The Sins of the Father, Wright?
Much has been made by the wingnut wurlitzer lately of the associations of Barack Obama. I mean, it's a real hate-and-fear fest out there. Especially now that Obama looks certain to be the Democratic nominee, and therefore future President.
In particular, the wingnutosphere, having failed in portraying Obama as a MUSLIM SLEEPER AGENT!!!, and unable to shake his patriotism, despite his public appearances WITHOUT A FLAG PIN!!! and failure to PLACE HIS HAND OVER HIS HEART DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!!! and being ignored on similar, weighty, issues, has been busy exploiting his "relationship" to former Weather Undergrounder Bill Ayers (who comitted his acts of domestic terrorism when Obama was about eight years old), and to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, whose views and remarks have made some people label him a racist, others call him an "America-hater", and still others address him by terms not fit for a family blog.
However, the Clinton campaign has been quietly massaging the message too, and enjoying a measure of plausible deniablility in doing it. As her quest for the Albion Asylum becomes more and more desperate, Hilary has allowed her campaign to become less and less restrained--until her talking points could hardly be told from those of billious O'Reilly.
These tactics were thrown into sharp relief today, as the Grey Lady printed the following message:
Dear Pastor Wright:
Thank you so much for your kind message.
I am touched by your prayers and by the many expressions of encouragement and support I have received from friends across our country.
You have my best wishes.
Sincerely,
Not Who You'd Think
Labels: Corruption, Creative Aquisitions Dept., Disgusting, Funny, Heroes, Justice?, Memory, Names, News, Politics, Power, Psychology, Rednecks, Responsibility, Sickening, Stupidity, the art of the blog
posted by Metro @ 3:46 pm
4 Comments:
I doubt there was any significant relationship to speak of between Wright and the Clintons, but the picture and letter are still ironic given the attacks her campaign has made.
Obama may be preaching no more politics as usual, but I have no doubt of his shrewdness in his profession. The man grew up with absolutely zero black influence in his life. He needed to establish a connection to his mostly-black community when working as an organizer and later running for office in Chicago. He also had to prove himself a good Christian if he wanted to be electable. Hence the relationship with Wright was likely overemphasized. Now he has to appeal to a primarily white constituency in the presidential election, so the connection is being downplayed.
Call me odd, but the only comments of Wright's that I really have a problem with were his theories about HIV being unleashed by "the government" (which one?) to target people of color.
Context is all.
Wright's remarks on HIV echo an absurd but widely-held worldview among black people in North America, and also in places as varied as Germany and South Africa.
As to his "God damn America" statement, the one for which Obama has generally taken the most flack, it seems he was making the same sort of point many pundits did at that time and later: That the US, by its actions in the world at large, created the climate in which twenty-odd young men murdered 3,000 people.
I think Obama really intends to do away with politics as it has been usually praticed in the States for the last thirty years. He takes positions he knows are not necessarily popular and defends them as needful.
The Bush administration takes looney positions based on everything from sunspots to Exxon's bottom line, and then claim anyone not goose-stepping along with them is a traitor, or implies that they're not man enough (even if the man in question is a woman), or quite simply vetos sensible ideas.
As to shrewdness, that's no bad thing in a presidential candidate. Watching Dubya try to be clever is, to quote Terry Pratchett: " ... like watching a dog try to play the trombone."
Well, I voted for Obama in the primary and hope to be able to do so in the presidential election as well. The jury's still out on whether he'll make good on staying away from politics as usual if elected, but I do think he's the best individual to restore our standing in the world. I also just picked up The Audacity of Hope yesterday in hopes of learning even more about the guy.
I think Bush thinks squinting all the time makes him look shrewd. Shifty is more like it.
I think that's his "thoughtful" expression--meaning he's diverting brainpower to his three surviving cells in order to think, and is therefore perilously close to $#17ting himself.
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