Praying for None of the Above
I wanted to let the Jeremiah Wright issue ferment for a while before posting on it and on the campaign again (Sorry Groom, the coming global depression is going to be big news tomorrow ushered in by the fire sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan for (gasp!) $2/share. But it’s too, well, depressing.) I think the Wright issue, the comments by Geraldine Ferraro and McCain’s emergence as John Haage’s butt-boy tell us all we really need to know about ’08.
We’re not post-racial. We’re not post-gender.
Ferraro has not only reinforced Hillary’s image as a winning is the only thing, conniving witch, it’s positioned her as a closet racist. If you can’t manage a campaign, if you can’t control your surrogates and hew to a vision and a set of values that will bring us together and make America better, you have no business being in the White House. See ya.
Wright has blown Obama’s unity pitch to hell. The video of Wright reinforces everything white America hates and fears about blacks and has, in 30 seconds, replaced the Kumbaya image Obama has carefully cultivated with that of Malcom X, Eldridge Cleaver and Louis Farrakhan. Does anyone believe for a second that Obama sat in that church for 20 years and never heard that kind of rhetoric? Oh please! One of these days in the not so distant future someone’s going to post a videotape showing Wright foaming at the mouth and Obama sitting in the audience. Then what?
It doesn’t matter that on the facts and on the merits that Wright’s assessment is mostly correct. Please don’t tell me that Obama’s not responsible for the actions of his surrogates, particularly if you think Hillary was responsible for Ferraro. The hell he isn’t. It’s the atmospherics that matter and those generated by Wright’s videos put Obama at an insurmountable disadvantage, especially in the general, especially among the swing voters he was counting on to win. It will be easy for the Pugs to reposition him as a dissident radical and scare the crap out of an already terrified and brutalized electorate. They’re doing it now already–adding up “Hussein,” Michelle’s “not proud of America” gaffe and now Wright and coming to the conclusion that Obama’s un-American. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it’s the atmospherics that matter. Also, Obama’s in a no-win situation. He’s now become the next black candidate, catching hell for throwing his pastor under the bus on the one hand (see BDR’s post) and catching hell for having a black racist as his “spiritual advisor” on the other. No matter, the videotape is powerful, it’s perpetual and it’s fatal to a rising star. Welcome to campaign ’08. See ya.
Which lead us to McCain. Pandering to the Tim LaHaye bunch has gotten him what? The 27% who were going to do what, stay home? Vote for Obama? It’s put him in bed with the people who brought you the disaster you’ll likely be reading about at the end of the day tomorrow, when markets around the world are rumored to tank like no other time since 1929. If McCain had have stayed moderate, he might have pulled a good bunch of Dems, especially in California. But who in their right mind wants more of the same? See ya.
Which leads me to August—if we get that far. I am praying for a hung convention, for a super delegate pool who, confronted with a more or less 50/50 distribution of popular vote, a coming global depression and $5 gasoline at a minimum, gets their collective heads out of their asses and nominates someone other than either one of our front-runners. Neither have the chops for this job, not by a long shot. So give me the back room, I’ll buy the cigars.
UPDATE: Asia markets in steep decline as of 9 pm PDT. Fasten your seatbelts.
Posted: March 16th, 2008 under Bushco, Do The Right Thing, Dumbocrats, Hillary, McCain, Obama.
Comments: 8
Comments
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:24 pm
And which of the untested masses will have the chops?
Comment from Leftcoast
Time: March 16, 2008, 9:51 pm
Bill Richardson. Gore. Biden. Dodd. Tested, all of them. Chops well beyond Wonder Woman and Senator Kumbaya. Charisma and cash-challenged in some cases, but given the stakes, given the alternative with McCain, all viable. Going off the trail, I’d take look at Ted Strickland. Too bad Kuchinich is perceived as bat shit and “too short” to be president. Too bad the 14th Amendment knocks Arnold out. Yup Arnold. I didn’t vote for him the first time and I thought he was a joke and his “election” an absolute travesty. I don’t agree with him on everything, but on balance, he’s been good for the state and handled a lot of the issues we’re facing nationally pretty damned well given the constraints we have here. He’s a realist and caused all kinds of hell in the pug party. He’s not owned by anyone, that’s for sure. Otherwise Maria would kill him…
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 17, 2008, 3:36 am
Well since my biggest issue is SCOTUS, I would have to sit it out rather than vote for Arnold. And not one of the candidates you mentioned, even though I have supported one of them in the past, could beat Senator McCain. Oddly enough, that matters to me.
