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Interesting patterns in Obama's book
Reading Dreams from My Father, Part FiveJim Geraghty, National Review Im up to Obamas boyhood years in Indonesia now. . . . Obama goes on to describe life in a country ruled by fear in pretty gripping terms: the way the rich and loamy earth could soak up the rivers of blood that had once coursed through the streets, the way people could continue about their business beneath giant posters of the new president as if nothing had happened, a nation busy developing itself. As [his mothers] circle of Indonesian friends widened, a few of them would be willing to tell her other stories - about the corruption that pervaded government agencies, the shakedowns by police and the military, entire industries carved out for the presidents family and entourage. But from that vivid experience with a brutal regime as a boy, one would think that Obama would be a relentless fighter on the issue of human rights. And its not like his record in this area isnt without its highlights work with Senator Sam Brownback to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act here, a visit to refugee camps on the Chad-Sudan border there, a resolution denouncing Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government here, an amendment to bring former Liberian president Charles Taylor to justice there But does a visceral disdain for thugs in power flow through Obamas bloodstream, the way it did through the late Tom Lantos, or Democratic Congressman Donald Payne, or Brownback or Republican Congressman Chris Smith? Do we detect the white-hot anger of President Reagans vigorous denunciations of human rights abuses by Cuba and the Soviet Empire? Would he be willing to do what Jimmy Carter did, and pull the U.S. out of the Olympics if theyre hosted by a brutal regime? (As we hear of new abuses in Tibet, is Beijing any more of an outrageous host than Moscow in 1980?) Does a man who bristles with loathing for the cruel and inhumane rulers in this world tout face-to-face diplomacy with any and all dictators as his primary foreign policy change? I wrote elsewhere yesterday about a similar pattern on other issues: A man who claims to have dedicated his career to good, clean government chooses to buy his house with Tony Rezko, and a man who claims to have dedicated his life to racial reconciliation chooses to attend a church that teaches that the government created AIDS to commit genocide against minorities. Obama has this strange habit of choosing a path that takes him in the opposite direction of his stated goal. Posted by: Mike 2008-03-21 |
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