Why Obama?
I'm driving to Nevada this weekend to canvass for Obama. Unlike get-out-the-vote phone banking this means talking with swing voters and trying to convince them to change their vote. To get myself prepared I've had to ask myself why I'm voting the way I am. These are my reasons.
Why Obama:
- The primary thing that's impressed me from the very ( Read more... )
For the infanticide point, "Obama's critics are free to speculate on his motives for voting against the bills, and postulate a lack of concern for babies' welfare. But his stated reasons for opposing "born-alive" bills have to do with preserving abortion rights, a position he is known to support and has never hidden." I do not have misgivings about this.
The "shady/racist allies" charge honestly seems like the pot calling a dump truck full of charcoal black. McCain has been publicly endorsed by the KKK and the amount of race-baiting fabrications coming out of the RNC (officially) and his staffers (unofficially) warrants its own post.
The fund raising shenanigans charge seems totally legit and is worth adding. FECA limits individual contributors to $2,300 per election cycle, and I know people who have exceeded this amount through regular $100-$200 donations every paycheck or so. (They're new to the political process and didn't realize there was a limit.) This seems like a serious problem, and I would support an investigation as long as it was an actual investigation and not trumped-up political theater like BlowjobGate.
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[2] Did McCain go and SEEK OUT the KKK for endorsement? If so, I stand corrected.
Obama has a disturbing history of willful association seeking out shady/racist miscreants - and each time he's caught, there's the familiar multi-stage denial ("I was never in church when Wright went off his meds and got all Black Supremacist/Evil Whitey Conspiracy" to "Ok, he's a racist piece of shit. But he's like an uncle!" to "Ok ok, he's a racist and I quit his church ... you happy NOW whitey?!")
[3] Fund raising shenanigans are interesting - the deliberate disabling of address verification (which is turned ON by default - you can't buy a $10 DVD with a fake addy) is pretty disturbing and there's no way to spin it as a good-faith error. By way of comparison, neither Clinton nor McCain websites allow non-matching billing addresses of CCs to go through, as it should be. Odd, nobody in news agencies seem to care.
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Sorry, but it seems like you're moving the goalposts. Which "shady/racist allies" on equal footing with the KKK did Obama "SEEK OUT"? Are those groups on par with the KKK for shadiness and racism? Are we talking about just Wright or are there other people? To avoid talking out my ass or bringing up irrelevant issues I have to know who specifically the "shady/racist allies" are.
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If you can't see the difference between having kooks chime in and say "yeah, I support [X]" and a politician seeking the company/blessings/$$$ of kooks, I don't know what to say.
Tony Rezko, convicted felon/slumlord, who bankrolled Barak's political career/sold property at sub-market rates to Obama.
Vile racist/conspiracy-monger Jerimiah Wright (AND the even more insane Phleger).
Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines (who bribed/donated to Obama's campaign and - mirable dictu, Obama voted against stronger regulation on mortgages by the likes of Fannie Mae).
So this is exactly the same as an unsolicited "well, the Klan's gotta throw down with somebody, and since we're obviously not going to back a black man, I guess we go with the old white dude?"
C'mon - I respect your thinking process and I know you can't possible equate those two in intellectual honesty (and I do appreciate that you amended the 'reservations' the whole fund raising shenanigans thing ... I'm convinced both sides are shady in their own ways, but Obama is the greater evil).
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You're telling me that the KKK fall under the same umbrella of "kooks" as Rezko or Wright? You're trying to morally equate the Klan and the Trinity United Church of Christ? Really now.
McCain's campaign and the RNC have targeted deliberate race-baiting and fear mongering messages to the communities most receptive to them. They have invited the KKK's endorsement all but explicitly.
Tony Rezko, convicted felon/slumlord, who bankrolled Barak's political career/sold property at sub-market rates to Obama.
And the damage here is ... what? Are you saying that because slumlord Rezko's developments collaped into disrepair, this indicates that Obama isn't sincere in his commitment to fighting poverty? Because Rezko and Levine split a kickback from a $50 million state pension deal Obama should be suspected of using government funds to personally enrich himself? No empty fear mongering. What does Rezko's association with Obama actually warn us to look out for?
