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Obama 'transcends' mere investigation
The Athens Banner-Herald ^ | April 13, 2008 | Melanie Wilson Daniel

Posted on 04/13/2008 12:19:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Despite the absence of anything remotely nonpartisan in his voting record and his support for left-wing policies, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has sold his story that he's the political messiah, who, transcending race and partisan ideology, is our best hope in exchanging divisiveness for unity.

He became his party's rising star delivering the 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address, in which he railed against divisive politics and racial balkanization: "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America ... There's not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

Last month, in Philadelphia, "The City of Brotherly Love," Obama gave another speech, this time explaining why voters shouldn't care that he's a fraud. Obama-the-uniter holds membership at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, a black separatist church where anti-American rants replace the gospel of Christ's atonement and racism is excused as cultural expression. Never once in 20 years did Obama, whose campaign slogan is "The Judgment to Lead," object to its hateful invective.

Moreover, he was mentored by pastor and race-merchant Jeremiah Wright - crown prince of divisiveness. The damage from "Pastorgate" (What did Obama hear and when did he hear it?) is anybody's guess, but the Philadelphia "race speech" was pure postmodern politics - with a dash of double standard.

Obama always downplayed Trinity's contentiousness, saying he didn't think his church was "particularly controversial."

"It's a member of the United Church of Christ. It's got a choir. We sing hymns. We talk about Scripture. You would feel at home if you went there."

Sermon DVDs told a different tale. "America is the US of KKK A" and "Americans believe in white supremacy." AIDS is the government's attempt to liquidate blacks; Israel is a "dirty word:" Jews were complicit on 9/11 when "White America got their wake-up call and the Western world came to realize people of color had not gone away ... as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns."

No TelePrompTer at hand, Obama floundered, claiming he didn't know about the vulgar, odious anti-American, anti-white, Marxist rhetoric. He needed a speech - fast! He needed to get his postmodern groove back.

In a prophetic National Review Online piece, Peter Wehner, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, predicted that speech's defensive tactic, noting that while Wright's words seem hateful, "what matters is less what Wright said than the narrative he uses and the reality for which he, as an African-American, speaks." In this postmodern construct, truth is relative. Facts don't matter, only the "narrative identities" we create about ourselves.

Trinity's vision statement is modeled after theologian James Cone's goal for "black theology": "The destruction of everything white, so blacks can be liberated from alien gods." Does Obama embrace this? The speech never went there. Instead, it lectured, moving the spotlight off his culpability and back onto his transcendence: America could give in to this "distraction" and ask Obama, who wants to be president of the United States, to account for his close relationship with someone who gave Louis Farrakhan a Lifetime Achievement Award and taught parishioners their country created AIDS. Or, America can say "not this time" and focus on "hope" and "change."

Wright, Obama explained, spoke "as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made. ... But ...what we have seen is that America can change." So, to prove Wright wrong, vote for Obama. He stuck to his narrative. He sold the story: Person A finds Wright's words sinister. Person B thinks they capture the anger of the black experience. Only Obama-the-uniter understands both perspectives.

Postmodernism's farewell to reason was obvious in Obama's speech, whose sloganeering reached new heights. Slogans play well to those unwilling to investigate claims or make judgments, and Obama has mastered language that, though sounding significant, is devoid of any concrete meaning.

In the postmodern world, concreteness is bad. So is consistency, that one-time virtue replaced by adaptability. Obama modifies his image and, yes, delivers speeches according to what he needs others to see.

Sunday after Sunday, he sat with his family in a church where congregants are taught they're victims of their white neighbors and an evil nation. Yet, President Obama can lead us beyond race and politics into utopia. Don't question. Just think about hope and change. Believe the narrative. Stick with the story. Obama's transcendent, special. He has the judgment to lead.

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• Melanie Wilson Daniel is a new local Banner-Herald columnist.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; election; elections; obama
Looks like Georgia has a new Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin.
1 posted on 04/13/2008 12:19:39 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Leftists today are post-modernists. Reality depends on the observer's viewpoint. All viewpoints are equally valid and one can't pass judgment upon them. So it is with how Obama understands the world.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

2 posted on 04/13/2008 12:25:27 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Mr. Silverback
"It's got a choir. We sing hymns. We talk about Scripture. You would feel at home if you went there."

"... and, really, we hardly ever sacrifice squalling infant hellspawns of TheWhiteImperialistDevilOppressor to that thirty-foot-tall carved obsidian Malcolm X idol behind the sliding secret door in the basement, when you get right down to it.

"And have I already mentioned the choir? They do... like... hymns, and stuff."

3 posted on 04/13/2008 12:25:47 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle (If McCain really CAN "win without conservatives," then why do you care if I vote for him or not?)
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To: goldstategop

“So it is with how Obama understands the world......”

IMHO, that is a fiction created by the left to facilitate their sale of their nasty brand of snake oil.....


4 posted on 04/13/2008 5:08:16 AM PDT by mo
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

btt


5 posted on 04/13/2008 5:10:39 AM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
• Melanie Wilson Daniel is a new local Banner-Herald columnist.

Nice work, Melanie.

6 posted on 04/13/2008 7:04:03 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand ( If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...)
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To: mo; All

PLEASE WATCH AND EMAIL THESE LINKS OUT **NOW** TO YOUR FAMILY, CO-WORKERS AND FRIENDS AHEAD OF THE NORTH CAROLINA, PENNSYLVANIA AND PUERTO RICO PRIMARIES!!

Obama’s Pastor Celebrates 9/11 (explicit)
Only 5 Days After 3,000 Americans Killed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhl-endvco

Jeremiah Wright Says America Deserved 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9HUdF9OZa8

Obama’s Racially-Divisive Pastor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUbUBTlmAiA

Obama Disrespecting U.S. Flag and Anthem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8QCkgg5Kjo

The Audacity of Barack Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjnT4eJJvs

The Audacity of Barack Obama 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeC8BE-2T_k

Is Obama Wright? - Pastor Wright & Senator Obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72B3tUAqpo4

Obama’s Pastor - 9/11 Fault of Israel Association

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnI431s1r6s

Obama - Cult of Personality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP7lUGn7HWk

Name Obama’s Accomplishments if you can #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGeu_4Ekx-o

Name Obama’s Accomplishments if you can #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzFOOcEQtP0

Barack Obama: There Will Be Bamboozling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuB_W8o_UsU

The Two Things Senator Obama Accomplished

http://www.floppingaces.net/2008/02/27/obamas-empty-change-message/

The Jeremiah Wright Lifetime Achievement Award

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prhnc2fxAzg

Gaza Strip Palestinians Campaigning for Obama

http://youtube.com/watch?v=21YF7ggCG6g

Barack Obama Doesn’t Want His Daughters ‘Punished’ With a Baby

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eNzmly28Bmg

Obama: Bitter Americans Cling to Guns and Religion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNJAl8a3d9Q


7 posted on 04/13/2008 1:00:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary or Obama can!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Good post, that woman has a way with words!


8 posted on 04/13/2008 1:04:26 PM PDT by Biblebelter (Barry, let your Uncle Jeremiah speak publicly, so he can set the record straight himself.)
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