Posted on 03/19/2008 10:29:17 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
Obama's Speech by Thomas Sowell Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Did Senator Barack Obama's speech in Philadelphia convince people that he is still a viable candidate to be President of the United States, despite the adverse reactions to statements by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright?
The polls and the primaries will answer that question.
The great unasked question for Senator Obama is the question that was asked about President Nixon during the Watergate scandal; What did he know and when did he know it?
Although Senator Obama would now have us believe that he is shocked, shocked, at what Jeremiah Wright said, that he was not in the church when pastor Wright said those things from the pulpit, this still leaves the question of why he disinvited Wright from the event at which he announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination a year ago.
Either Barack Obama or his staff must have known then that Jeremiah Wright was not someone whom they wanted to expose to the media and to the media scrutiny to which that could lead.
Why not, if it is only now that Senator Obama is learning for the first time, to his surprise, what kinds of things Jeremiah Wright has been saying and doing?
No one had to be in church the day Wright made his inflammatory and obscene remarks to know about them.
The cable news journalists who are playing the tapes of those sermons were not there. The tapes were on sale in the church itself. Obama knew that because he had bought one or more of those tapes.
But even if there were no tapes, and even if Obama never heard from other members of the church what their pastor was saying, he spent 20 years in that church, not just as an ordinary member but also as someone who once donated $20,000 to the church.
There was no way that he didn't know about Jeremiah Wright's anti-American and racist diatribes from the pulpit.
Someone once said that a con man's job is not to convince skeptics but to enable people to continue to believe what they already want to believe.
Accordingly, Obama's Philadelphia speech -- a theatrical masterpiece -- will probably reassure most Democrats and some other Obama supporters. They will undoubtedly say that we should now "move on," even though many Democrats have still not yet moved on from George W. Bush's 2000 election victory.
Like the Soviet show trials during their 1930s purges, Obama's speech was not supposed to convince critics but to reassure supporters and fellow-travelers, in order to keep the "useful idiots" useful.
Best-selling author Shelby Steele's recent book on Barack Obama ("A Bound Man") has valuable insights into both the man and the circumstances facing many other blacks -- especially those who were never part of the black ghetto culture but who feel a need to identify with it for either personal, political or financial reasons.
Like religious converts who become more Catholic than the Pope, such people often become blacker-than-thou. For whatever reason, Barack Obama chose a black extremist church decades ago -- even though there was no shortage of very different churches, both black and white -- in Chicago.
Some say that he was trying to earn credibility on the ghetto streets, to facilitate his work as a community activist or for his political career. We may never know why.
But now that Barack Obama is running for a presidential nomination, he is doing so on a radically different basis, as a post-racial candidate uniquely prepared to bring us all together.
Yet the past continues to follow him, despite his attempts to bury it and the mainstream media's attempts to ignore it or apologize for it.
Shelby Steele depicts Barack Obama as a man without real convictions, "an iconic figure who neglected to become himself."
Senator Obama has been at his best as an icon, able with his command of words to meet other people's psychic needs, including a need to dispel white guilt by supporting his candidacy.
But President of the United States, in a time of national danger, under a looming threat of nuclear terrorism? No.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.
Although Senator Obama would now have us believe that he is shocked, shocked, at what Jeremiah Wright said, that he was not in the church when pastor Wright said those things from the pulpit,....
Obama’s boots are filling with water.....
The Rev would have fit in well in the South 40 years ago wearing one of the white pointy hoods. No difference in him and a Klan leader, other that his view is still accepted in public circles. Great training for a future leader at the foot of a real live Bigot.
That would be more like 78 years ago.....”An organized lynching occurred in Marion on August 7, 1930. The incident is notable as the last confirmed black lynching in the Northern United States .”
Yes, this doesn’t wear well at all with Middle America. Racists are bad in any color.
“Pastor” Wright has openly and unashamedly assailed white men and Jews, so if anyone is wondering if he really believes in Jesus Christ there is your answer; Jesus was both white and Jewish when He walked the earth. How will the good pastor answer to Jesus about his hate mongering on that inevitable moment of destiny in his eternity? I don’t care a whit about where this loonatic got his theology degree, he is no Christian, and neither is Obama. They are the wolves in sheep’s clothing that Jesus warned His flock about. This silly, hateful, paranoid, racist ‘church’ is feeding on the Enemy of our souls, not on Jesus Christ.
There are many things that amaze and shock me. But one of the most shocking is the level of vulgarity that passes for “worship” in this church.
“But one of the most shocking is the level of vulgarity that passes for “worship” in this church.”
Shocking to me, also. The “praise” (rage) from the congregation was more appalling than the rant from the pastor.
The issue in the Wright matter for Obama is not one of race - it is one of judgment. Bottom line is that Obama has shown wretched judgment in personally chosing Wright to be his personal mentor and life journey coach, as well as the man to marry he and his wife and baptize his children. Obama was not compelled to make these choices; he did so of his own volition. What does that say about the choices that he might make for his Cabinet...or the Supreme Court (ideology/politics aside).
I’m thinking also of the “pastor” screaming about Bill Clinton “riding dirty,” and making humping motions. Unbelievable.
Actually, I think the British began the process of the abolition of slavery. Isn’t that what the movie “Amazing Grace” is about?
Anyway, for the first time in human history, a people that was strong enough to enslave other, less advanced people stood up and said, “We aren’t going to do this anymore. It is wrong.” Then, they made the rest of the world stop, although slavery in some parts of the Third World, like Northern Africa and the Middle East, persisted publicly until the 20th century, and in secret, perhaps even till today.
White Westerners, including Americans, have nothing to be ashamed about with respect to slavery. I sure don’t feel guilty about it. True, a minority of early Americans engaged in it, but it was an accepted part of world culture and had been throughout history. It was not started by Americans, but it was ended by Americans.
Could you picture his Cabinet or USSC (if he gets to appoint any)? I heard on the radio in Houston, TX last week when all this Obama-Wright thing started ... that Obama believed he would play a role in his Administration. Wonder where? In the White House or as a Cabinet Secretary. Sends a shudder through you, huh.
“It was not started by Americans, but it was ended by Americans.”
great statement. And I think you’re right about the British (the Christians in England) that began to fight for the abolition of slavery.
Obama’s former pastor’s anti-American statements are very disturbing to me, especially given how far this great country has come.
Dr. Sowell wrote a great article about it once. I think it had to do with the demand for reparations. He asked, “Who is going to calculate how much white Americans are owed for bringing about the end of slavery?” Or words to that effect.
The man is a national treasure. Minds like Dr. Sowell’s COULD lead us to a post-racial future. But Obama can’t.
Can you imagine the author of this good piece living in his black skin watching half-black Obama being made to distance himself from his pastor’s lying, cursing and anti-American rants. Thomas Sowell’s honesty and widom should have many black American’s thanks for being a brave writer and an American patriot.
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