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Democrats Disillusioned (Obama would rather use race for political advantage than find a solution)
National Review ^ | 08/03/2010 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 08/03/2010 7:12:38 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

You expect Republican politicians to criticize Democratic administrations and vice versa. But when Democrats start criticizing Democratic administrations, that is news. Someone once said that the headline “Dog bites man” is not news, but “Man bites dog” is. We are now starting to get “Democrat bites Democrat” news.

Longtime Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen last week took on one of Pres. Barack Obama’s most bitter betrayals of his campaign rhetoric and the high hopes of people who voted for him.

Their op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal dealt with race, and it pulled no punches: “Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship. Moreover, his cynical approach to governance has encouraged his allies to pursue a similar strategy of racially divisive politics on his behalf.”

Cynical? This man with the lofty rhetoric and sermonizing style? Only if you follow his deeds instead of merely his words.

Part of the polarization that Barack Obama has caused among the American public has been due to the fact that some people do not look behind rhetoric and symbolism. Such people are prime candidates to become part of the Obama cult. Those who look only at deeds tend to become critics. But those who closely follow both his words and his deeds are the most outraged of all, because of the gross contradictions between those words and those deeds.

Caddell and Schoen go all the way back to Jeremiah Wright in tracing Barack Obama’s actual track record when it comes to race. That Obama spent 20 years in the church of a man preaching racial hate should have told us all we needed to know.

That Obama as president of the United States, on national television, could have attacked the white policeman who arrested his friend Henry Louis Gates while admitting that he didn’t know the specifics should have alerted even those who had bought the excuses about Jeremiah Wright.

Caddell and Schoen also mention the refusal of Obama’s Justice Department to prosecute black thugs who stationed themselves outside a voting place to intimidate whites who went there to vote. It was caught on video, but the career Justice Department attorney who handled the case was told to drop it — and resigned rather than be part of a sordid cover-up.

Now, Caddell and Schoen argue, the Obama administration’s coming to the rescue of illegal immigrants in Arizona is more of the same race-based politics, in this case to win the Hispanic vote.

What Barack Obama and his followers want is called “comprehensive immigration reform.” What that amounts to is some form of amnesty up front, combined with a promise to strengthen the border later. That political game has been played for years, and it has roped in some weak-kneed Republicans, as well as being a mainstay of Democratic politics.

Regardless of what immigration policy a person believes in, the government cannot carry out that policy until after it has first gained control of the borders. Regardless of what Washington politicians may say about how many immigrants should be allowed into the country, or on what basis, none of that matters when the real decision is in the hands of innumerable other people, who can simply climb over a fence along the border and come on in whenever they feel like it.

Even if they get caught, the most that is likely to happen to them is that they will get sent back to try again later. In many cases in the past, illegal immigrants have been issued legal documents ordering them to appear in court — and were released inside the United States. That anyone would think that people who disregarded the border and the fence would take a piece of paper more seriously defies logic.

That doesn’t mean that Washington politicians were stupid. They were political, which is worse. The point was to win Hispanic votes, even though not all Hispanics believe in open borders.

President Obama would rather have an issue with which to win the Hispanic vote than have a bipartisan bill that would simply take control of the borders. Such a bill would help the country, but that obviously takes a back seat in an election year. Even some members of Obama’s own party are uneasy with such cynicism.

— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institutio


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: democrats; disillusioned; obama; race

1 posted on 08/03/2010 7:12:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

This is a “duh” moment. They helped to get a community organizer elected, what did they expect?!

Community organizer = professional race pimp/agitator.


2 posted on 08/03/2010 7:17:06 AM PDT by brownsfan (The average American: Uninformed, and unconcerned.)
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To: SeekAndFind

When you can’t win on ability, one turns to winning on hatred.

And this is only the beginning. As things get worse and government starts getting more and more of the blame, expect any and all conflicts based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status to be inflamed and fanned.


3 posted on 08/03/2010 7:17:50 AM PDT by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be purchased and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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To: brownsfan
This is a “duh” moment. They helped to get a community organizer elected, what did they expect?!

The disturbing thing is this --- Many Americans ALLOW themselves to get conned into believing racial rhetoric.

The sooner most Americans see behind their facade, the less "power" they will wield.
4 posted on 08/03/2010 7:20:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

These people are delusional 22 Years with the Rev Wright!!! And that crack head wife in the Nation Of Islam!! Give me a break, Rats are brain dead.


5 posted on 08/03/2010 7:22:22 AM PDT by Cheetahcat (Zero the Wright kind of Racist! We are in a state of War with Democrats)
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To: SeekAndFind

Your comment presumes there is a solution.....there is none that is bloodless.


6 posted on 08/03/2010 7:26:11 AM PDT by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Greetings Jacques. The revolution is coming)
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To: SeekAndFind

And people find this surprising? Oh, I meant Dems and media hounds found this surprising?


7 posted on 08/03/2010 7:27:18 AM PDT by equalitybeforethelaw
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To: SeekAndFind

8 posted on 08/03/2010 7:35:47 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is absolutely meaningless. Go ahead, find the Democrat critic that condemns Obama the most. One who even says he would never vote for him again. Guess what? He will. He will vote for Democrats even if their campaign promise is to throw him off a cliff into a vat of boiling tar.


9 posted on 08/03/2010 7:36:33 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: equalitybeforethelaw
"And people find this surprising? Oh, I meant Dems and media hounds found this surprising?"

Must be more of the unexpected happenings, happening.

10 posted on 08/03/2010 7:37:30 AM PDT by sniper63 (I am the leader of the TEA Party, I, myself am the leader of me, myself for I am the TEA Party!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Pat Caddell (I love him by the way) is almost a DINO. He was Carter’s pollster but his thoughts and views are sort of Zell Miller like. While I love Caddell and I love Sowell, I wouldn’t go as far as Sowell in saying that “even democrats are starting to complain”. This would be like Olympia Snowe opposing a filibuster of Kagan etc. - i.e. not news.


11 posted on 08/03/2010 7:40:22 AM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: SeekAndFind
I think Patrick Caddell is more of a straight shooter than any other dim out there.

I remember him during the 2004 campaign and he called Kerry out more than once when he was doing something stupid.

12 posted on 08/03/2010 7:52:17 AM PDT by libs_kma (DEMOCRATS, HOT TAR AND FEATHERS. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.)
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