The American Spectator

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Going for Barack

5.2.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 6)

April 30, at National Review Online's The Corner, in his blog entry "Who is the Dr. Frankenstein of this Monstrous Situation?" Victor Davis Hanson, a white nationally syndicated columnist and academician, includes other divisive collaborators with Obama.

He said, in closing: "So Wright goes on, Obama goes on, Hillary goes on. When they have all finished, the wife of the first 'black' President, the candidate who 'transcended' race, and 'old uncle' Wright -- and the liberal Democratic Party -- will have done more to destroy racial relations than all the David Dukes in the world."

Meanwhile, on April 30, in "Obama opens a can of worms," Mary Mitchell, a black columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, illuminates the us-them chasm between blacks and whites, and presents a very different perception of what's transpired -- focusing on what she believes is an assault on the black church and blacks by white America -- and who precipitated it.

She wrote, in part: "At a time when African Americans [sic] are on the cusp of watching a barrier come crashing down, up jumps a divisive issue that is being driven by those outside of the black community....The notion that white pundits can dictate what constitutes unacceptable speech in the black church is repulsive to most black people.... But Wright speaks to a different audience, and that audience has been supportive throughout his ordeal. On Monday, for instance, when Wright spoke at the National Press Club, the predominantly black crowd cheered, clapped and punctuated Wright's speech with shouts of 'amen.' So, when Obama says America was 'offended' by Wright's harsh language, he isn't speaking for or to Black America. He is speaking to White America."

Dark, very troubling days loom on the national horizon.
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

I am not sure race is the issue that has confounded Senator Obama's campaign. The case could be better put that hatred is the storm that has made his waves.

Reverend Wright's constant verbal stream of hatred, anger and invective towards the white race is the not the issue. The issue is the shock that a Presidential candidate sat through it for 20 years. That a candidate apparently acquiesced in Wright's vilification and intense dislike of the Nation he seeks to lead.

Mr. Obama says Mr. Wright's rantings are not who he is. But his wife has provided us an insight into whether that is political desquamation or a sincere statement. Ms. Obama shed some light: she has only been proud of America only "this time."

I think it absolutely just and proper that the Senator's judgment and character be the subject of intense and serious debate. This is a man who spent 20 years sitting in this hate-filled place. This is a man who subjected his children to this most vile of speech; race based demonizing.

It is not too much to wonder whether he was one of the masses whom, every Sunday stood up a cheered for the triumph of hatred towards his American brothers.
-- Jay Molyneaux
North Carolina

I think that Mr. Tyrrell is misreading the part that race is playing in this election cycle, and is being a bit unfair to the Clinton camp as it pertains to race. While Bill Clinton did invoke Jesse Jackson during the South Carolina primary, it has now been proven that staffers from the Obama campaign had been instructed to look for any comments that could be construed as "racially insensitive" to be highlighted to the detriment of the other candidates. So while the Clinton camp may have actually uttered the first word about race in the campaign, the Obama camp was more than ready to begin playing the race card when it would be to their benefit. Obama is not exactly clean on this issue.

Also, there has to be a mention of the ole the media has played in race becoming a factor here as well. It has been the media that has rushed to characterize any criticism of Obama and his ideas as race based. The media has chosen sides in this race and have used cries of racism to explain away any criticism and to paper over any of Obama's gaffes on the trail. With the media so willing to focus on Obama's race as a positive factor in his candidacy, how can you be surprised that race is a factor? Remember how little attention the media gave to Joe Biden's statement about how Obama was the first "clean" and "articulate" black to run for President, yet they were the first to basically call Bill Clinton a racist for saying that even Jesse Jackson was able to win in South Carolina (which was true, by the way).

And as much as we try to pretend it is otherwise, race is a factor in all of our lives. It is a part of whom we are, and for blacks it is maybe a bigger factor than it is for whites. As a black man, while I cannot support Obama because of his liberal views, there is still a small sense of pride that we have finally gotten to the point where one of our own has a legitimate chance to be President. For whites it may not seem like such a big deal, mainly because every President and major candidate has been a white man, but for blacks it is a huge deal. So in that sense race was always going to be a factor once Obama became a truly viable candidate.
-- Eric Edwards
Walnut Cove, North Carolina

The tragedy of campaign '08 is the presidential choices facing the American people:

(a) A dishonest, untrustworthy, race-bating, deceitful, congenitally lying female.
(b) A slow on the uptake (20 year) pew sitting, prevaricating, unaccomplished tarnished messiah.
(c) A bitter, angry, imperious (listen to me), confused (I am conservative), anti-free speech, yes tax-no tax RINO.

Everyone in favor of a do-over, including brokered conventions, raise your hands.
-- Wolf Terner

R. Emmett Tyrrell is missing the point. Obama doesn't have a racial problem. That is merely a symptom of the larger disease: the man who was supposed to be "above it all" has been revealed as just another ambitious hack -- whose claim that he "didn't know" who Rev. Wright really was strains credibility.

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