Posted on 04/30/2008 8:58:45 AM PDT by SJackson
The Total Witlessness of Obama Apologists
Rick Moran
Barack Obamas problem associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers have really got the creative juices flowing on the Left as they twist themselves into rhetorical and intellectual pretzels trying to downplay or dismiss, their candidates monumentally poor judgment in hanging around with these folks for much of his adult life.
Some may read this apologia for Obamas associations from Reed Hundt at TPM Cafe and shake their heads in wonderment at the cluelessness of the author. Others may marvel at the sheer brazenness of Hundts dismissive comments about Ayers and Wright, admiring the guts it took to reveal oneself as an idiot.
Still others may laugh at the appellation swiftboating as a descriptive for people who tell the truth about what Wright and Ayers have sermonized and accomplished in the past that makes them such problematic friends. Even the candidate has accepted as true what these hateful FOOs (Friends of Obama) have said and done thus making the charge Swiftboating Obama pretty silly as if the candidate would Swiftboat himself.
But as an anthropological exhibit showing an utter lack of honesty and integrity by the Left in commenting about people that ordinary Americans find despicable, Hundt nails it:
It ought to be beneath [S]enator McCain to have his side label Obama as a terrible person because he has failed to shun a fellow who did wrong 40 years or is not a patriot because he neglected to wear a flag on lapel, or declined to disavow a Korean War vet and pastor because he spoke too harshly one Sunday. McCain went to Vietnam to re-open peaceful relations, so he knows the place of forgiveness. He is a man of military honor and knows how to respect a friend and a foe. Hence, it ought to be beneath McCain to tolerate attacks against Obama that closely resemble the despicable charges bush launched against McCain in South Carolina in 2000. It should be the case that mccain doesnt just pretend to stop these attacks, but actually does so. Aside from his laissez-faire positions on iraq and the economy, McCains primary disqualification for the oval office is that he knows these vile, crazy attacks are wrong for America but he wont stop them.
Hundt has walked the bases loaded and set the ball on a tee for me to hit. Far be it for me to not oblige him.
...he has failed to shun a fellow who did wrong 40 years
Yes, some may think trying to blow up the Pentagon is wrong, although many more people might also believe that carrying out that act of barbarism and to this day not regretting it (indeed, wishing to have tried to commit more mayhem) puts such an individual beyond the pale of ordinary society. Most would agree that we should consign unapologetic miscreants like Ayers to the outer darkness where only criminals and radical wackos (and liberal universities) will have dealings with him.
Instead, Hundt believes we are swiftboating Obama by pointing out in the Age of Terror that our President being on a first name basis with an unrepentant terrorist is probably a bad example to set and causes most Americans with half a brain to wonder, What is that guy doing with William Ayers?
For in truth, Ayers has not only not repented his criminal acts, he still holds views of America that are so outside the mainstream hateful and laughably adolescent views they are that carrying on a long term friendship with this lout calls into question not only Obamas judgement but his sanity as well. Indeed, his campaign said after the ABC debate that Ayers and his wife, fellow former terrorist Bernadine Dohrn were respectable fixtures of the mainstream in Chicago.
Ayers most recent pronouncements (and Dohrns) are contained on some audio tapes dug up by a small radio station in Chicago and blasted over the Internet last week by Powerline and Hugh Hewitt. The tapes show that Ayers and Dorhn are in the mainstream of Chicago politics only if Josef Stalin is mayor and Pol Pot is Cook County Commissioner.
This would come as a surprise to Mayor Daley who also has had kind words to say about Ayers/Dorhn no doubt because he doesnt wish to anger the liberals in Hyde Park and because he has a sneaking admiration for the former terrorists chutzpah. Daley is also a crook who gets away with his crimes which at least gives him something in common with Ayers. There is no excuse for Obama.
Hundt knows all of this and yet chooses to dismiss Obamas association with Ayers in a way that suggests we shouldnt be beastly to the candidate for hanging around with an ex-shoplifter.
...or declined to disavow a Korean War vet and pastor because he spoke too harshly one Sunday
First, I would ask my readers with an IQ above 60 to stop screaming at your monitor. Mr. Hundt cant hear you and you are disturbing the dog who, thankfully, cant read what this monumentally dishonest and royally idiotic liberal has written about Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Otherwise, your beloved pooch might jump up on your desk and urinate on the screen which is better than Hundts ridiculous notion of Wrights rantings deserve.
