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Obama's Speech
Townhall.com ^ | March 19, 2008 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 03/19/2008 4:00:35 AM PDT by Kaslin

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.


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: ihaveanexcusespeech; jeremiahwright; nobama; obama; sowell
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To: Miss Didi
As I just wrote on another thread, some pundit on Fox just told the Friends that Obama was running as a healer...first of partisan politics and now on racial issues. Well, who is Obama to tell us that America has sinned and he is here to heal us???



RUSH: Michelle Obama Slams America, Says Husband Can Save Its Soul
41 posted on 03/19/2008 5:49:55 AM PDT by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Brian_Baldwin

Yesterday morning before the speech, some one was saying the speech would be like the great speech Mitt Romney gave. It did not even come near it


42 posted on 03/19/2008 5:50:51 AM PDT by Kaslin (Peace is the aftermath of victory)
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To: Kaslin
Oops that was supposed to be

Yesterday morning before the speech, some one on FOX News was saying the speech would be like the great speech Mitt Romney gave. It did not even come near it

Not Yesterday morning before the speech, some one was saying the speech would be like the great speech Mitt Romney gave. It did not even come near it

43 posted on 03/19/2008 5:54:13 AM PDT by Kaslin (Peace is the aftermath of victory)
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To: Arrowhead1952
Now I can see why there is still a racial issue in this country. All the members attending that church (plus probably many more) were indoctrinated into "hate the white people" and "it's America's fault" on a regular basis.

It sure goes a long way in explaining why the racial divide never closes.

44 posted on 03/19/2008 6:09:48 AM PDT by Neverforget01
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To: goldstategop
barry can no more put the racism problem behind him than he could hide the word Racist if it were branded on his forehead. It is who is is at his core.

LLS

45 posted on 03/19/2008 6:26:44 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Could I ever vote for mcstain? osamabama hussein may convince me yet!)
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To: Miss Didi
barry tried to put his racism behind him but the more he talked... the more racist and hateful he seemed. He will not admit fault or complicity and tries to justify and spin the hate as love.

LLS

46 posted on 03/19/2008 6:29:51 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Could I ever vote for mcstain? osamabama hussein may convince me yet!)
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To: Neverforget01
It sure goes a long way in explaining why the racial divide never closes.

It also explains why the race baiters like the Revs Je$$e J@ck$on, Al $h@rpton and now BO's $piritu@l @dvi$or want to take this country

<-/<-/<-/<-/<-/ BACKWARD

to the 1950s.

This is the subject of the KLBJ morning show in Austin today, and I want to call in so bad and scream at some of the callers. I'd like to tell them, "Look, I have tried to see everyone as a PERSON, and then some IDIOT like the "rev" wright thinks it is OK to say something like "hillary ain't never been called a n*****"."

NOW, who is bringing up the racial issues?

47 posted on 03/19/2008 7:16:01 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (His middle name is NOT Hussein for being a Christian.)
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To: LibLieSlayer

Thanks...such a bitter and arrogant young man. Perhaps Rush will play the clips later.


48 posted on 03/19/2008 7:34:07 AM PDT by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Kaslin

Thanks for the post and ping, Kaslin.

Another excellent column by Dr. Sowell. It shows he doesn’t discriminate when it comes to fraud, deceitful tactics or downright lying, he treats all offenders the same. :)


49 posted on 03/19/2008 9:19:46 AM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: Miss Didi

Rush is on fire today!

LLS


50 posted on 03/19/2008 10:32:07 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Could I ever vote for mcstain? osamabama hussein may convince me yet!)
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To: LibLieSlayer

And he covered both the riots and Imus stories...good show today.


51 posted on 03/19/2008 10:37:02 AM PDT by Miss Didi ("Good heavens, woman, this is a war not a garden party!" Dr. Meade, Gone with the Wind)
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To: Miss Didi

It truly is!

LLS


52 posted on 03/19/2008 11:21:51 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Could I ever vote for mcstain? osamabama hussein may convince me yet!)
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