The speech
He Who Maybe Doesn’t Walk On Water After All gave his once-and-for-all-head-on-addressing of the Rev. Wright issue in Philadelphia this morning. Some initial thoughts:
- It was, as one would expect, structurally well-crafted. Still, his attempt at tiptoeing along the fencerow - not “disowning” Rev. Wright, but using what he thought was strong language to repudiate “some of” Rev. Wright’s “political views” - falls short of what most Americans know is needed: the calling out of Rev. Wright as a venom-spewing vessel of hate.
- Of course, Obama can’t do that. Those shouting, clapping throngs in the pews at Trinity Church and in other such sanctuaries where “liberation theology” and “social justice” are preached are the most important part of his base.
- The talk-show hosts and political commentators he called out as blurring some supposed line between bogus racism and some kind of real and still-prevalent racism are surely going to be all over him demanding that he give concrete evidence of this supposed real racism they have supposedly blurred.
- It’s not surprising that he wound the whole thing up with a call for Americans to unify to tackle what he says are the pressing issues before us, which would be, of course, such hard-left boilerplate as “climate change’ and “income inequality.”
- It was well-crafted enough that it will probably stem the bit of political hemorraging he experienced this past week.
- That, in turn, is going to make the smoke coming out of the H-Word Creature’s nostrils all the more hot-coal flashing red. Another way of putting that is to say that superdelegates just went up yet another notch in importance. It’s going to be a bloodbath in Denver this summer.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
And after the bloodbath, everyone will wipe off the ketchup and get behind anything that will leave the Bush bullcrap behind. Recalling posts in the past here, the economy is in fine shape (oh, suddenly took some turn for the worse now?), the war was just and the surge is the solution. Where’s your head, man? Clinton/Obama will be unbeatable in the fall, not that I would chose that ticket either, but, the Republicans did it to themselves. Five years into the disaster in the desert and all you can hang your hat on is that the surge is working and cost estimates and death tolls are inflated by the hated right which wants defeat. We all wanted (note past tense) victory from these boobs who dropped the bombs and we are sick and tired of hearing about the war, the occupation, the failed Bush Doctrine, continuing corporate scandal after corporate scandal, terrorist threats, and, yes, Christian morality moving us towards Armageddon as surely as radical Islam is. Tax cuts don’t cut it any longer. ‘06 was a wake-up call for the Republicans and, while they stirred the pot and axed some idiots, ‘08 is the death knell
to Rummy and all that. Old McCainold bought the farm, arm in arm with Bush/Cheney. Congress will have to step up to the plate to check the next president. Now it’s a question who their team will be. I agree with much of your criticism of Hillary and Obama, but, gotta vote against the old regime. I know it already.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Mistook my right for my left above. Got the hated part right though.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Once again, I must say that I don’t understand how you can avoid the label hard left. You want to raise taxes, regulate business, see the stabilization of Iraq reversed, surrender in the current world war, and secularize our society to the point where Christian morality no longer shapes it.
Is there another name for that body of postions?
BTW, have you seen the polls showing McCain’s favorables vis-a-vis either the H-Word Creature or He Who Walks On Water?
March 18th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I do not want to see the stabilization of Iraq reversed. I want to see it move forward so we can get out of there and turn that country back over to the eventual demagogue that will hold it all in again. I do not want to surrender. You call it surrender because your people have already lost the war, so far. Not many of us envisioned a five year presence where signs of victory hinge on reports that a surge is working. I want to vigorously prosecute fraud. This latest example of creative marketing of mortgages has sold not only this country’s economy down the river, but has long reaching effects internationally. I do not relish the reality that foreign banks from countries considered our enemies are gaining more than a toehold in our economic system. We have seen numerous examples over the past few weeks of banks and other financial institutions being bailed out by government intervention. I ask: whose watch is all this occurring on. It’s always been the economy (stupid) when it comes to presidential elections. As for secularizing our society, that has been more done by capitalistic campaigning (aka advertising) that lulls us into thinking that material wants and needs (fueled by envy, pride, greed and lust) are the route to happiness. Happiness is in the heart and that is where its pursuit begins. You have investigated the world’s religions enough to realize that morality is not only Christian. It is a perennial philosophy shared by all religions. I never said anything about raising taxes, but, since the last Democratic administration handed over a surplus and we are now in a huge deficit hole, I must wonder how we are going to pay for all this. No country ever prospered waging a long war. Call me what you want. Hard left, left, out in left field. What does it matter? My thoughts and opinions are just that. One man, one vote.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
No, haven’t been keeping an eye on the polls, but would be interested in the ones coming out lately, now that McCain has beyond a doubt aligned himself with Cheney and Bush and. apparently, more of the same sad stuff that brung us here to this juncture in the first place. Have you seen the polls on Americans’ opinion of the handling of the Iraq situation?
