Obama—general comments

Steven Warshawsky writes:

It’s still too early to say whether Barack Obama’s 20-year membership in Trinity United Church of Hate will “derail” his campaign. The fact that he won the Democratic Party nomination only demonstrates how thoroughly bankrupt, intellectually and morally, that party has become. My own view is that the Trinity issue, and the Reverend Wright affair in particular, dealt Obama’s presidential aspirations a death blow that will become apparent on election day. Every additional piece of evidence that shows Obama to be the anti-American, left-wing race huckster that he is—and his wife’s own personal history and campaign speeches contribute mightily to this impression—are more nails in his political coffin. Despite the apparent writing on the wall that the Republican Party was doomed to defeat this election cycle and poised for a crack-up of historic proportions, we have seen the vaunted Clinton Machine crash and burn, Bill Clinton’s golden boy image forever tarnished, and (I predict) the Democratic Party’s dream of socialism in our time dashed by its overarching commitment to multiculturalism at any cost. I agree that John McCain is unlikely to be a good president, and may very well be a bad president. But he will be much better than Obama. And unlike you, I believe that the election of a weak, contemptible character like Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, not only would be very dangerous to our national security, but would represent the final and irreversible transformation of the country into a “post-American” nation. Thankfully, I don’t think we’re at that stage yet.

LA replies:

To repeat a point I’ve made several times before, when I spoke of Obama’s candidacy being derailed, I wasn’t referring to the possibility that the Trinity Church issue would ultimately cause him to lose the election, I meant that American liberal public opinion, right now, would say that Obama’s membership in that church means that he is beyond the pale. That did not happen.

Amit G. writes:

Hi VFR,

Is it not indeed a miracle that we now have Obama for president? He is bringing together races of all kinds and tying us together because we are not left and right nor old and young but we are all Americans together. We can get excitted by this because the old divissions are going away and a new day for a new generation that does not get stuck in passed fractures. I think all the posters and buddies at VFR should rejoice because the things they have talked about will be rssolved and the true meaning of America is made clear with Obama as leader and president.

Ben W. writes:

For all of the trumpeting last night that finally an artificial ceiling has been removed, that we as a country are at a historic stage, I do not believe that we have truly a black candidate for the presidency.

I have been observing Obama’s demeanor and presence. Every time I look at his face I do not see a black man. The way he walks, the way he deals courteously with women as a gentleman, etc. all point to a non-black personal style. Never mind that biologically he is bi-racial.

As well, notice that his organization (which has vastly outperformed Hillary’s in strategy, tactics and funding) is completely managed by white men (from David Plouffe to David Axlerod). It is on the contrary Hillary’s organization which has been staffed at the upper levels with black and Latino women.

A Jesse Jackson would not have achieved what Obama has even today. I noticed that there is a level of sophistication in Obama that is missing in most black politicians. Somewhere I came across Obama’s reading list that included people like Reinhold Niebuhr and Saul Bellow.

Obama may be an historic oddity that may not be repeated. I do not believe that he is a black candidate as envisaged by the media and other blacks! He has used the black community and church to his advantage in his early years as a “community organizer” in his political rise (at the state and national level) but notice that he has unburdened himself (in a fashion) of his past. To the point that he emphasized his white grandmother in gratitude last night (perhaps a shrewd and opportunistic move to redress his past gaffe of “throwing her under the bus”).

Yes, he may have aligned himself in his search for an identity in Chicago with the black community. Yes, he may be as liberal and to the left as anyone. But I don’t think he is essentially the prototypical black candidate people assume that he is.

Which is not to say that he is an unproblematic candidate given his ideology.

Ben W. continues:

One further observation that Obama may not be “the black” candidate. When he first entered the primaries, most black politicians and organizations were not supporting him. Instead they were solidly behind the Clintons. It took awhile for the black community to swing behind him but there was a period of debate and controversy as that started happening.

Howard Sutherland writes:

I thought the New York Post (at least in its current manifestation) is supposed to be a conservative newspaper. If so, the Post’s coverage of Obama’s presumed clinch of the Democratic nomination is worrisome, to say the least. In headlines and images, this presumably Republican paper treats Obama as though he were the next President of the United States already. Is this reporting news or shaping it? Are the neocons signaling they won’t offer any real opposition to Obama because they welcome such a wonderful, progressive thing as electing a black president? If the Post is at all representative, the neocons’ essential liberalism is showing even more than usual.

