PLAYING THE YOUTH, INEXPERIENCE, FEISTY WIFE, AND RACE CARD: OBAMA FIRES A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE

PLAYING THE YOUTH, INEXPERIENCE, FEISTY WIFE, AND RACE CARD: OBAMA FIRES A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE

By

Ken Eliasberg

Recently, the change-and-hope fellow, Barack Obama, advised an audience that the Republicans would endeavor to run a fear and smear campaign against him — you know, the kind that the Dems routinely run. They would do this, he informed his audience, by calling attention to what they believed to be his limitations, i.e. “He’s young, he’s inexperienced, and, did I mention, he’s black.” Continuing, Obama then reminded his audience that they would say that he had a feisty wife. This was Obama’s effort to prevent what the Dems have labeled “swiftboating,” which they perceive to be negative - and which I consider to be doing no more than telling the truth. Along these lines I have three observations: First, telling the truth is not being negative; it is being informative. Recall Harry Truman’s observation when his supporters implored him to give em hell, Harry (“em” being the Republicans) — he observed that all he was doing was telling the truth, and to his Republican opponents, it felt like hell, i.e. the truth hurts. Second, negative is a staple in political skirmishes, and it is such because it works. Finally, getting instructions on political good manners from the Democrats is really a joke — no one practices dirty politics more viciously and more consistently than do the Dems.

Now back to Obama’s accusations. In this column let’s just deal withhis “feisty” wife. She’s not feisty — she’s very angry, and not very astute. Why not very astute? When your husband is being seriously considered for the Presidency of his country, an honor that has not been conferred on too many people and certainly not on too many black people in this or, for that matter, any other nonblack country, how smart is it to put down that country in a most absurd manner? First, she observed that she had never been REALLY proud of her country before her husband became a serious contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. I emphasize the world “really” here because Whoopi Goldberg made a big deal out of it when Mrs. Obama appeared on the View as a guest. Ms.Goldberg was trying to alter the rather clear meaning of Mrs. Obama’s statement by shifting the emphasis of her words and thereby accomplish some verbal legerdemain which allowed of a friendlier interpretation of Mrs. Obama’s remarks, i.e. by suggesting that Mrs. Obama was previously proud, but not REALLY proud —this, as if the Republicans were trying to hide something here. Actually, the word really in this context could just as easily be trying to emphasize that she was not actually proud before. However, giving Ms. Goldberg the benefit of the doubt, I don’t see how that alters the sheer stupidity of Ms. Obama’s statement. That is, no matter how you choose to construe that statement, how smart is it to be making any such statement when your husband is trying to make the fundamental point that he is the kind and gentle man to unite this country. Her rather angry statement flies in the face of the image that her husband has been trying so hard to project, i.e. an America-loving charmer.

However, it wasn’t just that statement that we have on the record. Michelle went on to say that America is a “mean” country. Now how does that strike you? America is the most generous country in the world, and, as I have previously pointed out, in no other country, black or white, do blacks have greater opportunities than they do here. So what the hell is this ignorant woman talking about? Moreover, she herself, as I have also previously pointed out, was given the opportunity — solely on the basis of her skin color, not on the basis of her academic achievements — to attend 2 of America’s finest schools, Princeton University and Harvard Law School (thereby preventing 2 more qualified non blacks from doing so). Now how mean is that? If this becomes an issue, I fully expect Barack to come out and tell us that we are taking her comments out of context, or that we just don’t understand the black experience, or that we don’t understand the manner in which blacks communicate with one another, or some such nonsense. No, folks, there is nothing confusing here, and that is why the Dems are so busy giving Michelle a “makeover,” standard Democratise for covering over the real person.

Finally, there was her presentation to a bunch of middle class women in Zanesville, Ohio in which she railed against the hardships of the material way of life — in particular, complaining about her financial hardship. Now help me out here, she and her husband make more than a half a million dollars a year and, while not always making this much, have consistently made a pretty good living. Members of her audience made around 1/10th of that. Now how smart is it go before this type of audience and engage in a shameless and idiotic exercise in self pity, e.g. piano and dance and sports supplements for her children?

Now the point here is not to merely dump on Mrs. Obama; she has already done enough damage to herself and her husband. The point here is twofold: First, if your spouse is going to go out on the campaign trail for you, then she’s in the political arena and anything she says is fair game. In this regard, it is important to recall that old shibboleth — recently repeated by Hillary Clinton — that one should stay out of the kitchen if one can’t take the heat. Second, as I have previously observed, a candidate’s spouse may very well be a window into the soul of the candidate. And here I believe that this is very much the case. Barack may not have been listening to Jeremiah Wright’s jeremiads, but it is quite clear that Michelle has drunk deeply of Pastor Wright’s kool aid; her remarks make that abundantly clear. We’ll deal with Barack’s “limited experience” and his racial concerns down the road.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 12:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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