The American Spectator

Jeremy Lott replies: Most of the letter writers would have benefited from a closer reading of my column. They act as though I endorsed Barack Obama, when I did no such thing. I simply stated that I couldn’t bring myself to hate the man, and that he delivered a remarkable speech.

Readers accuse yours truly and Senator Obama of excusing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s hate-filled homilies. No. I described his sermons as “nutty, vile racist anti-American rantings.” Obama said that his former pastor’s statements flowed from “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.”

Readers also act as though I ignored Senator Obama’s thoroughly left wing politics. Try this: “One neat trick [Obama] has developed is to fairly accurately summarize the concerns of others and then sidestep them to propose standard issue big government solutions to all of life’s problems.” Or this: “he’s now got a good shot at winning… the White House, where he will put his Barack Hancock on some truly awful legislation.”

The point of the piece was supposed to be this: We aren’t always fortunate enough to have unlikable political opponents. A few readers get this. They concede, albeit grudgingly, that the Illinois senator is a force to be reckoned with, not because of his liberal ideas but because of his considerable personal charm.