March 18th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
You bet McCain is on the same page with clear-thinking men of vision and courage like Dick Cheney and General Petraeus, who say that the recent gains in Iraq are reversible if we don’t remain vigilant and ready to fight.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Well, let’s remain vigilant and ready to fight. Stats on that stressed out soldier staffing aren’t encouraging. Petraeus is da man until he’s replaced by his higher ups. Cheney is a dirtball if you ask me.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I’ve never been clear on why the hard left sees our Vice President as a dirtball. He’s always struck me - clear back to the day I heard him address the National Organization of World Affairs Councils at the Pentagon in 1990 when he was Defense Secretary - as a deeply human guy, a compelling combination of learned, loose (he was a big ciggie-and-booze man in his youth), reflective, principled and articulate. He, like so many of my heroes (John Bolton, Mark Steyn, Norman Podhoretz, Newt Gingrich) sees Western Civilization as teetering, its future in question, and he sees the basis of a remedy for that in resolve on all levels, beginning with remembering what we’re about.
His wife is a very cool person - currently a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a glowing and beloved grandmother, the author of a warm reflection on what it was like to be a small-town boomer girl in Wyoming in the 60s, cruising the root beer stand, smoking ciggies, giggling and gossiping and gradually and innocently coming of age.
Hey, they even have a lesbian daughter! And dig this: she’s conservative! (Like another one of my current faves, the supremely important tammy Bruce.)
March 19th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
OK, he’s just a dick.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
You do realize how many dead bodies are strewn over the spread of someone’s brand of Western Civilization or Christianity, and, no, it’s no excuse to point to other civilizations and religions, because ours is one of reason and love, truth and beauty. Now we couch our predations in the name of freedom and Dick Cheney embodies pre-emptive striking of sovereign nations and tough talk from corporate boardrooms hell-bent on bottom lines which is greed fostered through fear.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Again, I must say I’m still not clear on the economic system you propose.
Also, can we safely say you were less than jazzed about W’s speech on Iraq this morning?
March 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Are there gradations of leftism? You continually refer to the hard left. So, is there a soft left? A left in-between? I know there’s left field, left behind, left out, nothing left, left alone, like there’s a right field, right on, right is might, human rights, the right stuff, all right. I find on talk radio that there is a general sneering when the word left is brought up, like it’s some sort of understood malady to assiduously avoid. It all sounds like denial of the oneness we all truly are. But that’s new age poppycock. As we know, it’s very old age perennial philosophy, as old as human consciousness, when it’s not muddied by materialism. There is a truth beyond mere labeling that includes us all. But, if you want to hate your neighbor, go ahead, it is indeed all justified in the end, where all colors bleed into one. And that’s citing two smarmy popular songs. Eroica!
March 19th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Well, yes, certainly there are gradations of leftism. A mild version is Reasonable Gentleman Syndrome. People who call themselves “moderates’ and all that horse hockey. You know, that whole mentality of “Well, you know the Democrats have some good ideas on some things and the Republicans have some good ideas on some things. Sometimes you have to raise taxes. You have to decide what a fair minimum wage is, because it’s firmly embedded in our economic life. You have to try to make peace with Fatah. The prisoners at Guantanamo deserve representation by attorneys and a day in court. We have to at least do something to counter global warming.” So you have that level.
Then you have the artsy-fartsy crowd that goes looking for “grant funding” for every project it wants to undertake, who put on oh-so-meaningful plays, concerts and art exhibits about “peace’ and “social justice” and being proud of your vagina and such. If they’re pressed, you can get them to admit that Iran and North Korea are not fun places to live. I think. I long ago gave up on brroaching political topics of conversation in their midst.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:17 am
You can always talk about their vaginas. I’ve always been a bit perplexed about my member. What if we went around spouting Power to the Penis. Or how ’bout the Penis Dialogues?
March 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
That would go over about like a Euro-centric church.