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Some Obama fans have reconsidered
Even some moderate to liberal ones in the media. Like this one in the National Journal.
Weeks of brooding over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and
Michelle Obama eruptions have severely shaken the hope I expressed in
January: “If Barack Obama can show he is tough enough and pragmatic
enough to win the presidency and serve with distinction, it would be
the best thing that could happen to America and the world.”
The question of Obama’s judgment is raised here, the issue the
remains when the rest are explained away or excused. But there’s more.
Also disturbing is the bleak picture of America painted
by Obama’s closest adviser, his wife, Michelle, in highly newsworthy
comments, most of which the media have chosen to ignore.
That’s an important point.
Her stunning February 18 statement that “for the first
time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country” did get
some attention, but just two mentions buried in The Washington Post and
three buried in the news columns of The New York Times. The news
columns of both papers, and almost all others, have ignored Michelle
Obama’s assertions that this country is “just downright mean” and
“guided by fear”; that “our souls are broken”; and that most Americans’
lives have “gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl.”
The partisan divide on these issues is obvious. This is, however, bi-partisan concern.
But it also appears that Obama shares the unfortunate
tendency of many liberals to see far-left extremists (and of many
conservatives to see far-right extremists) as kindred spirits. And
there may be some resonance between Wright’s angry vitriol and Michelle
Obama’s bleak vision of America.
Furthermore…
…would the same Obama who lacked the fortitude to break
with Jeremiah Wright be a good bet, if elected, to take on his party’s
own special interests? To break, when circumstances warrant, with the
across-the-board liberal orthodoxy he has long embraced? Curb
entitlement spending? Temper excessive affirmative-action preferences?
Tame the lawsuit lobby? Assign the teachers unions their share of the
blame for what Obama calls “crumbling schools that are stealing the
future”?
Could he get tough, when necessary, with fashionably leftist foreign
dictators, highly politicized international institutions, and
sanctimonious European America-bashers? Or would he instead heed such
soothing platitudes as his wife’s February 14 assertion that “instead
of protecting ourselves against terrorists,” we should be “building
diplomatic relationships”?
Legitimate questions. At bottom, there’s a concern here that’s
getting increasingly vocal. If he was the best of the crop for a lot of
excited and engaged Americans, is the ideal president now ‘none of the
above’?
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