"Hmmm... excellent question..."
Posted on 08/18/2008 9:36:45 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Wall Street Journal has an absolutely brilliant editorial today here entitled "Obama on Clarence Thomas". It offers a view into what I and other bloggers have long been saying -- that beneath that well-scripted "post racial" veneer, Obama is a typical left-wing ideologue. When left alone, without a script, these real beliefs seep to the surface, painting a pretty divisive picture.
In answering a question on judicial appointees in a Town Hall style debate where he and John McCain appeared together (but not at the same time), Obama took a huge and demeaning swipe at the lone black jurist on the court, Clarence Thomas.
"I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he, I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution." The Democrat added that he also wouldn't have appointed Antonin Scalia, and perhaps not John Roberts, though he assured the audience that at least they were smart enough for the job.
Once again, Obama raises the specious issue of Thomas' background, experience and intelligence. Now, if the former law school professor would have bothered to check his facts, it is clear that though he may disagree with Thomas' judicial philosophy, he is nothing if not smart. That's a typical attack by the left to demean the Thomas tenure on the court. Because though Thomas is technically black, because he doesn't follow the liberal orthodoxy, he must not be smart -- otherwise why wouldn't he be the reincarnation of Jesse Jackson?
Even more telling, however, is Obama's perception of Thomas' lack of experience. As the Journal puts it:
So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.
Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.
I've noted before the arrogance that Obama carries with him -- anyone who believes that "he is the hope we've been waiting for" must have a very, very high opinion of himself. But here again, the facts don't fit the rhetoric. Obama may be a great speaker, but he's a neophyte. That's just a fact. He's the least experienced potential president in modern times. He may fancy himself as a Messiah figure, but his resume is weak. And much, much weaker than the U.S. Supreme Court Justice he demeans.
And, here again, the issue of Obama's true beliefs present a troubling picture of someone who has packaged himself to be president. He and his wife are on record in many places as having views that are both radical and out-of-the-mainstream.
The media, of course, has largely left these statements, writings and activities out of the news, preferring to report on his present scripted speeches as evidence of his hope-filled narrative. But the true evidence is there, and it often comes out in the kind of off-the-cuff remarks that were elicited in this debate format. It is why John McCain has pushed for Town Hall-style debated, and why Obama has resisted in favor of only three traditional debates before network news anchors. Its the kind of antisceptic format where Obama can control the angels of his not-so-better nature.
I think the phase is “Right Color in the Left party, at the Right Time”.
It's called the Chicago Machine.
much less the presumtive nominee for president of the largest political party in the world's only superpower?
It's called Democrat voters.
"Hmmm... excellent question..."
The Jack Ryan meltdown (spurred along by the Chicago Tribune...) Basically, he ran unopposed.
Obama has no spontaneity. And, if that’s not bad enough, (maybe BECAUSE of this failing) he’s an adept at the Bill Clinton school of politics, where marble mouthing the blase, noble-’sounding’ideals of pie-in-the-sky, Liberal doctrine passes for a real position on pressing issues. In fact, this over-hyped and antiquated Liberal utopianism has succeeded in nothing but assuring social strife in this country and will for decades to come. It is the DNC stock in trade. Billy boy’s hidebound assertion that racism is rabid and pervasive in this country demonstrated the preposterous limit of Liberal credulity and has set us back a generations.
Consider the source of his support, the Daley machine, Chicago crime syndicate and active members of the American Communist Party. After his opponent was destroyed by the Chicago machine he ran virtually unopposed for the US Senate. This is a seat bought and paid for by enemies of the republic. His presidency will be the greatest sellout, even exceeding Clinton’s, in our history. A civil war is almost assured if he is elected.
Obama is a pawn of the radical left who has no ability to function independently of his handlers.
I wish authors and pundits would stop saying Obambi was a law school professor. He was NOT a law school professor! He was a law school LECTURER! There is a world of difference between the two.
“A civil war is almost assured if he is elected. Obama is a pawn of the radical left who has no ability to function independently of his handlers.”
Accurate on both counts.
I like that. Think I'll borrow it, if you don't mind.
This canard needs to be squashed - BHO merely gives good teleprompter.
I beg to disagree - the real reason is exactly as Ferraro implied: it's due to affirmative action.
Affirmative Action certainly plays a role, but the Chicago Machine is the vehicle by which Obama catapulted to the national stage. It enabled (read “engineered”) his Senate seat in the Illinois legislature, and later his ascendancy to national politics. All was accomplished through Illinois Democrat politics.
Bet he knows how many states there are, and how long a President's term runs.
Marital infidelity. By his opponents. That's the biggest reason. A fatherless child born of such a liaison, certainly has a sort of natural right to defeat those who engage in it.
BHO's entire life experience has been to take advantage of his skin color. His backers view him merely as a Trojan Horse in which to enact their agenda.
Obama won his seat in the Illinois legislature by forcing his opponents off the ballot. He won his Senate seat virtually unopposed after his primary opponent and his would-be Republican opponent were forced out of the race thanks to embarrassing information from their divorce records being leaked to the press. The only contested race he ran before 2008 was for Congress, and he lost.
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