Keep Hope Alive?

Will Barack Obama go down in history as a man who could have been a contender, but was exposed as a great pretender?

The controversy surrounding the incendiary remarks of Obama’s flywheel pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, could well become a mortal wound for the Obama campaign. Coming on the heels of a minor controversy over strange remarks by Obama’s wife about the United States, the Wright matter severely damages Obama by shattering the illusion of the Illinois Senator as a non-extremist.

Since Rev. Wright has been one of Obama’s closest friends for over two decades, the public will naturally wonder how much of Wright’s social vision Obama shares—and whether Obama is really a far-left candidate wearing a moderate mask. Some folks have already come to the not-unreasonable conclusion that Obama is, in fact, a clone of Wright: on March 13, Rush Limbaugh asserted that Obama “…is leading a double life.  This pastor [and] this church [are] representative of the life that Barack Obama used to live before he arrived in the United States Senate and started his presidential campaign.” The next day, Limbaugh argued that Obama is supposedly “…going to unify us.  He is going to unify America.  He is going to unify all of us.  We are going to come together, and we are going to see a new sun, a new future, one of hope and excitement and new challenge that will be met by a collective unity all working toward the same goal of hope and change.  And yet everybody around him is just the opposite of him.  They're mad as hell.  Where is all of this hope and future and love, where is it in Obama's closest circle?  Which is why I have been suggesting he's been living two lives.  We got the life that we see when he wanted to be president and whatever went on before that, and we know that he's been hanging around with this minister.”

It’s amazing that Obama was bright enough to become President of the Harvard Law Review, but lacked the common sense to disassociate himself from Rev. Wright long before launching his Presidential bid. Did Obama think that the media were going to ignore his longtime friendship with Wright? If so, doesn’t that reveal how naïve the man really is?

With all the heat over Rev. Wright’s claims about America’s “responsibility” for 9/11, Obama should consider himself lucky that the press has yet to point out that another close friend of his, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, also made a fairly dopey remark last September about 9/11: he perversely labeled the attacks “a failure of human understanding.” In fact, Obama should thank God that the national press has yet to highlight the numerous similarities between his Presidential campaign and Patrick’s 2006 gubernatorial contest.

Geraldine Ferraro has been severely criticized for suggesting that Obama’s Presidential momentum is directly related to the color of his skin. Her words were inelegant, but her sentiments were valid. To a certain extent, Obama’s momentum is fueled by the desire of some voters to finally see a black person in charge of the White House. However, considering Obama’s recent gaffes, it appears they’ll have to wait a little while longer.

Despite my political disagreements with Obama, it’s a little sad to see him self-destruct in this manner. By not washing his hands of Rev. Wright years ago, Obama has let down those who truly believed he represented something better, something beyond politics as usual. Just as Patrick has shafted his strongest supporters with his bizarre conduct as Massachusetts Governor, so too has Obama abused those who honestly felt he could lead America to greater heights as President.

From a certain perspective, it’s hard to understand why the hate-filled harangues of Obama’s pastor have raised so many eyebrows.  Sentiments similar to those voiced by Wright have been expressed for years on the op-ed pages of the New York Times and the Boston Globe, to say nothing of the progressive blogosphere. Throughout the United States, you’ll find tenured college professors whose views of America and the world are indistinguishable from Wright’s. In Hollywood, Michael Moore has made millions with documentaries reflecting the Wright vision.

Obama, of course, was supposed to be better than all of that. He was supposed to heal the partisan breach and represent both red states and blue states. His association with Wright has exposed this image as fiction—which means that if he does win the Democrat nomination, John McCain will beat him to a pulp.

Comments

[Quaime]

Well written! Obama was supposed to be "better than that!" Perhaps deep down he is. Unfortunately, one's character is a mosaic made of little pebbles that we contribute from within ourselves as well as those coming from those who surround us and their natures. And the picture that is being (re)formed as Wright's little tiles are added is not a good one.

It is also, as you said, a sad commentary on politics as a whole. Are there no more great, upstanding, honorable men and women out there? Say what one may about Bush and Iraq or his ability to speak, I think if folks were truly honest--political rhetoric and lies from the late 2000 and 2004 campaigns aside--one has to admit that this is a man of character. Obama was supposed to be, as you said, "better than that." Maybe he is. But it is very hard to simply walk away from this picture that is forming an deny one's place in it. Perhaps Jeremiah Wright said nice things about the Bible to Obama in private meetings and was a strong shoulder of encouragement. Perhaps he did many great, selfless acts in the community to lift others. But are not all those obscured by his words of hate, bitterness, anger, bile, extreme cynicism. . . (fill in the rest; I don't think I need to)?