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The Obama Watch
Obama Versus Obama: Part II
His desire to redistribute wealth domestically is part of a larger ideological vision that includes a redistribution of power internationally.
Nowhere is the contrast between Barack Obama, as defined by his rhetoric (“Obama 1”) and Barack Obama as defined by his actions (“Obama 2”) greater than in his foreign policy — and especially his policy toward Israel.
What if we put aside Barack Obama’s rhetoric, and instead look exclusively at his documented record over a period of decades, up to and including the present?
The first thing that is most striking about that record is the long string of his mentors and allies who were marked by hatred of the United States, and a vision of the world in which the white, Western nations have become prosperous by oppressing and exploiting the non-white, non-Western nations.
The person most people have heard of who matched that description has been Jeremiah Wright, whose church Barack Obama attended for 20 years, and was still attending when he began his campaign for the presidency. But Jeremiah Wright was just one in a series of mentors and allies with a similar vision and a similar visceral hostility to the West.
Barack Obama was virtually marinated in that vision from childhood. His mother clashed with her Indonesian husband when he began to move away from his earlier anti-Western radicalism and to work with Western businesses investing in Indonesia.
As a counterweight to whatever ideological influence her Indonesian husband might have on her son, she extolled the virtues of his absent Kenyan father, who remained a doctrinaire, anti-Western socialist to the end.
After Barack Obama was sent back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents at age ten, his grandfather introduced him to a black man named Frank Marshall Davis, who had a long career of anti-American, anti-white propaganda that included a stint as a member of the Communist Party. Davis was Obama’s mentor on race throughout his adolescent years, until Obama left for college.
The progression of such mentors and like-minded contemporaries continued as Obama went through Occidental College, Columbia University and the Harvard Law School.
These included Professor Edward Said at Columbia, a spokesman for Palestinian terrorists, and Professor Derrick Bell at the Harvard Law School. Bell was an advocate of so-called “critical race theory” — an uncritical mishmash of notions by a man who said that he saw his role as deliberately annoying white people. Barack Obama literally embraced Professor Bell at a public gathering.
After Obama went out into the world and worked for a time in a private business, he regarded himself as being, in his own words, “a spy behind enemy lines.”
Later, when he began his political career by running for state office in Illinois, his campaign began with a fundraiser in the home of Bill Ayers, who had been a domestic terrorist who planted bombs in public places, including the Pentagon.
When this association was later revealed, Obama said that he was still a child during Ayers’ years as a terrorist. But Obama was by no means still a child when Ayers defended his years of terrorism in a statement that appeared in the New York Times — ironically, on September 11, 2001.
This is not the Barack Obama that most voters saw and elected President of the United States in 2008. What they saw was a carefully crafted image of a bright, articulate, energetic and genial fellow who would heal our racial and partisan divides. His likability was high and remained so, even after many became disappointed with his policies.
His geniality has carried him over many rough spots. But have you ever heard of a grumpy confidence man? Geniality is a prerequisite for the job.
What many regard as a failure of Obama’s foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, may well be one of his biggest successes. His desire to redistribute wealth domestically is part of a larger ideological vision that includes a redistribution of power internationally.
Obama has long said that the United States plays too large a role internationally. His policies suggest that Islamic countries need a larger role. The troubling question is whether he still sees his own role as “a spy behind enemy lines” in the White House.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Pecos Pete| 9.26.12 @ 7:36AM
"The troubling question is whether he still sees his own role as "a spy behind enemy lines" in the White House." Answer: Hell yes Obama is the spy and he is intent upon bankrupting the USA.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 9.26.12 @ 4:52PM
"His desire to redistribute wealth domestically is part of a larger ideological vision that includes a redistribution of power internationally."
Now Tom has got it. Our supremacy lasted from 1945- 2005:
Do the math, that's 60 yrs.
Alan Obama Fan Brooks | 9.26.12 @ 4:55PM
... the Brits were supreme until 1945. And one might say their supremacy hit full stride in 1885:
60 yrs!
Von Mises Jr| 9.26.12 @ 7:50AM
The question seems to be for how many enemies of the United States is he a spy.
- We know he was caught on an open microphone sending traitorous messages back to Putin.
- He bows in subordination to the Saudi King.
- He has helped the Muslim Brotherhood secure a dictatorship in Egypt.
- Hillary and Obama are working with the UN for Agenda21 and One World Government?
All we can be sure of is that he is not an ally of the American Middle Class.
ncatty| 9.26.12 @ 3:45PM
Hey, wait a minute. He bowed to the Emperor of Japan also! He is an equal opportunity groveller.
