WHY OBAMAmania IS A FAIRY TALE
"To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of powe, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind, indeed the neccessary effects of the ignorance and levity of the vulgar"----Edmund Burke (present discontent iv)...."
" Sometimes when learning comes before experience, it doesnt make sense right away...experience achieve more with less enegy and time"---Richard David Bach
" We know nothing of what will happen in future, but by the analogy of experience"---Abraham Lincoln.
Saturday, January 26 was definitely a big day for Barack Obama and members of his fans club. The Harvard trained lawyer routed Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, in the Democratic Party's primary with over 55 per cent of the votes. Ofcourse it was no surprise that he would do well there. Although a section of the media believe the huge slice of African-American voters gave him the edge, that conclusion is yet to be tested in other states. But to tag the victory historic, and make it look like he had picked the ticket is preposterous and premature. Truth is he didnt win because he is black, that President Clinton's remark put off some blacks or because he is more popular among blacks. Simply, he won because, just like the folks in Iowa, they bought his fancy rhetorics, and assumed freshness. Obama is no match for Hillary even if he gets the endorsement of the whole Keneddy family including their underage kids. Come super tuesday and beyond, he is going to be routed not because he is black, but because he hasnt got the credentials...he is not electable. Maybe 10, 12 years from now, but for 2009, nope.
Of course he is a great guy, lovely speech, optimism, smart, with the JFK flavour, but he needs more. David Mach, a legislator from South Carolina echoed " Obama is very bright, and very capable, has the ability to build a team, but i feel experience is important" The white House is too complex and huge an assignment that we cant leave it to political neophytes just because they are eloquent. . Carol kennedy who endorsed him tagged her Oped in the New york Times 'A President Like My father', but she forgets that her dad spent 14 learning the ropes in Washington. Congress, 1947-55; Senate, 1953-61. So to make such comparism is myopic and a disservice to the memory of JFK. Its like comparing sleep and death. Obama left the senate after few months to campaign to be president, even in Iilinois his voting record is still a subject of controversy.
Lest i forget lets see how Britania Conscise Encyclopedia defines the phrase fairy tale...' simple narrative ...written or told for the amusement of kids...or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events...' Take note of the word improbable, which also mean, doubtful, dubious,questionable, and unlikely. Aside from the fact that his record on the iraq war brouhaha matches three of the four mentioned words, his whole claim and promise of change are unlikely, considering the facts and realities on the ground. So President was right, nothing racist about his remark.
Its rather funny that the Obama flank continues to spin this race stuff. Truth is Obama sees himself as a black man. But underneath his rhetoric he sends the message of ' the Clintons are underming me because im black'. But is he not. Undermining him because he is black, NO. That he is a political kindregaten,Yes. He believes having a black president is a breath of fresh air, so he manipulates the myopic flank of the media to ensure they hound the Clintons. For instance, after President Clinton made those remarks about how Jesse jackson won twice in South Carolina, but lost at the end, Obama quickly phoned Jackson in India, giving a racial slant to the whole thing. . But to his chagrin, jackson trivialized it, telling the media he(jackson) wasnt offended.
In his book 'A Bound Man' Shelby Steele, who writes about race and racial politics in America wrote" His(Obama) books show a man nothing less than driven by a determinationto be black, as if blackness were a more specific achievement than a birthright" This drive puts Obama at odds with his own political personae. much of the excitement that surrounds him comes from the perception that he is only lightly tethered to race, yet the very arc of his life -from Hawaii to the southside of Chicago, has been shaped by an often conscious resolve to belong inevitably to the black entity.
Steele observed further that" the geatest problem for Obama is that today's black indentity is grounded in chellenging, so if he (Obama), tries to win the blacks of taking on a position of challenging , he risks losing the votes of whites, who like him because he doesnt challenge And if his natural bargaining wins whites votes, he risks losing blacks to Hillary...Reason : the Clintons always indentified with black challengers like Al Sharpton which makes them blacker than Obama" This kind of explains his voting record in Illinois. In 1999, faced with the task of supporting a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, he voted present. He did so because he would have risked drawing flaks from blacks and on the other side, dent his image of being tough on crime. As a senator he did that in illinois 130 times.
As it stands, Hillary is ahead on every front nationwide-whites, blacks, hispanics, asians, women, men etc. An ABC/Washington Post poll gave Hillary 60 % and Obama 20%. among blacks. Among hispanics its 4-1. The Avanze Impre media poll in five states with large latino presence(CA, TX, FL, NY, IL) gave Hillary 55% Obama 6%, Edward %. So states like California New York, New Jersey, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and even his home state Illinois are beyond his reach. The 270,000 farm workers Union is behind Hillary, while the Congressional Black Caucus(CBC), his constituency, has no plan to endorse him. Carolyn Kilpatrick, chair of the CBC said " i am 99% sure the group would not support Obama en masse the way the women's political organization, Emily's List, is with Hillary"
According to Phillip Kesinitz of the CUNY graduate center, Obama would not lose a good chunk of black votes because of the so called race card , but because a large slice of the black community dont see him as their own. He stressed further that " Obama is indentifiably black but in many ways he is outside of normal race relations . He is a black politician from whom whites dont have to feel guilty"
On the hispanics side there is no doubt that Hillary is light years ahead. Even Obama's main man in illinois, Luis Guiterez, said that Obama is yet to heed his advice and move from door to door to seek hispanics support, just like Hillary did in Nevada with prominent latinos on her side. " When you are washing dishes and waiting tables, you dont pick up Newsweek and find out the phenomenon about Barack obama" he said
While some political pundits accent a black vs brown rivalry, suggesting that latinos are reluctant to vote African-American, the fundamental dynamic is that the Clintons are better and more organized in the latino community. David Bositis, of the Center for political and economic studies said " i would expect She's going to do better with hispanics than Obama has prinpally because she's better known"
As you read, Hillary has not less than 160 of the 700 super delegates who use their votes the way they desire at the convention.
Together they are one of the best political teams in decades, even if President Clinton has been getting push backs from party stalwarts for his agressive jabs at Obama. like Political analyst, and former Presidential aspirant , Pat Buchana said, "that is how i the game is played...he (Bill) is playing to get Hillary in the white House...there is nothing dirty, and unpresidential about his conduct" In the same vein Dennis Wholley said " expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good person, is like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian"
Last word, he is a good guy, but for him to say proximity to washington is a liability is balony. His wife , Mitchel, who has worked so hard for his campaign, would not fail to talk about her experience while on her husband's campaign trail, if she eventually wants to be a congress woman. Just lke Hillary rightly said about martin Luther king Jnr. without President Lyndon Johnson his efforts would have benn a waste..Nothing racist about this. And there is no iota of evidence that she tried to undermine MLK's effort as was spinned in the medisa by Obama's fans club. Took alot of experience , tact, and courage to sign the bill into law.
"But eloquence may exist without proportionate degree of wisdom"- Edmund burke( Reflections IV 184)
By Churchill Spencer Umoren, Editor, pointblanknews.com, New York, USA