Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention tonight highlighted the Alaska Governor’s complete incomprehension of the crisis our country is in.
Our economy is tanking. Our environment and transportation sector are held hostage by Big Oil. Our monopolies on innovation, technology and hope are crumbling. Our military is spread so thin that we have no way to check Iranian and Russian aggression, let alone catch Osama bin Laden. Our poverty and unemployment rates are increasing. Our middle class is evaporating. Our housing market is worse than it was during the Great Depression. Americans are homeless, jobless and penniless.
Did Palin mention ANY of this tonight? NO!
Palin offered nothing of substance except that parents of special needs kids would have an advocate in the White House in her.
Palin stuck to her already tiresome narrative of PTA meglomaniac.
And let’s call it like it is: Palin did not oppose the “bridge to nowhere” until she realized that Alaskans weren’t interested.
Palin has an abominable economic background, as the governor of the only state bordering two foreign countries, she has never engaged her neighbors in trade or sought to build economic partnerships — she’s never even visited her neighbors Canada and Russia.
And Palin has fought hard to make sure that Alaska doesn’t tap into its human resources and only exploits its natural resources even as pools of melted Artic water wash over her boots.
And just one more thing on this note — Palin has served as the governor of less than 700,000 people all of whom rely on Washington handouts to survive for less than two years. Barack Obama has represented at least 3.5 million Americans who live in the second most important city economy in the US and the fourth most important city economy in the world: Chicago — for six years at the state level and two on the national. And Obama doesn’t have to beg Washington for anything because his constituents do it themselves.
Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate is a joke. But it’s the Republican party who will end up having the last laugh if they’re able to pull the wool over voters eyes and move this circus into the White House.
Republicans — the party of Abraham Lincoln — should be mortified that McCain picked Palin to be his running mate. Mortified and ashamed. Deeply and incredibly ashamed.
I’ve been really concerned about Wright from the beginning. He was a hard pill for me to swallow. He makes me think twice about Obama.
And this is mostly because my father is a Methodist minister, I grew up around and attended many black churches, and my family even traveled to Israel with our African-American Bishop. Not one of the black preachers or churches I had contact with or attended as a youth preached Black Liberation Theology, no pulpit expressed anti-American notions or radical conspiracy theories. And most don’t! Wright is a fringe preacher. An extreme fringe.
(But, not on the South Side of Chicago.) … (And I didn’t grow up on the South Side of Chicago.)
And I know what it means to be a member of a church and sit Sunday after Sunday through sermon after sermon. I know that if you don’t agree with the sermon or the preacher then you move on and try the church next door (or try to get the preacher moved or fired). That is simply how it works.
And if you feel a certain connection to the congregation, but not to the preacher, then you continue on with the congregation and put distance between yourself and the preacher. This is just how it works.
(But, Obama is a politician first.)
However, after watching Wright on television yesterday and over the weekend on Bill Moyers, I have to say that he ain’t so bad.
This isn’t to say that he isn’t overly-suspicious of government and the democratic process. He is. You could even argue that he is hostile to democracy. But, his is a dissent which has been dissented since the formation of our country. And does not every man have a right to his opinion and to speak his mind? Of course.
But, the argument goes: “Do we want a man hostile to democracy counseling the future president of our nation?” Probably not.
But, if you actually take the time to listen to an entire sermon or speech or have Wright express his views in full, the anti-democracy quips are taken out of context. Not way out of context, but out of context all the same. Wright is merely trying to make a point with a couple too many ill-thought metaphors.
Wright waxes long and hard about the injustices done to African Americans - trying to make sense of it through sometimes far-fetched conspiracies. But again, he is simply trying to understand the pain and suffering of his congregation. He is not forward thinking, but backward thinking. Mining the past to make sense of the present. And the present state of many African-Americans makes his blood boil. And many times, instead of turning to God, Wright prefers to point the finger.
Wright comes from a specific generation of Black Liberation Theologians. It was a short burst of radical thought in the overall history of the African-American Christian Church in the early 1970s. Wright’s is such a fringe sect at this point that I would argue he is completely irrelevant in the broader context of the African-American church.
But, I’ve buried my lead: Wright is not a bad man. He is a passionate preacher with very specific views and a very distinct world view - which his congregation shares. Wright makes sense in his church in his neighborhood in Chicago. Full stop. And if you don’t live in the South Side of Chicago, and if you aren’t open to Black Liberation Theology then you aren’t going to “get it”.
I would argue that Wright is in no way anti-American. No way. If you listen to his sermons, read his speeches, then it is plain and clear that Wright is fully aware that he has the right to speak his mind and preach his preach because he is American. He cherishes America. He believes in freedom. He believes in justice. And many of his sermons seem angry because he doesn’t think that America is living up to its full potential - that our constitution has been trampled on throughout our history.
