Include Me Out
Barack Obama wants to move forward together.
Thanks, but I’ll catch the next bus.
Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday he chose to run for president because he believes “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.”
Speaking to supporters at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, the Democratic presidential candidate said he rejected racially charged comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but explained the root of his remarks.
…
“Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely — just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.”
The remarks that caused the most recent firestorm “were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity,” Obama said.
First let’s deal with that unity crap. I don’t want unity on tax increases, unity on excessive spending, unity on amicable discussions with Iran, or on a number of other contentious issues.
I want my way, and I expect you to want yours. Only one of us is going to win. It has never been any other way—just read the Federalist Papers, or any biography or popular history of the early days of this country.
As for the “roots” of Reverend Wright’s remarks, they have nothing to do with race. I tan well, but otherwise I’m as white as a ghost, and I recognize his remarks from my parents, from my friends, from out of the air we breathe and the water we drink—not least from the Internet we surf. (Maybe we’re more united than I thought.)
They say you can’t know what it’s like to be a black man in America unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.
You ever tried living with white guilt? S**t’ll drive you crazy.
Never mind being a black woman, trying to maintain a relationship when the odds are that the black man with whom she’s had children has walked at least a mile in his shoes in any direction—as long as it’s away from her.
Or Jesse Jackson, turning his Allen Edmonds across the street at the sight of an approaching young black man.
My quarrel is not with the Reverend, who merely says what many seem to think and more than a few want to hear (certainly his parishioners did). My quarrel is with the Senator, who seems to think his pastor’s hateful words were no different from a rabbi’s praising apricot hamentashen over poppy.
Barack Obama may be able to separate his meshugenah minister’s world view from his own, but I can’t. I heard too much, too often, expressed too loudly and too angrily for me to believe the Senator’s claim he never heard it himself. Either he did, or he didn’t. Either he found the comments unobjectionable, or he “strongly disagreed”. Either that’s the end of the story, or there’s context.
I have the advantage of not having heard the speech, but of just reading the words. Between the lines, I sense someone trying to have it every which way he can. Condemning of the remarks, while understanding the [irrational, paranoid] sentiments that lie behind them. Reassuring “white” America, while playing on its guilt. Calling for unity, while laying out a most radical agenda.
I know I’m a hater for saying this, but I couldn’t see the world more differently from Barack Obama if I used a kaleidoscope, and I couldn’t hope for his ultimate defeat any harder if his opponent were Abraham Lincoln himself.
Christian Prophet said,
March 18, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
Barack Obama wants to both eat his cake and have it. He wants voters to rise above race and religion, while appearing religious himself. He is in deep trouble if a spotlight is placed on the non-racial aspects of his own THEOLOGY. See:
http://miraclesdaily.blogspot.com
Amir said,
March 18, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
Reverend Wright was Senator Obama’s priest for twenty years, marrying him and his wife, baptizing his children, and being his spiritual counselor. For Senator Obama to say that he was unaware of Reverend Wright’s racially charged statements either makes him a liar or a fool. I believe the former because Senator Obama is anything but a fool. Rather, Senator Obama saw an opportunity - he was able to connect himself with a very powerful minister on the South Side of Chicago, which served him well when he started in local politics in Illinois. Now that Reverend Wright is no longer politically expedient, Senator Obama is trying to distance himself from Reverend Wright. I make no comment on whether Senator Obama agrees with Reverend Wright - that’s a separate issue. Rather, my comment is directed to the truthfulness of Senator Obama. Does Senator Obama really expect the public to believe him when he says he had no idea what his “spiritual counselor” believed. Better put, Senator Obama, do you really think I’m that stupid to believe you? The bottom line is that Senator Obama used Reverend Wright when he needed him, and then cast him off when he didn’t. This is political opportunism at its worst. Senator Obama constantly sings the mantra of change from politics as usual – his behavior shows that mantra as completely empty – he is a politician in the most common and basest sense of the word.