The headline of the print version of the rag is DESTINY! in the largest typeface the Post could find (Moon Landing-size), with a back-lit profile shot of the Magic Negro himself, looking like he actually has gravitas. In truth, Obama not only has not been elected president, he hasn’t even won the Democratic nomination yet.

The headline of the on-line story by Maggie Haberman (probably the same in the print rag; I didn’t waste 50 cents to find out) is OBAMA CAPTURES HISTORIC PRIZE—with color photo of B. Hussein and an all-smiles Michelle bumpin’ knuckles like a pair of rappers or NBA players. It presents Obama’s anointing and coronation as America’s Transformational Transracial Messiah as a given, when in fact McCain is more likely to be the next president—unless frivolous and fawning coverage like this cons enough white Americans to look past Obama’s black racism and feel they have vote for Obama so they don’t slow down Progress and Justice. Still, the photo is a harbinger of all the high-five jive we’ll have to put up with if the Obamas do get to move on up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Maybe I am making too much of this, but isn’t this a telling example of the essential frivolity of neoconservatives, and don’t they show their true liberal colors here? Obama has just become (so they think) the First Black Nominee, so let’s just forget all about his manifest unsuitability and utter lack of experience, forget his hard leftism, forget about all his affirmative action legs-up along the way, forget how he has spent his entire career being a black nationalist activist demanding unearned benefits for blacks at the expense of whites, forget the other black racists who have (in one case, at least, literally) been his bedfellows all his life. No, forget anything factual about the actual Barack Hussein Obama, and wallow in the orgiastic liberal delight of Feeling Good About Ourselves because we have breached another barrier along the way to perfect equality in America (even though it hasn’t actually happened yet).

Please forgive the egregious over-use of capital letters, but again they fit what I’m trying to express. If this is how the “conservative” media greet this morally very dubious event, we’re not only a morally forsaken country, but a silly one to boot.

And the cherry on the Post’s layer cake of hyperbole: all the typeface on the front page that is usually in red is in green today, as the Post celebrates its commitment to being “green”—whatever that means. His noble Nubian profile wreathed in Earth Day green on the front page… all the Post forgot to do was airbrush in a halo over B. Hussein’s head.

McCain had better be worried—what ties to him do the neocons feel that will overcome their liberal predisposition to do what makes them feel good about themselves—like celebrating and supporting the First Black Nominee? Many of the leading neocons are Jewish, and most of them are from New York. Jewish Americans—especially from New York—having a long history of bending over backwards to do nice things for black people. (They get precious little thanks from the beneficiaries, but that’s another story.) If they succumb to that temptation again, they could do McCain serious damage.

Of course, a pox on Obama and McCain, I say. America needs a real third party!

Ben W. writes:

The following article details Obama’s primaries campaign strategy.

As I mentioned before, Obama’s team is male and white. The way the campaign was designed, its strategy and tactics, is male oriented. Do a significant, scientific analysis of the battlegrounds. Put money where it is most usable. Do not waste time and resources on unwinnable battles. And keep carving up political and geographic territories such that the “incumbent” cannot claim total victory even when winning.

Hillary’s team leaders were female and non-white (first Patty Solis, a Latino, then Maggie Williams, a black woman). They struggled with no strategy and ran into financial problems.

Obama assembled an organization that was not at all “affirmative action” in nature—instead he went with white males (I checked up on all of the names and faces of the leaders in his organization mentioned in the article).

Hillary was going to show up because it “was her time” and her staff was going to reflect “this epoch.” A typical female appeal. Obama put a team together of competence which happened to be male and white.

And BTW who was Al Gore’s organization lead? Donna Brazile—a woman. In a losing cause. Is it any accident who Obama chose to forge his organization? White males…which also leads me to question how prototypically a black candidate is Obama?

Mark K. writes:

Who is Amit G. and why is his post at VFR (mispellings, run-on sentences, incoherent rambling)? It appears Amit is ready for the laying on of hands and blessings from Obama.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 04, 2008 02:14 PM | Send