Posted on 02/22/2008 8:58:10 AM PST by Robbin
His problem was, is, his wife's words, not his, the speech in which she said that for the first time in her adult life she is proud of her country, because Obama is winning. She later repeated it, then tried to explain it, saying of course she loves her country. But damage was done. Why? Because her statement focused attention on what I suspect are some basic and elementary questions that were starting to bubble out there anyway.
* * *
Here are a few of them.
Are the Obamas, at bottom, snobs? Do they understand America? Are they of it? Did anyone at their Ivy League universities school them in why one should love America? Do they confuse patriotism with nationalism, or nativism? Are they more inspired by abstractions like "international justice" than by old visions of America as the city on a hill, which is how John Winthrop saw it, and Ronald Reagan and JFK spoke of it?
Have they been, throughout their adulthood, so pampered and praised--so raised in the liberal cocoon--that they are essentially unaware of what and how normal Americans think? And are they, in this, like those cosseted yuppies, the Clintons?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Does this include Clarence Thomas?
There are many individuals out there who tend to attribute any success by a black person to affirmative action.
Maybe that made her ashamed of the country because it seemed so patronizing, so condescending...
The Obama's are both obviously quite bright and very articulate (a trait sorely lacking in most politicians of any ethnicity these days). But I would not say they are "brilliant," because "brilliance" requires some knowledge of the real truth and not just the ability to speak the same old cliches more dramatically.
Precisely my point.
Obama’s upbringing was different from Bill Clintons. Obama was raised by his maternal grandparents in Hawaii. So, in effect, he had a much more traditional upbringing. Obama’s mother stayed in Indonesia (w/her second husband and their daughter) and sent Obama to live with and be raised by her parents.
Great read.
Apparently, not enough Americans feel this way, judging by the choices we keep getting for President.
“Does this include Clarence Thomas?”
Interestingly, Clarence Thomas was vilified for rejecting Affirmative Action as debilitating for Afro Americans. As W said so well, “...the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
bump
When Obama talks about the sacrifices of the troops — he has no idea, he is clueless.
Moreover, he scorns the military by his “I know better than all the military leaders what to do militarily in Iraq.”
She’s not the only snob in the family.
Despite what he rejected afterward his reached his high status, you have just as much reason to accuse him of being a product of affirmative action. So does he belong on the Supreme Court or not?
If you are insisting that one can only be brilliant if he or she agrees with you, that’s obviously a silly argument. Heck, Karl Marx was brilliant; Proudhon was brilliant; Comte was brilliant. Heck, Bill Clinton was probably one of the naturally smartest guys to hold the presidency. That doesn’t mean they were right.
Obama is an exceptional writer, a gifted speaker, and displays an unusual amount of self-knowledge. Call it brilliant or not, but crying affirmative action is ridiculous. Obama should be opposed not because every black liberal is somehow by definition an AA baby, but because his liberal policies will lead to increased dependence on government, a perpetuation of the abortion holocaust, and a weak foreign policy.
Peggy Noonan asks if the Obamas are snobs. Well, I know that some folks call people like Michelle Obama 'uppity'. She and Barack have not risen from the roots of racism and poverty. They're both from privileged backgrounds.
Where was she when Clarence Thomas had the fight of his life after being nominated to the Supreme Court? Was she part of that America? The one made up of liberals just like her husband --- that to this day consider him a lesser being or Uncle Tom?
So Obama grew up in the tropics and Bill grew up in the south. I don’t know where the wives grew up, but frankly I don’t think anyone who has not experienced northern winters on a limited budget knows what real life is like.
He sure does belong on the Supreme Court and he would have made it there despite Affirmative Action, not because of it.
Read he biography. It’s illuminating.
I reject the basis of your argument.
Yes, you nailed it.
This is Peggy's best column in a while. Michelle Obama's comment points out something that disturbs people. Do you remember Amarosa from the first season of The Apprentice? Something about Michelle Obama reminds me of her. This is going to be an issue in the campaign, even though people don't want to touch it now.
Thomas is a decent justice, but he’s not a first-class mind like Scalia. He obviously was chosen by Bush because the retiree was Thurgood Marshall.
Condoleeza Rice, on the other hand, seems sharp as a tack, and deserves her position regardless of race.
In other words, a successful black person, whether liberal or conservative, does not automatically owe everything to affirmative action. That’s one of the most sickening parts of affirmative action — the negative assumption it fosters about successful blacks. But people can still choose to overcome this bigoted assumption and judge people on their own merits.
As I asked the author of the post you quoted approvingly, what suggests that Barack Obama is a product of affirmative action? He’s an unusually talented guy. We should oppose him because he’s a liberal, not because any successful black liberal should be assumed to owe everything to AA.
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