What Obama Means By Unity

The Weekly Standard ^ | February 18, 2008 | Jonathan V. Last

[yoe]

Sometime before Barack Obama's strong showing on Super Tuesday, the Washington Post observed that the senator had been campaigning across this great land on a "platform of hope and change." Whether or not the Post was being arch, they had it about right.

Obama rarely speaks about policy specifics; "hope" and "change" are the two dominant messages he preaches on the stump. But he has two secondary themes: "straight talk" and "unity." They don't receive nearly as much attention: Perhaps because an examination of them shows Obama to be a somewhat conventional political figure.

During the course of his standard stump speech, Obama promises to deliver "a politics that [isn't] grounded in ideology, but in practicality. Not in spin and PR, but in straight talk." He promises to tell voters not what they want to hear, but the hard truths that they need to hear. And he portrays himself as the great uniter of the Republic. As the voiceover in one of his ads explains, "Only Barack Obama can bring a fractured people together. . . . He embodies the hope of our nation."

But on both of these themes, Obama's behavior is very different from his rhetoric.

Start with the straight talk. During his South Carolina victory speech, the crowd kept chanting that "race doesn't matter." It was a comforting thought in the wake of an election where more than 80 percent of African Americans voted for the African-American candidate. And Obama fed that sentiment, saying, "The assumption that African Americans cannot support the white

candidate we are here tonight to say that that is not the America that we believe in. I did not travel around this state to see a white South Carolina, and a black South Carolina. I saw South Carolina."

[yoe]

America has yet to settle her civil rights problem because of the very people that would have benefited by it. They still call themselves African-Americans.........Read between the Obama lines, he is telling you that it is his way or the high way just as Senator Clinton is saying it is her way or the high way. What they are talking about folks is socialism over Democracy and the United States Constitution. Barack Obama has a 100% liberal rating.............

[G8 Diplomat]

What Obama Means By Unity

Shariah.

Everyone submits, no one talks back....

Ever wonder about the "Change we can BELIEVE IN" slogan?

[svcw]

Absolutely correct.

[ronnie raygun]

First there was CHANGE, then there was HOPE and now there is UNITY. well I guess that does it for most liberal Americans, they’ll be casting their vote for the messiah if Illinois. Who cares what his policies are, he’s dreamy! xcuse most while they faint! I’ll just sit here and throw up!

[Bishop_Malachi]

I would add that Obama cares not a wit about returning many government issues back to the states. Not only will he “unify” the country by getting just enough public support to equal 51% of the people, he will then play power politics at the federal-level. Federal foreign aid, federal universal health care, federal pro-union laws, etc., etc...he’ll get just enough unity to impose even more socialism from the top down to the bottom.

[The_Macallan]

[TalBlack]

“During his South Carolina victory speech, the crowd kept chanting that “race doesn’t matter.”

If a crowd is actually chanting ‘race doesn’t matter’ then, trust me, it does.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Mmmm.. Kool Aid. Homer Simpson.

[Darlin']

"If a crowd is actually chanting ‘race doesn’t matter’ then, trust me, it does."

Exactly.

[freeangel]

I think “unity” means for conservatives to shut up and sit down when it comes out of osamas mouth.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

"Race matters not when 80-plus percent of African Americans vote for me;

but when whites vote for thee

you're going to get our contempt and contumely."

[the invisib1e hand]

friends, Obama is simply the latest incarnation of the Political Animal. That’s all.

[the invisib1e hand]

"If a crowd is actually chanting ‘race doesn’t matter’ then, trust me, it does." Exactly.

The Law of Opposites observed.

[ncalburt]

What he means by CHANGE = radical redistribution of the middle class wealth and implementing the Fairness Doctrine to shut up all those haters on the radio !

[ncalburt]

That means his record beat out Bernie Saunder’s the Socialist from Vermont !

[Senator Goldwater]

Ever wonder about the “Change we can BELIEVE IN” slogan?

---

No. It’s a shot at the manifest dishonesty of Hillary Clinton.

[dr_who_2]

The more closely you listen to Obama, the more obvious it becomes that while he's very much for civility, his commitment to unity is suspect. He frequently says that after he's elected president, Americans will be able to "take our country back." He also talks about bringing together the people who have "lost faith in this country."

There's nothing wrong with this country. It's the people in power who are in the wrong, and that includes Obama. More than likely his version of "unity" is the same as Abbie Hoffman's.

[Gaffer]

He’s gonna ‘unify’ his hand with yo’ wallet!

[Bender2]

Re: What Obama Means By Unity

50 Conservative Republicans... in 40 hommes et 8 chevaux boxcars headed for the new political reorientation camps!

[wastedyears]

He wants to unite everybody for a gun-free America.