March 27, 2008

The Obama supporter who can solve his Rev. Wright problem

In my new VDARE.com column, I offer Sen. Obama a free suggestion about how he could relieve his festering Rev. Dr. Wright problem by turning to one of his own supporters for aid. I'm not going to tell you who it is here so that you go read the whole thing.

The Wright problem didn't get any better for Obama today when he came back from vacation with a new and even less plausible spin:

"This is somebody that was preaching three sermons at least a week for 30 years and it got boiled down ... into a half-minute sound clip and just played it over and over and over again, partly because it spoke to some of the racial divisions we have in this country."

Oh, come off it. This is somebody who visited Gadaffi in 1984 and gave Louis Farrakhan his "Lifetime Achievement" award in 2007. This is somebody whose first sermon Obama ever heard, according to his own memoir, included the line, "where white folks' greed runs a world in need." This is somebody who boasted of his church's "black liberation theology" and its similarities to the ideology of 1970s Nicaraguan Marxists.

By the way, how come Hillary gets roasted alive for embellishing an old [non]war story, while Obama's flat-out lie of a couple of weeks ago in response to the toughest question of his campaign -- his lie that he wasn't in church for controversial comments by Wright -- is forgotten, dead and buried under his 5,000 words of thoughtful nuance and nuanced thoughtfulness?

Here's some of the opening of my new column:

At VDARE.COM. we’ve never been in the business of endorsing Presidential candidates. And considering who's left in the running in 2008, we're certainly not going to start now.

But by publishing revelations about one candidate, aren't we tacitly just helping the others?

For example, when Sen. Barack Obama, who has been running largely on his autobiography, makes campaign claims about his relationship with his pastor or his grandmother and I point out that his 1995 autobiography says something very different, I always receive messages denouncing me for being culpable for electing Hillary Clinton and/or John McCain. …

In this view, a presidential campaign is a zero-sum contest. Somebody has to win and everybody else has to lose. So any revelation about Candidate X is seen, not as contribution to the sum total of human knowledge, but as a dirty trick intended to elect Candidate Y or Z.

In contrast, I believe that the more that voters know about the candidates, the better. Of course, I would say that: as a nonfiction writer, that's my professional bias.

Still, I do believe the zero-sum model is simplistic….

For example, for over a year, I've been pointing out that Obama isn't the centrist post racial conciliator he plays on television. His campaign has been as disingenuous as if Ronald Reagan had run for President in 1980, not as a proud conservative, but as a bipartisan middle-of-the-roader.

In truth, Obama is a liberal somewhat to the left of the Democratic median, and with a recent radical background. And slowly, the MainStream Media [MSM] is starting to wake up to the phoniness of Obama's marketing of himself. This week, the New York Times [Obama’s Test: Can a Liberal Be a Unifier?, By Robin Toner, March 25, 2008] and Washington Post [In Obama's New Message, Some Foes See Old Liberalism, By Alec MacGillis, Washington Post, March 26, 2008]have finally gotten around to admitting in major stories that Obama is well to the left of where many imagine him to be.

This slow debunking of Obama might have crucial implications for his Vice Presidential selection. The more people who understand who Obama really is, the more pressure he will be under to pick as a ticket-balancing running mate an anti-Obama, such as Sen. James Webb (D-VA).

Moreover, within a President Obama, there would always be an ongoing struggle between his cautious head and his radical heart. The more a gullible press and public persist in imagining him the equally loving son of a happy biracial home, the more leftist actions his heart will be able to get away with. But the more we are alert to the two sides of this complicated man, the more likely his intelligent prudence would triumph over the passion to prove himself "black enough" that is the remnant of his psychologically-damaging childhood.

For example, the more he is seen, correctly, as a man who chose to devote much of his adult life to pursuing political power in order to take from whites and give to blacks, the more scrutiny a President Obama would receive over seemingly minor questions such as appointments to jobs at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the civil rights section of the Justice Department.

These obscure offices can be tremendously important.

[More]

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"By the way, how come Hillary gets roasted alive for embellishing an old [non]war story, while Obama's flat-out lie of a couple of weeks ago in response to the toughest question of his campaign -- his lie that he wasn't in church for controversial comments by Wright -- is forgotten, dead and buried under his 5,000 words of thoughtful nuance and nuanced thoughtfulness?"

Maybe the roasting of Hillary and Ferraro will get enough liberals, who have so far benefitted from the media, irked about the shamelessness of the MSM. The MSM are so overboard with their Barry shilling, that it’s bound to wake up a few liberals who apparently have the clout and the money to change something. Its obvious conservatives are not going to change things in the MSM, even with blogging and the internet and talk radio. That could be the best thing to come off this.

Anonymous said...

Steve,
I like the way you changed from sitting in your underpants to "..sitting here in my bathrobe". Or was it just because VDare is more of a family site?

Great read!

Steve Sailer said...

It was Business Attire day at work.

Anonymous said...