Appleby| 9.26.12 @ 9:54AM
Obama is the quintessential College Sophomore of The Sixties, still partying like it's 1968. Only because he wasn't actually there in the real 1968, he gets it pretty visibly wrong, like the kids in my neighbourhood in Atlanta who celebrated "Hippie Day" at their high school and instead of the Peace Symbol, ignorantly painted their signs with the logo of Mercedes Benz.
PolishKnight| 9.26.12 @ 9:58AM
As many folks in Ohio may not yet realize, Obama is not redistributing wealth to them but rather his cronies at Goldman Sachs, German windmill manufacturers, and government union workers or contractors. Sad to say, the Republicans, including GWB they supported in previous elections, haven't "done" much for them either. Granted, the free-market, Republican philosophy is we should help ourselves yet Republicans have no problems passing legislation to extend copyright law to help out Disney and other corporations. Or prohibit us from giving an ebook we "bought" to our relative because now it's a piece of "software". Why is it ok to "help" corporations, but not their electorate? And then they even help those who are not their electorate such as undocumented immigrants in the hopes of some cheap labor who then turn around and vote socialist.
The left cleverly goes out and sells a message that they're trying to "help" everyone, even when their language most of the time clearly is against them. They go out to a fundraiser and call working people stupid and ignorant and clinging to guns and religion and enjoying "white privilege" and then turn around, go to Ohio, and say they want to "help the middle class". Brilliant! They trust in people's foolishness. On the other hand, the Republicans don't even bother making the effort to either earn, or lie about earning, our trust much of the time.
JudithAnn| 9.26.12 @ 10:54AM
My concern is how the truth is ever going to get to The People when most of the media is perpetrating a news blackout on said truth, or manipulating truth, or outright lying about Obama's record and the state of the economy. My Democrat friends tell me they are quite satisfied with Obama's policies but when I ask them for examples, they brush me off or give me false generalities that mean nothing---just like Obama.
PolishKnight| 9.26.12 @ 12:30PM
Democrats love Obama because of what he promises and his failure to deliver is blamed on the Devil, or Republicans. So they can feel good (and more importantly, superior) about themselves without icky, messy responsibilities.
I'm reminded of when I was a kid and loved the show Happy Days. It was a childish, sophomoric show but then again, I was a childish and sophomoric at the time. I grew up. But looking back, I'm reminded of the success of the show and what my fellow (often Democrat) friends liked about it: It revolved around The Fonz who was Cool. He could do magic (hit a jukebox and it would turn on.) The rest of the characters were likable (and needed to be) but in the eyes of the producers, and viewers, they were uninteresting and boring because they had to work for a living and deal with problems as mortals.
People want a big daddy, Godlike government to promise them stuff and feel good. That's what matters to them. In a way, perhaps they deserve The Fonz (keeping in mind that the actor who played him couldn't even ride his own bike.) This is what they are. Let's get used to it and deal with it.
JD| 9.26.12 @ 1:01PM
What's impressive is that despite all of Obama's "marinating" in far-left ideology, he came out of it no further to the Left than millions of others in America who don't have his excuses for it.
ncatty| 9.26.12 @ 3:43PM
Hah! How true.
Dave Williams| 9.26.12 @ 1:27PM
Somebody PLEEEEEEEEZE get Dr. Sowell's columns into the hands of the RNC! Romney is going to have to come out swinging during October if he wants to win this thing....there is a LOT he could be saying about King Zero, some of which might get through to the brain-dead masses who would even CONSIDER giving him four more years to ruin this country.
oldeham| 9.26.12 @ 6:06PM
When people hear 'redistribution' they think they will be getting more 'Obama' dollars.
Obama is playing African American's for a sucker.
Obama is playing the unions for a sucker.
Obama is playing the fuzzy headed liberal establishment for a sucker.
Obama is playing __________ (insert group of your choice) for a sucker.
This is all about the centralization of power, wealth and knowledge in the hands of a chosen few.
One world government under the leadership of Islam.
All of the above will be marching to the ovens with smiles on their faces.
The people of Israel understand this and will act accordingly.
truebluepatriot| 9.27.12 @ 8:51AM
Don't lose the faith, people. God always provides. Look how the internet and twitter give everyday people the opportunity to get the word out! Just imagine how awful things would be if the press still controlled ALL of our information. God will out and he will NOT be mocked.
2 Chronicles 7:14 is our new motto. 40 days til the election, time to get on our knees!