Americans should not be concerned that Obama attended his church or had Wright conduct his marriage ceremony or baptize his children.
I think that Obama was simply trying to get to know the people he hoped to represent in the South Side of Chicago. And in the process Obama was introduced to Christianity. That’s the story. It’s plain and it’s simple. And something that Americans should not be afraid of.
The Huffington Post is saying that Obama is losing all of his support in the media because of the (current) conventional wisdom that he will lose in the general election.
But, I’ve said it from day one. And it isn’t because he’s black. Being black is one thing he’s got going for him.
It all starts with his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
You choose what church to attend. You choose to sit through a sermon. You choose who conducts your marriage ceremony. You choose who baptizes your children. And presumably you make these choices as a reflection of who you are as a person, as an extension of your world view. These are the choices Obama has made that are scary to many Americans, black and white and brown alike.
For me it is impossible to think that Obama shares Reverend Wright’s hateful and bitter view of the world. It’s unthinkable. I stand back in complete awe after listening and re-reading Obama’s powerful speech concerning race and America that he delivered in Philadelphia. Our children will have to study that speech some day. It is brilliant. It is forward and inward and rotund. It proves Obama’s penetrating understanding, great respect and unconditional love for America and Americans. It proves that he is the type of leader we so desperately need.
So this begs the question: why the hell was Obama at that church for 20 plus years???
And the answer is clear and simple: to get Obama elected. To build an African-American political base in Chicago’s South Side.
Which paints Obama as a complete fraud. Where he was supposedly representative of a new breed of politician - a real leader of the people. All of this is put in doubt.
Because Americans want their heroes to be perfect and superhuman: flawless. And this Obama is not. Obama is only human. He is flawed. He is not a hero; he is a politician. And he made deals with the devil just as we all have. Obama is just like all of us.
So we become disillusioned and fall back on those abusive relationships to which we’ve grown accustomed: McCain or Clinton. It’s a disgusting cycle of neglect and betrayal - but a cycle we accepted long ago. It’s too much for us to accept Obama’s humanity. We want superhumanity or nothing at all.
The preacher is Obama’s Achilles Heel.
Columnist Anatoly, you get it all wrong.
Race is an issue, but it is not the issue. And if anything, the fact that McCain is an old-rich-white-guy is going to hurt his chances at getting elected more than Obama’s blackness.
Obama has stepped up onto a platform that was born into the public’s conscience when Will Smith started headlining movies. A platform that was conceived during Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches. We have a long history of African-American men and women leading us and teaching us and showing us how to manifest the true American spirit. A history that spans our entire 231 years.
America is ready for a black president.
On “Larry King” last night, Jenna Bush said that she is open to all of the candidates. This is a good omen for the Democrats.
Hillary was expected to win Pennsylvania and she did. No surprise there. But, is this prolonged battle between Clinton and Obama going to benefit the Democrats’ chance of getting back into the White House?
I stand by my previous assertion: No.
It’s my opinion that the Democratic primary has further divided a deeply divided society. Hope has been smashed on the backs of hard-working Americans across the socio-political spectrum. I think people feel lied-to, betrayed and mislead by all of the candidates. And I feel that cynicism about our government has not been defeated. In fact, cynicism reigns supreme.
So, why do I feel that McCain will be stepping into the Oval Office come November?
Because the Democrats are simply circus clowns and Republicans the ring masters (and the concessions cart and ticket takers).
And also, people have a long and nuanced memory of McCain’s career. He’s been up, he’s been down, he’s been all around in the public’s conscience. They may dislike him. They may not agree with him or trust him or think he is the best man for the job. But, no one can argue that McCain hasn’t been serving our country his whole life in good ways and bad.
Things could change. And I hope they do. The Republicans need the boot!!! McCain is NOT the best man for the job. But, Hillary and Obama have got to stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about the common good. And Pennsylvania’s results have just added more fuel to the fire. Sigh.
Tired. Boring. Same old, same old. … Bad night for Obama, though. Bad night for ABC. Bad night for the Democrats. … Aren’t there enough blogs out there opining about the Democratic nomination?
Obama is going to edge out, barely edge out, Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination.
Then McCain is going to wipe the floor with Obama in the general election.
Just a hunch.
Why? We haven’t seen the last of Obama’s Jeremiah Wright scandal. My gut tells me that there is a lot more where this came from.
If Hillary manages to out-maneuver Obama? Well, then we’ve got ourselves a race.
Obama has Wright.
.