The question here is: why would Watson endorse, so to speak, a man who didn't exactly leap to his defence when he was being tarred and feathered?
Or was the contribution to Obama's campaign a mandatory part of the humiliation henceforth called "watsoning"?
I suppose we'll never know.

Johnson said...

This is fascinating.

I'm glad you bring him up. I'm amazed at the cognitive dissonance people show when they speak wide eyed about racial reconciliation and Obama.

While just a few months ago, prominent intellectuals were contemplating the possibility of genetic differences between the races.

Perfect example of the extreme short term memory of the media. I guess that's what blogs like this are for.

The defense of free speech I think is similar to the tragedy of the commons. Certain interest groups have huge interests in suppressing free or offensive speech (Muslims, minorities) while the majority have to keep fighting for our rights to speak. Unfortunately those who defend speech get labeled.

Ron Guhname said...

The MSM has told us that Obama is the first person to talk about race like an adult. Obviously, they don't read iSteve.

Like Steve wrote, his speech was just the same old "whites need to help blacks." There are lots of adult conversations about race. They're just all labeled racist. It's the finger pointers who are the children.

Luke Lea said...

I am definitely hoping for Webb as VP, whether with Hillary or Obama. He's been so quiet throughout the campaign that I wonder whether something like that might be in the works.

He would be my first choice for Pres., and a lot of other people's too I bet. Good assasination insurance also of course -- something we have to think about given the passions being aroused around both Hillary and Obama.

Anonymous said...

Great idea. Cool that you have enough affection for Obama to make such a suggestion. I would never vote for a socialist and can't imagine BarryO changing enough to win me over, but he is a genuinely interesting guy who I'm sure I would have liked in my alienated, cigarette-smoking, leather-jacketed college jackass days.

Anonymous said...

Steve thinking Obama will be anything other than what he is, a racialist, is naive. The guy thinks he can win with the Press riding cover for him to suppress his hard-Left Marxist views. Surely you did not miss his statement "the proletariat must control the means of production."

Unfortunately for Obama, his Rev. God Damn America won't go away. The decisive forces will be average people with Imovie mashing up Obama and his Rev. God Damn America, Michelle, etc. All on YouTube and other places. Heck if YouTube pulls it "banned on YouTube" is a heck of an email to get people in the office watching.

I doubt Webb would either assent to be the VP candidate or Obama, being an Angry Black Nationalist, would consent to appoint him. More likely fellow Identity Politics maven Bill Richardson. To get Hispanics. Obama probably thinks he can unite Blacks, Hispanics, and rich white Yuppies to "punish" Whites middle and working class whites.

Webb probably knows that Obama as the nominee is toast, and he will face as his nominee a damn tough re-election fight that he'd lose. With Obama, Rev. God Damn America, and Webb all mashed up in viral videos.

Webb's main platform is more military spending and Obama wants to gut the military as much as possible.

Sorry Steve you are wishful thinking not thinking clearly here -- the differences between outliers like Webb and the heart of the Party which is Obama, Moveon, Code Pink, Soros, ANSWER etc. are just too great to be bridged. Everyone thought Bush ruined the Republican Party (he has, of course) but failed to see he also provoked the ruin of the Democratic Party by making those contradictions.

You can't have a Party that is Angry Black Nationalist/Marxist and "Born Fighting" culturally conservative Scots-Irish white populist. It's simply impossible.

Unknown said...

Ron:

I think the MSM saying, "politician."

Of course what they don't point out is that any white politician who speaks like an adult on race gets lynched. Look at Ron Paul.

Anonymous said...

I think McCain's slogan should be "Proud to be American!"

Or even Hillary could do it, she has that theme in her speeches.

I am still undecided as to which is worse, massive health welfare or continued funding of military intervention in the Mideast. I am still trying to figure out how serious Obama is about Affirmative Action.

So basically my choice is:

A. Pouring water into sand.
B. Pouring water into sand.
C. Pouring water into sand.
D. All of the above.

Anonymous said...

I find it hard to believe that the O-man would go with Webb who is on record in the WSJ(5/22/2000), 'Taking on the status of quotas' as saying this:
"Affirmative action, which originally sought to repair the state-induced damage to blacks from slavery and its aftermath, has within one generation brought about a permeating state-sponsored racism that is as odious as the Jim Crow laws it sought to countermand"
But if the O'man goes for it as a counterbalance for his inauthentic blackness...well then I'm down with that.

Truth said...

"I think McCain's slogan should be "Proud to be American!""

How about:

"Proud to be American
In Iraq
With my Guatamalan maid back home!"

Anonymous said...

From a Whiter White person:

Hilary Clinton attends the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington. So does Bill Clinton. Hillary suggests she would not have the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's controversial former minister, as her pastor.

But the senior pastor of her church has a very different take on how Americans should react to Wright.

The Rev. Dean Snyder wrote, "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society. He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism, and homophobia which still tarnish the American dream.

"To evaluate his dynamic ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the African-American church, which has been the spiritual refuge of a people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear.

"Those of us who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr. Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a critical time in America's history as we seek to repent of our racism. No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again to one another and not to distort one another's truth."


Problem solved.