On The Promise of Obama

Like many of you, I watched President Obama's inauguration last week. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing--bittersweet feelings. Many of my liberal friends are surprised to hear that I am, as I describe it, "skeptically optimistic" about Obama.

I'm impressed by his thoughtfulness, intelligence, and speaking ability. I have deep doubts about his politics and preferred policy solutions to many of the problems we face.

But I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Peggy Noonan, who became a bit of a conservative turncoat this election, had a few interesting observations about the inauguration. The following observation, about a new order of inclusiveness, is one I've seen repeated elsewhere.

The whole experience the next few days was marked for me by a new or refreshed knowledge that those who had not felt included or invited in the past were now for the first time truly here, and part of it all, in great numbers.

I appreciate that President Obama, an black president, has made African-Americans feel more included or in some cases, included for the first time. I regret that this is so. I don't think a given group should only feel included when their guy--as identified by race--is in the White House.

Honestly, that's not what this country is about. Unlike many (nay, most) countries in the world, America wasn't and should not be organized along "tribal" lines. We didn't divide based on language or race or whatever but were found based on an idea--an idea that was and remains inclusive enough that anyone and everyone, regardless of race, creed, color, background, ought to be able to feel included and represented regardless of the race of the man or woman occupying the White House or any other office.

This idea that now, for the first time, African Americans can or are included in the political process is, to me, a double-edged sword. I am glad to have them included and feeling patriotic and American, but I am sad that they only feel included when someone who looks like them occupies the White House. Will the same be true of other races or religions? I hope not.

I hope that the breaking of this barrier will help all Americans, regardless of what they think makes them different, realize that what makes them American is a set of shared ideals, a shared vision, a collective memory and history that includes all the good things--what Obama called, "our better history"--and seeks to move past the bad parts.

Maybe that's what this election was about, an opportunity to put the stain of slavery and segregation behind us. If so, as a guy who voted for the other guy, I'd have to agree it is worth it. I just hope the opportunity isn't squandered. If the race-baiters, victim-creators--the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons have their way, a wonderful opportunity will have been lost.

If they have their way, black Americans will only ever feel included when someone who looks like them is in the White House. And that would be a shame.

If Barack Obama does nothing more than bring black Americans into the American body politic, he will have been successful.

Speaking as a conservative, I hope he keeps accomplishes that and keeps his policy prescriptions conservative.

(h/t Scott L.)


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Obama's No-Limit Racial Hold 'Em

Yesterday Obama, Guitar Hero* said this:

What they're going to do is make you scared -- of me, He's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. He doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills

He was clever to apply it to future, as yet unsaid comments by "the others." By doing so, no one can make a link between Obama's accusation and what someone--anyone--said.

Today, responding to the McCain camp's rightful accusations that Obama had played "the race card," Robert Gibbs (Obama Spokesman) said this:

What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn't get here after spending decades in Washington. There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn't come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.

How is anyone supposed to get any of that from looking at the dollar bills in their pocket and comparing them to the picture Barack Obama on the cover of all the celebrity gossip mags (like Time, Newsweek, The New York Times)?

We don't have any big bills in our wallet (Benjamin Franklin was never president anyway), but looking at the ones we do have, the only thing we can gather from an in depth, pictoral analysis is that Lincoln and Washington were old and white (well, green-tinged white, actually. owing to the color of the paper on which money is printed). We can draw no other conclusions. Do Obama and Gibbs actually expect people to believe that his comment wasn't about race?

Washington ($1) didn't "spend decades in Washington." It wasn't even the capital of these United States when he was President. Hamilton ($10), like Franklin, was also never President, and spent little time in Washington before being shot by Aaron Burr. Lincoln, meanwhile, spent the vast majority of his life in Illinois state politics. So, in fact, Obama does have something in common with the man on the $5 bill. Andrew Jackson ($20) actually did spend a number of years in Washington, but he was a Democrat, so there's that. Ulysses Grant ($50) was a war hero who had never spent any significant amount of time in Washington.

The implications of what Obama said (again, see quoted text above) are clear: they were white, he is black and the Republican/Conservative/McCain others--"they"--are going to try and scare people by pointing this out.

This is the lowest form of racial grievance politics--playing the race card like this takes a page out of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton's book. Heck, we don't know why Reverend Jackson is so upset with Obama, the two of them are one and the same.