As I mentioned elsewhere, if Dr. Wright disqualifies Senator Obama, then virtually all African-Americans are disqualified for the White House. Have you been to a black church lately? Are we going to judge all of our candidates by the remarks — and aren’t we very close to judging the thoughts — of their friends and associates? Doesn’t anybody remember Senator McCarthy? For me it stops here. I will make a distinction between what is part of the campaign and what is not. Gerry Ferraro? Stepped down. She can now rave on every television show in the universe and as far as I am concerned that is not Senator Clinton’s problem.
What ever happened to issues? To management ability? To presidential temprement? Wish for that convention decision all you wish. It scares the hell out of me.
Comment from timr
Time: March 17, 2008, 9:57 am
LC, it is not only going to be a bumpy ride, it will be like the first drop on a roller coaster
Comment from bdr
Time: March 17, 2008, 10:41 am
I need scratch Obama’s apostasy, now that I must decide whether Obama’s a sleeper Muslim jihadist who will, if elected, establish sharia law and surrender to al-Q or whether he’s a sleeper nigger nationalist who will exact reparations from whitey (starting with your wives and daughters).
* First, if Obama, considering running for president, didn’t think Wright would be a problem he was stupid then and cowardly now.
* Second, if Obama, considering running for president, did think Wright would be a problem, he was stupid then and cowardly now.
* Third, people who find a particular faith wack, and who celebrate anyone who escapes said wack-faith, never forget that anyone who renounces his faith - even a wack-faith - is a traitor, never to be trusted, no matter how much he subsequently embraces the state faith, Judas.
Obamabuzz be gone: Muslim terrorist, black panther, gangster buddy, ambitious coward.
The first three may be bullshit, the last stinks of truth.
Comment from Leftcoast
Time: March 17, 2008, 12:30 pm
You asked about chops. Arnold has them–he’s not a factor anyway. I’ve been to black church more times than I’m entitled, having been a musician in an AME gospel choir in Watts in my past. I know what black church is, I know the fever that’s worked up and also know that not as many pastors get as political as Wright did. That’s not what most black church sermons are about and certainly not what congregants want to hear.
Be clear. Wright is much more than a friend and associate. He was formative to Obama’s world views–Obama said it many times. He was not a supporter, he was spiritual advisor to the campaign. And even if Wright’s dead right on the issues, which in many cases, I believe him to be, Obama or someone in his campaign had to know, well before this blew up, that this would be a huge problem. Hell, an amateur outsider like me picked this up and wrote about it Feb 27.
I wish elections were decided by management style, issues and temperament. Wouldn’t that be great? And what does Obama’s handling of this say about him? I’m with BDR on this one. He’s nothing if not weak. But elections are death by video, and you, like everyone else on this side of the ideological aisle, have every reason to be sacred to death.
Comment from Sasha
Time: March 17, 2008, 2:58 pm
I love your “sacred to death” comment.
I have every reason to be “sacred to death” about everyone I know who is running for president. My personal preference would be Bill Moyers. He replaced Barbara Jordan as my preferred candidate when she died.
Comment from Amos N. Handy
Time: March 18, 2008, 8:33 am
OOPS, OH OH, CRASH …… and an old dude on the other side slides safely, into the oval office.
Now starting over, I say this with tongue in cheek, we must find a politician who is willing to restrict, his or her campaign workers and sponsorship, with a gag order. Problem is, we could duct tape Wright’s mouth shut and he’d still manage to tap dance his message to those who are seeking moral salvation and political guidance, or is it political salvation and moral guidance ? (an oxymoron in either example)
Lefty, as is the case most often, first shone the light on this issue of Wright’s vitriol nature way back in February, which would lead me to believe Hillary’s people had this info too, but found it too unsavory and unwise to use. On the other hand, Bill makes mention of the South Carolina electorate and Jesse Jackson’s results in a former election campaign, instantly the media and a few here, claim it to be a racial slur. He only quoted percentages folks, as do many at BoB.
We’ve barely endured eight years of the worst administration in this nations history and now we don’t know who the hell can rectify the problems it created. I’d even go so far as to say, “I’ll wager everyone here at this blog has their name on a repug list in Washington or Virginia, as being a subversive”. Sasha is correct in her worries about SCOTUS.
There’s one thing that’s certain though, unless we can get by the flaws in either or both of these dem. candidates and elect her or him, the United States of America is screwed.
At 2:00 pm EST, 11:00 am PCT everyone flush.
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