? And who else would get away with changing their positions as often as the wind changes? Everything about him will be deconstructed in the general election.

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Today is Wednesday July 23, 2008