Yes, everyone knows that Rev. Wright did quite a bit more than speak harshly about America, about whites, about Jews, and just about anyone else who this misanthropic nincompoop railed against in his sermons. If Hundt believes Wright saying Not God Bless America but God D*** America to be only speaking harshly, I would hate to see how he would categorize some of Osama bin Ladens diatribes. Perhaps Osama is just letting off steam or maybe hes remonstrating against the U.S.
Wright, of course, is a bigoted, America-hating, anti-Semitic, nut case who believes AIDS was invented by the government to kill black people. And questioning Obamas knowledge of his Spiritual Advisors outrageously hateful and despicable views is extremely relevant in that the candidate has denied being aware either in public or private that his pastor held to these positions.
Should we find otherwise, Obama is a bald faced liar. And it would appear just looking at what Tom Blumer has been able to come up with that either Obama looked the American people in the eye during his speech in Philadelphia and lied through his teeth or he was asleep during Wrights sermons and never read any of the Trinity Church bulletins or purchased any tapes of his unbalanced pastors talks.
Blumer, by the way, makes a compelling case that Obama was wide awake during the services, went so far as to take notes of Wrights sermons in the space provided by the church bulletin, and purchased at least one tape of Wrights talks.
When Hundt makes his stupidly dishonest point that Wright preached his hate mongering only one Sunday he is either ignorant or is clumsily trying to excuse Obamas incredible lack of judgment in continuing his association with a man the vast majority of Americans would have shunned like the plague after only one of his outbursts.
Instead, the candidate spent 20 years absorbing a worldview so at odds with the reality that is America that one can legitimately question Obamas gut feelings about this country. This may anger the Left but most of the rest of us see questioning Obamas beliefs about America as a logical and reasonable outgrowth of the importance the candidate himself places on his relationship with Wright.
And this brings us to the essence of why Ayers, Wright, Rezko, Auchi, and other FOOs are legitimate campaign issues; Obamas claim that despite his lack of experience, it is his superior judgment that should recommend him to the American people. Obama conveniently tags questions about his associations as distractions. But are they?
Charles Krauthammer:
With that, Obama identified the new public enemy: the distractions foisted upon a pliable electorate by the malevolent forces of the status quo, i.e., those who might wish to see someone else become president next January. Its easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit for tat that consumes our politics and trivializes the profound issues that face our country, he warned sternly. These must be resisted.
Why? Because Obama understands that the real threat to his candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain than his own character and cultural attitudes. He came out of nowhere with his autobiography already written, then saw it embellished daily by the hagiographic coverage and kid-gloves questioning of a supine press. (Which is why those Saturday Night Live parodies were so devastatingly effective.)
Then came the three amigos: Tony Rezko, the indicted fixer; Jeremiah Wright, the racist reverend; William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. And then Obamas own anthropological observation that bitter working-class whites cling to guns and religion because they misapprehend their real class interests.
In the now-famous Pennsylvania debate, Obama had extreme difficulty answering questions about these associations and attitudes. The difficulty is understandable. Some of the contradictions are inexplicable. How does one explain campaigning throughout 2007 on a platform of transcending racial divisions, while in that same year contributing $26,000 to a church whose pastor incites race hatred?
You explain it either one of two ways: towering hypocrisy or a disconnect from the way things are perceived outside of his own narrow, elitist social circles. I lean toward the latter but dont dismiss the former. And this gets to the issue of Obamas judgment that Ed Morrissey handles quite nicely:
Remember that one of the campaign slogans for Obama was Judgment to Lead. I often use the picture of Obama with that slogan on the lectern just to emphasize that Obama himself opened the debate over his judgment. Now that people want to start asking about the judgment he claims as his superior quality for the election, he wants to label it a distraction, but without it he has nothing else to offer except three undistinguished years as a backbencher in the Senate.
With no track record of legislative accomplishments and no evidence of any real engagement in change, judgment would have eventually become a focal issue for Obama anyway, even if he hadnt brought it up himself. That means his judgment in launching his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist like William Ayers becomes relevant and germane, especially since the political connections between the two continued after Ayers announced that he wished hed gone further in his political violence. Even in 2007, Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn talk about overthrowing the corporate government of the United States, to replace it with something more akin to Red China.
