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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Obama: a very, very ambitious man |
| 2008-06-01 |
| Peter Wehner, "The Corner" @ National Review Barack Obama’s resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ over, in part, “a cultural and a stylistic gap” raises additional doubts about him. The obvious question is what “cultural and stylistic gap” exists now that hasn’t existed during the last two decades, when Obama was a member of Trinity United and an intimate friend with its pastor, Jeremiah Wright Jr.? The answer, of course, is none. Trinity United and Jeremiah Wright are what they have always been; it is Obama — or more precisely, Obama’s political interests — that have changed. It’s been just over two months since Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race — the one that was compared by the historian Garry Wills to Lincoln’s Cooper Union address. In that speech Obama famously said he could not more disown the Reverend Jeremiah Wright than he could disown the black community or his own grandmother and spoke about how Trinity United “embodies the black community in its entirety.” Since that speech Wright has been tossed under the bus — and now, so has Trinity United. And, arguably, "the black community in its entirety." Hope the thing has high ground clearance. Obama’s twenty-year participation at Trinity United and his close relationship with its senior pastor raised a lot of questions about Obama — both about his decision to associate himself with Trinity United and Wright in the first place and Obama’s tortured explanations since the public first learned of Wright’s anti-American tirades. What Obama did today may have been politically necessary. It was certainly politically expedient. And it is yet one more blow to Obama’s image as a different kind of politician. In fact, as we’ve learned over the last few months, Obama appears to be a Chicago politician through and through. When he perceived a threat to his self-interest, he cut his ties to first his pastor and then his church, both of which he had expressed familial love and fidelity. This whole episode is deeply unattractive, even as it is deeply revealing. Underneath the attractive veneer of Barack Obama beats the heart of a very, very ambitious man. Time will tell how problematic this may be and what snares this character trait may eventually lead him into. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #15 OTOH, FOX NEWS + CNBC/MSNBC this AM > in time of WAR, NATIONAL CRISES, + UNCERTAINTY, AMERS WILL PREFER A WHITE REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVE MALE WID MIL CREDENTIALS-EXPERIENCE AS POTUS come elex time, and 2008 DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE ANY EXCEPTION TO THIS ADAGE. SAME > The DEMS are making substantial gains in MAJOR RED-GOP STATES FORMERLY WON BY DUBYA. * PUNDIT CONVENTIONAL WISDOM > 2008 ELEX- JAN 2009 > GOP POTUS + MOSTLY DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS. AMER VOTERS TRUST THE GOP MORE IN FOREIGN POLICY, FIGHTING WARS, + ECON MACROS, DEMS IN ALTERNATIVE VIEWS + "COMMON MAN" MORALISM + WELFARE SPENDING??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-06-01 18:34 |
| #14 None lacking ambition will run for POTUS in any case. Question for any voter is: what kind of POTUS will this candidate be? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2008-06-01 13:14 |
| #13 That was a heartbreaker of a chapter P2K. I takes to my sandship |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-06-01 13:01 |
| #12 "If so, then was a grievous fault - and grievously hath Caesar answered it." |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-06-01 12:38 |
| #11 From Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, "The Martian" Nov '49 - "LaFarge and his wife Anna have forged a new life for themselves, but they still miss their dead son Tom. A night thunderstorm startles the elderly pair, who see a figure standing outside their home in the rain. Anna retires to bed afraid, while LaFarge believes that somehow, Tom is standing before him. He leaves his house unlocked. That morning, "Tom" is busy helping Anna with chores. LaFarge sees that Anna is somehow unaware of Tom's death, and after speaking privately with him, LaFarge learns that "Tom" is a Martian with an apparent empathic shapeshifting ability: it appears as their dead son to them. Later that day, Anna insists on a visit to the town. "Tom" is deathly afraid of being so close to so many people. LaFarge promises to keep him close, but at the town they become separated. While searching for "Tom," LaFarge hears that the Spaulding family in town has miraculously found their lost daughter Lavinia. Desperate to avoid a second devastating heartbreak to his wife, LaFarge stands outside Spaulding's home and finds "Tom" now masquerading as Lavinia. He is able to coax "Tom" to come back, and they run desperately back for their boat to leave town. However, everyone "Tom" passes sees a person of their own — a lost husband, a son, a criminal. The Martian, exhausted from his constant shape-changing, spasms and dies." |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-06-01 08:23 |
| #10 Obama: Now with half-white! |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2008-06-01 08:23 |
| #9 Can a fake southern accent, ala Hillary, be far ahead? |
| Posted by: ed 2008-06-01 07:57 |
| #8 He's quit cigarettes and picked up Copenhagen. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-06-01 07:51 |
| #7 He's on the right track with leaving Trinity. His next steps should be to divorce Michelle, buy an F-150 and a bass boat, start attending NASCAR races, and move to Nashville. We can take another look at him in 2020. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-06-01 07:25 |
| #6 Oi vey, oi vey. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-01 04:50 |
| #5 Selling out to whitey to get the big office. Whitey, for the most part, ain't buyin'... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2008-06-01 04:12 |
| #4 When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter said, "I now understand Soviet intentions." Maybe a prospective president should have a good grasp of the enemy. All I am hearing from Obama is how we need to value diplomacy, notwithstanding entrenched positions of an enemy. Chamberlain said he understood Hitler; sure didn't. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-06-01 03:53 |
| #3 As Gateway Pundit noted, it's getting very crowded under that bus. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2008-06-01 02:09 |
| #2 In that speech Obama famously said he could not more disown the Reverend Jeremiah Wright than he could disown the black community or his own grandmother... He's currently batting 2 for 3. Black community...check your six. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2008-06-01 01:23 |
| #1 Selling out to whitey to get the big office. |
| Posted by: Kelly 2008-06-01 01:22 |