I wasn't impressed with Senator Obama's speech.

Mar 18, 2008, 4:39 PM

Senator Obama's speech didn't make me feel better about his candidacy.

I came into this election cycle thinking Senator Clinton was the worst democratic candidate I could imagine. Obama's taken that place these days. I intend to vote for McCain. If we are to have a democrat, I'd rather see see Senator Clinton get the job than Senator Obama.

Here's what came to my mind as I read Obama's speech on the Reverend Wright issues.

"It was stained by this nation?s original sin of slavery,"

HUH? Slavery was common in the world when the US was born. Our grand experiment started off right and has continued mostly in the right direction for a couple of hundred years. If you want to iterate the sins of the world, go ahead but slavery is not some particularly American sin. We were wrong. We fixed it.

"What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part ? through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time."

What is not needed is a President sworn to defend the Constitution seemingly endorsing civil disobedience as a reasonable method of narrowing a gap between any two groups inside the United States. If you want to be a rebel, go ahead, but you can?t be a rebel and President at the same time.

"to continue the long march"

A good sense of history would seemingly preclude an American candidate for President from from using the phrase ?the long march? in talking about where he wants to lead us.

"In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies..."

Thanks. We needed that like a hole in our heads

"the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn."

When you get into the limelight, people look at you pretty hard. This view has, for me at least, been unsettling. Sorry, but you get no pass on racial politics and beliefs. No quarter asked, no quarter given is how running for President has mostly always worked.

"we?ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it?s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap."

What else is the big driver that propels Obama, a freshman Senator of little achievement and fairly short on experience, with fairly liberal record to the front of the line of democrats who want to be president?

"they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country ? a view that sees white racism as endemic??comments were not only wrong but divisive"

Hear, Hear. All such comments must be stoutly opposed. Not ignored, not swept under a rug, not ameliorated by other good things that exist, but stoutly opposed.

"monumental problems ? two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change....."

Huh? What?s monumentally wrong about two wars and the US efforts to thwart terrorism? What is the roll of the President in tough economic times? What is our chronic health care crisis? Is it fat kids? Devastating Climate change? Oh please. Spare me the Chicken Little approach.

"the Christians in the lion?s den"

?? Don?t stop him. He?s on a roll?

"The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America."

I thought most Christians of think of the church as the body of Christ and that the only really important thing in any Christian church is the Holy Spirit moving among sinners. I wonder how it is that Obama can talk so much about his Christian Church and say so little about Jesus Christ? In my church, most of us cannot talk more than a few words about our experience without getting into the saving graces of Jesus Christ and our need to be reconciled with our God. I'm not demanding a Christian President, btw, it's just I expect to hear christianity from a Christian when talking about his church.

"But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now"

I was really worried Obama might think this. All I want to do, all that is right to do is for all of us to ignore race pretty much entirely. I thought that was the whole point? My life is not centered on race. It?s not a major issue for me or, I'd guess for the big majority of Americans. I just want a good President, one who focuses on the whole country not 15% of us and certainly not one who thinks the problems of the 15% are somehow center stage in American life. This is worse than I thought. Funny, but I never thought of Colin Powell as the CinC who?d work especially hard for the black soldiers.

"The past isn?t dead and buried. In fact, it isn?t even past. We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow."

Well there you have it. If we were electing a woman President, I?d not want one who focused on women?s issues. If we were electing a Yankee, I?d not want one who thought that what happened in New England was especially important. If the candidates name is Gonzales, I?m hoping his focus is NOT on Latino issues. If we were electing a southerner, his concern for the south would be of fairly low interest for me. Seems like we are back on the exercise in Affirmative Action.

"Segregated schools,,,, Legalized discrimination?..A lack of economic opportunity among black men??the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods...."

Who is advising Senator Obama? He?s got the black vote. Why is he campaigning for that segment of the vote?

"the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."

So we should fuel the anger? I thought we'd be channelling the energy not legitimzing anger.

"the real culprits of the middle class squeeze ? a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed;"

What was it Obama said about Rev. Wright? ?comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity? It is clear Obama thinks it is OK to demonize successful America. He seems pretty content and intent on creating a divide and exploiting it full tilt here. It looks to me like he learned a good bit from Rev. Wright.

"It?s a racial stalemate we?ve been stuck in for years"

<15% of the country is black. >85% is not black. We are not stuck in a racial stalemate. The racial stalemate is not center to American politics or life unless you want it to be. Clearly, Obama wants it to be. I think such a narrow focus is almost a nogo for the office of the President.

"In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds"

Obama seems pretty intent on being a one track candidate in this speech. Katrina was a racial event? Crazy.

"It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children. But it is where we start?..that is where the perfection begins "

Scary for me acting like it's within the power of the President to GIVE health car or jobs or education. If Obama is elected, we?ll survive, but he looks less like the guy I want as President than he did before he wrote this piece.

I might not be mainstream, but those are the parts of the speech that make me favor Clinton over Obama.

But, I'm voting for McCain anyway. I guess he wasn't talking to or for me.

Harley

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

I wasn't impressed with Senator Obama's speech.

TigerBoard POTD