*Over-the-top performance, no real skill or experience.


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Jesse Jackson Feels Threatened

Image link

Regarding Rev. Jackson's threat to cut off Obama's you-know-whats, well, we definitely side with Senator Obama. Obviously the good reverend means this metaphorically, but still, does he think the secret service will even let him get close to Sen. Obama?

Per the New York Post, Jackson doesn't like the fact that Obama encourages young black men to be good fathers and recently "told students to stick with school and forget about careers as rap stars or pro basketball players."

Yeah, that's really bad advice, Senator Obama. What were you thinking?

Don't gets us wrong. We've listened to speeches and read others in which Obama does come across as incredibly condescending, but this wasn't one of them.

What "black leader" Jesse Jackson doesn't like about Obama is that a successful Obama, whose rhetoric about self-reliance more closely mimics Bill Cosby's than Jackson's and Sharpton's, threatens his status. To our mind, this might be the only positive resulting from an Obama win in November--a purge of the Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton hate mongering among the black community.

Or, if his Rev. Wright/Father Pfleger connections are any indication, it could get worse. Who knows?

Either way:

Barack Obama > Jesse Jackson

and

Democratically Elected President > Self Appointed Racist Hate Monger

*UPDATE 11 July 12:18am: After thinking for awhile about Rev. Jackson's whispered threat, we realized that this had deeper meaning than originally thought. Roots--a book we've read and documentary we've viewed (twice)--has a particularly shocking scene where the main character Kunta Kinte, having run away and been caught for a second time, is given the choice of cutting off part of his foot, leaving him unable to even walk normally, or castration. He chooses the former. The author, Alex Haley wasn't just making up this little bit of drama. Castration, or the threat thereof, was a frequent practice of the slaving type to keep the slaves in check.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton preach a particularly vile doctrine of hate and modern racism designed not to uplift and aid, but to keep under their thumb the very people they claim to help. Whatever else we (or anyone) may think about Obama's politics (we don't like them, at all), the mere fact that a black man in America is the leading candidate for the highest office in the land is a repudiation of everything for which Jackson stands.

But here again, Obama's past raises its ugly head.

Where do Reverend Wright and Father Pfleger fit in? Like everyone else, we would like to believe that Senator Obama is above and beyond the racist politics of Jackson & co. But his history leads us to conclude otherwise. Instead of bring change and hope to America and especially African Americans, the fear we have is that he will simply ensconce in the Presidency the attitudes embodied by Wright & Pfleger.

These are the tremendous risks you run when you elect someone who aspires to be more than just the next President of the United States.


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Charles Barkley, Great American

Charles Barkley is the only reason we watch basketball on TNT. He is smart and funny. And now, it appears we have something in common with Sir Charles: neither of us like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton (click here & here for examples).

From the NY Post Page 6, this fantastic quote from Charles Barkley, future Governor of Alabama regarding Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton:

I don't believe in them. They always play the race card, and you can't always play the race card, sometimes the race card is needed but not in every situation. We have to hold blacks more accountable for their actions.

We have disliked the influence held by "black leaders" Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton. So we appreciate anyone who has the guts to stand up to them and their cronies. Props to Charles Barkley and good luck in his future race for the governorship.

Now, watch for the thought police of the left to demonize Barkley, just like they demonized Bill Cosby, Thomas Sowell, and Clarence Thomas before him.


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John McWhorter on Race & Al Sharpton

This afternoon Juan Williams and John McWhorter were on From Fox News with Laura Ingraham discussing the ongoing racial-tinged spat between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (we first blogged about it here), what we called yesterday, the Democrat Dust-up. McWhorter had some particularly interesting things to say about the 'old racial guard black leaders' (read: Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson):

I love this interesting idea people seem to have that Al Sharpton will somehow help determine the black vote as if he were a boss, a white boss in some old city. I mean the fact of the matter is there are no new Al Sharptons, if you think about it. And certainly an Obama presidency would presumably be one where we got beyond that sort of thing. It'd be interesting to see if nobody actually kowtowed to him, they'd notice that everything went exactly the same. The man is an entertainer, not an actual thinking person.

It's nice to see that not all African-Americans look to Sharpton and Jackson as the arbiters of black America. If only patronizing white liberals were so open minded.

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