Thursday, June 12, 2008

Obama: Does Anyone See a Pattern Here?

By Alan Caruba

It’s getting more and more difficult to keep up with the number of people with whom Barack Obama has been or is associated who have either resigned, as in the case of James Johnson, selected to lead his search for a vice president on his ticket, or who he has to denounce and distance himself from in some fashion.

The most famous is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the leader of the Chicago church Obama attended for twenty years. First he rid himself of this troublesome pastor and then he resigned from the church. He later had to renounce the words of a priest delivering an oration in the same church who was uncharitable to his then-opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Earlier he referred to his grandmother as a typical white woman despite the fact that she took him in and raised him as her own. Then later he decided she had been an inspiration.

Putting distance between himself and a variety of shady characters such as ex-Weathermen, Willliam Ayres and Bernadine Dohrn, Obama fell back on the now-familiar excuse that these were bad people a long time ago. The same cannot be said of the recently convicted Chicago real estate magnate, Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who helped bankroll his political career and find a million-dollar home for him.

We have from now until next November to learn more about Obama’s choice of friends, supporters, and advisors, but it’s already becoming difficult to keep track of those with bad attitudes or shady backgrounds.

Does anyone see a pattern here?

We are being asked to elect a man to be the next president of the United States who has demonstrated incredibly bad judgment in the choice of these people. Moreover, he has set himself to be a moral paragon ready to clean up Washington, D.C. by avoiding lobbyists and cracking down on evil capitalist corporations.

Has he put lobbyists on his own staff, said to be some 700 persons at this point, the most of any presidential candidate in the history of the nation? The short answer is yes. Lobbyists and others paid to influence legislation routinely move back and forth to work in the campaigns of candidates.

You cannot choose your family, but you can select the company you keep in church and in public and private life. Sooner or later, though, a lot of people are going to wonder about those choices, particularly in light of the continual necessity to get away from an ever increasing number of them.

Finally, I keep asking people who say they are going to vote for Obama what his policies are other than getting out of Iraq? Most of them have no real idea. One problem is the way he seems to reverse course from week to week. Obama may well be the most misunderstand candidate ever to run for public office. This is bad enough if he was a member of some small township council, but he is a Senator who wants to be a President.

A check of his voting record reveals a hardcore devotion to every liberal piece of legislation Democrats proposed. There isn’t even a hint of bipartisanship here.

Apparently he’s against millionaires and for blue collar workers, but the latter did not vote for him in large numbers during the Democrat primaries. Neither did women. People who own guns are surely not going to vote for him. Evangelicals are not likely either. A lot of very young, very ecstatic people are enthralled by him, but the young do not vote that much come Election Day.

Electing a President involves a lot more than mass hysteria. Character and judgment are the defining aspects of those we elect to lead the nation.

As the issue of Iraq fades and the rising cost of gasoline and food moves to the top of national priorities, Obama’s “solutions” to these problems provide no solution at all, nor will America’s enemies disappear or be enraptured by his eloquence.

The fatigue of keeping track of those whom he no longer calls friends, advisors, and supporters will begin to take its toll by November.

3 comments:

Saildog said...

Not being a US citizen I don't the right to vote in the US. So my opinion doesn't count.

Any way, Alan doesn't like Obama. I wonder whether it would be different if he was on the GOP ticket and McCain was a Democrat?

McCain seems a decent man. He certainly deserves heaps of respect for his war record. He obviously has real guts. I like that. I have been in the military too, the South African military when they were fighting a nasty little and immoral war. But I was never a POW.

Obama is a powerful orator. He also seems like a decent man. He seems to have a connection with the people, a bit like Clinton has, but not as good.

McCains problem is Bush. Bush and Greenspan have undoubtedly been the worst leaders the US has ever had. They, between them, took the most powerful country and all but destroyed it. They have indebted the country, its governement and its people. Everything about the US economy can be summed up in a single word. It is broke.

Add to that the fact that the US is involved in 2 intractable foreign occupations, with thousands of US troops killed (for what?) and the fact that he has debased the once great US constititution and it is really hard to see a Replican being elected.

Alan Caruba said...

Don't be deceived by the "externals" Saildog. Obama is a Marxist. In the five months ahead, Americans are discover a lot of reasons not to vote for Obama.

That said, they will "settle" for McCain as the least worst choice.
He is, by the way, not an extension of Bush. That, too, will be emphasized during the campaign...plus the fact that he has been a true "reformer" as far as legislation, opposition to the way the Iraq war was being waged, etc.

Americans have the attention span of fungus. That's why it requires a long campaign to sort things out.

Unknown said...

There are certain principles that have built the 21 st century. The middle east is doomed to a life of poverty, misery, illiteracy, etc. because they posses "none" of those principles. They have a 13th century book that they think is "absolutly prfect" Anyone from their circles who inovates, invents, creates is killed. See a problem?

If their kids, grand kids, and so forth are going to have any hope at a meaningful future there needs to be a change. If all us infidels are going to live in a more rational world there needs to be a change.

The fine army of the U.S. has provided them the seeds of this brighter future. A constitution convention they voted in record numbers to create "not some dictator / Imam" They drafted a government and then again elected those officials in record numbers.

The seeds of this new hope includes a government with three seperate branches of government, checks and balances, and free independant political parties.

I have read articles about how radio talk is booming were such groups as women can express their views, which was "never heard of before" In addition talk shows have had callers of different views who, they said, should sighns of accually listening to each others views with out resorting to jihad and other over reactions.

The seed of this hope continues by "the iraqi army" taking the operational lead and accually picking fights with different groups on their own.

This seed is for generations to come. A gift not only to them but to the whole world.

If you had a child and they cried for every little thing and through temper tantrums every time they did not get their own way would you correct this behavior?

As a responsible parent I would hope so because the future of a cry baby is bleak, and its only through discipline of the parent that the neccesitty is born for the child to start dealing with their own lives.

If you cave into a whiner they just keep whining. Every little thing that does not go their way they are crippled in how to deal with it responsibly.

In the same way the U.S. has given them a gift in forcing them to take care of their own problems. Forcing them to meet each other through the ballot, and open media.

Like wise it is the poor wisdom of the world to cave into whimpers, temper tantrums, and pissy attitudes. The more you cave in the more this behaviour is simply reinforced.

I personally am glad the U.S.A follows its own humanity, and not a slave to the poor attitudes of others. To thy own self be true, and God bless the U.S.A.

Bless the Iraqi , and Afgan people in the great things that lay in their futures. Whole worlds will open up to generations to come in ways we take for granted every day.