What is Obamas judgment on Ayers and Dohrn? Theyre respectable figures of the mainstream in Chicago.
The Left will continue to downplay, dismiss, or just plain lie about Obamas associations and why they are important. But as revelations continue to bubble up from the murky depths of American radicalism about these two characters and others, questions about Obamas judgment, his core beliefs, his honesty and integrity, and how he feels about the rest of us will continue to be raised.
I would say to Mr. Hundt that this is not swiftboating not by any means. If by using that term you imply that Obama is being falsely accused you are greatly mistaken. Accusations based on audio and video evidence that slaps ordinary Americans in the face with their virulent hatred and radical chic doctrines do more to undermine your candidate than anything Hillary Clinton, John McCain, or the right wing noise machine could ever do.
Swiftboating. Participle. Publicizing something truthful about a left-wing candidate for office's past that the candidate would rather not have voters know about.
Barack, even if I take you at your word (and after all that has happened, that is not easy to do), but, if I do, my question is: If you could exhibit such poor judgement over a 20+ year period about someone so close to you...how many more on your campaign staff, or contributors, or associates have you exhibited the same poor judgement regarding?
What about Ayers? Rezko? and others?
How many more would you exhibit such poor judgement with, if elected, in your cabinet selections, with foreign leaders, as nominations for judges, etc.?
Sorry Barack, but your whole presidential aspiration package wont hunt.
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND OBAMA'S CHURCH
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - OBAMA'S CIRCLE OF FRIENDS AND SUPPORT
THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH - BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
The Left will continue to downplay, dismiss, or just plain lie about Obamas associations and why they are important.
::::::
Gee, I have never seen so many people tap-dancing all at the same time —— (chuckle)
Can anyone imagine Ronald Reagan having years of relationships with these types? I don't think any president has ever been in such bad company.
Wright was born in 1941. The Korean War started in June, 1950. Either Wright was a Marine at 9 or this Hundt fellow needs a calculator.
These same apologists tried to excuse all the mass murdering Marxists in the last century so this takes less more mental agility than they have already developed.
True apologists always deal with the truth. These so called apologists can’t handle the truth!
Minor Premise: Obama sat through it for twenty years and did nothing, and like a schoolboy caught stealing candy, only did something about the sin when the punishment proved so great he desired to avoid it.
Conclusion: Obama is a man without real morals, and does not show the Fruit of the Spirit that comes from being a practicing Christian. I can't judge his relationship with God, but I can judge the man's Fruits.
I noticed that. He served in the early 60s. The good news, he’s not responsible for the Korean War chickens coming home to roost, the cold war chickens are another matter.
You're right, the issue revolves around Obama's judgement, worldview, and the types of people he'd surround himself with as President.
Of course Wright is important as it demonstrates his lack of judgement, as well as the fact that he's be comfortable in the midst of racists and America haters, just not Wright who now has a high profile.
Is it any wonder why the ememy is actively trying to take away the new free press- the internet- and corrupt it as well?
I truly fear that the generation that is supposed to take control of this nation and guide it carefully into the future is instead going to deliver it into the hands of our enemy; the enemy of our God given freedom, the enemy of liberty; the enemy of happiness.
Why is freedom always so short lived on this earth?
LoL! Good catch.
It wouldn't suprise me if next we here from John Kerry, claiming a seared memory of Wright sharing Christmas dinner army rations with him as they shivered together in the dark and rain, watching the NVA Buddhists celebrating Christmas in Cambodia. It was a double top secret mission of course, so no record exists. They even had to eat they uniforms when they were finnished it.
Except for the magic hat that the CIA spook gave to Kerry on that scary boat ride up the Mekong into Cambodia in December 1968 when Nixon was president even though he wasn't. He couldn't have eaten the magic hat 'cause he still has it. He keeps it in a lockbox that was given to him by Al Gore.
If you haven’t done so, you really need to follow the link above and read the child-like commentary of this Reed Hundt fellow. The comments following are even more funny. It appears the strategy of the left is to feign total outrage and scream Horton and Swiftboat when anybody mentions anything about their god, or the slimy people he associates himself with. It’s self evident to them that the NC ad was completely out of bounds and racist to the core. The best part is they are all convinced that McCain is a big right winger. This should be really fun.
Wright was in the Marines from 1961 to 1963 and then a Navy corpsman for the next 4 years (serving at Bethesda).
"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
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