Obama & Friends: Judge Not?

Real Clear politics ^ | 10/10/08 | Charles Krauthammer

[txroadkill]

WASHINGTON -- Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.

[TheWriterTX]

Wow! This is one of Charles’ best columns, EVER. Direct, succinct, and full of bite.

[frogjerk]

"You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking."

Farrakhan Nation of Islam Saviour's Day 2008

[Unam Sanctam]

Great article by Charles K. I would only quibble about the following:

Why are these associations important? Do I think Obama is as corrupt as Rezko? Or shares Wright's angry racism or Ayers' unreconstructed 1960s radicalism? No.

I'm not so sure we can definitely answer no to those questions. Obama has obviously been dissembling and less than candid about these relationships -- how do we know he doesn't share these attitudes and views to some extent, but is just more disciplined about hiding it in his current public persona? I hope for the sake of the nation if Obama is elected that Charles is right here.

[txroadkill]

Nonetheless, John McCain in his infinite wisdom, and with his overflowing sense of personal rectitude, joined the braying mob in denouncing that perfectly legitimate ad, saying it had no place in any campaign. In doing so, McCain unilaterally disarmed himself, rendering off-limits Obama's associations, an issue that even Hillary Clinton addressed more than once.

As another poster said, "we're going to have to drag McCain across the victory line".

I am encouraged by seeing at the McCain Town Hall events that the people there let him know how mad we are at him for not fighting harder. I hope he got the message. Too bad we never got the chance to do the same to Bush during the last 4 years.

DAMNIT, DEFEND US!

[Arthur McGowan]

Well, Todd Palin is a drunk driver!!!!!

[txroadkill]

I think it has become clear that the SDS is alive and well and Obama is their hand pick, molded and trained candidate. Let there be no doubt, if Obama wins, and along with Pelosi et al, the SDS will have control of 2/3rds of the United States Government and will have the 3rd branch before his first term is up.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

First, his cynicism and ruthlessness. He found these men useful, and use them he did....

Second, and even more disturbing than the cynicism, is the window these associations give on Obama's core beliefs. He doesn't share Rev. Wright's poisonous views of race nor Ayers' views, past and present, about the evil that is American society. But Obama clearly did not consider these views beyond the pale....

Until now. Today, on the threshold of the presidency, Obama concedes the odiousness of these associations, which is why he has severed them.

Charles makes some excellent points, but then his column collapses in inconsistent logic.

If we are to believe Obama is cynical, as Charles indicates, then WHY should we believe Obama is sincere when he claims the views of these men are odious and that he does not share them?

Especially in light of his backing and filling -- Obama never came clean when challenged on any of these men, in each case he attempted to get by with something limited ("I cannot disown Rev. Wright" "Ayers is a guy in my neighborhood, our kids went to the same school") and when that didn't fly, retreated a bit more.

It is just as likely that Obama shares these men's views of America, but as a smart, ambitious politician he is following Alinsky's advice to disguise himself as more moderate than he really is in order to obtain power.

[screaming eagle2]

My father told me that you are judged by the company you keep.I have real problems with Obama’s company

[roses of sharon]

Our intelligentsia always gives the enemy the benefit of the doubt. Their columns rarely make sense in the end.

Which is why the rightwing press has ZERO influence on Americans anymore.

They write for their more powerful peers in the liberal media, not us.

[Brown Deer]

Barack 0bama's Friends