Vile racist/conspiracy-monger Jerimiah Wright (AND the even more insane Phleger).
Obama got started community organizing in Chicago. He put down roots in the impoverished Chicago African-american community, which is a good place to start if you're looking to improve the lives of poor communities. And that particular community, like many others, reflects "the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America". You would be hard-pressed to find any religious community - black or otherwise - that does not espouse some crazy things because religious people say crazy things.
The secretary who works the switchboard at my office is African-American. I sought out an association with her because she's a very nice friendly person, and because I value her perspective as someone with a very different cultural background. That cultural background also happens to hold some bizarre beliefs about alleged conspiracies of the US government, fed to her by her black evangelical church in Inglewood. These conspiracies go much further than anything that Wright has said, and given the history of the African-American experience in our country and many other disparities those beliefs it's understandable where these misconceptions could come from. However wrong and reprehensible, are in my opinion "par for the course". Same for my libertarian friends, some of whom hold equally bizarre convictions. I bristle at the suggestion that Obama "associating with miscreants" tarnishes the honor of someone who explicitly rejects those beliefs because by your definition I also have "a disturbing history of willful association seeking out shady/racist miscreants" whose beliefs I also both reject and make excuses for.
Bush, McCain, Palin, and Hillary have all sought out the assistance of religious nuts who say crazy things. I'd rather it not be so, but that's what you get if you're going to involve your campaign with religious people.
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So many vague, empty words to parse here. How did Franklin Raines "bribe to Obama's campaign"? Which vote are you talking about? What are you saying this bill have accomplished?
The Raines connection is BUNK. A wild exaggeration. Exactly the sort of reality-detached exaggeration that reflects so poorly on McCain for raising it. Raines and Obama shared 'a couple of calls' in . Meanwhile Rick Davis, the McCain campaign's *CEO*, was the head of the Fannie/Freddie anti-regulation advocacy group.
I respect your thinking process and I know you can't possible equate those two in intellectual honesty.
I don't equate them at all. Obama is a progressive who works with impoverished people and encounters the ignorance endemic within it. He does not reinforce those beliefs. Obama's campaign has not released messages warning blacks to vote against the white man before "the chickens come home to roost" with another 9/11. (9/11 fearmongering is a Republican trope.) Obama's campaign hasn't said that a vote for McCain will help the government lie like they did about Pearl Harbor or Tuskeegee. (Even though Government lies like 9/11 are Republican plays.) Obama's campaign hasn't attempted to scare blacks into thinking that McCain will mistreat blacks even though Wright decries the treatment of Japanese during WW2 or the treatment of Native Americans. Obama has quelled these fears when he can and disowned those behind them when he can't.
In contrast, McCain's Republican base includes nontrivial numbers of fundamentalist christians, southern racists, and free market deregulators. McCain's campaign and the RNC have played to the basest of their base with whispering campaigns about muslims, terrorism, and xenophobia. Obama's campaign has tried to educate their base away from their ignorance when they can and has cut ties with bad people when they can't. McCain's campaign and the RNC have used targeted messages to these groups to inflame their prejudices and paranoia. The two are not equal at all.
ps; I haven't brought up John McCain's opposition to MLK Day, even though it would be advantageous and convenient for me to do so in this conversation, even though McCain himself took that stand in 1983 without any southern klansmen impress, because I don't actually believe that today's McCain holds extremist or racist beliefs. I think his party and campaign are pandering to groups that he finds objectionable out of necessity. I'd appreciate it if you gave Obama the same fair shake.
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No, but McCain sought out and accepted the endorsement of eschatological wackjob John Hagee. That guy is 10 times the danger to the country that Wright is.
Obama is not going to pursue any policies based on Wright-style rantings. Obama is not a Black Separatist and he is not a racist, evidenced by pretty much every word he has ever uttered and every action he has ever taken, and well illustrated by tongodeons Why Obama #8.
On the other hand, McCain is not only influenced by end-times, young-earth extremists, he actually chose one as his running mate.
And if you don't understand the nature of the pulpit hyperbole of Wright then you really, really, really don't understand anything about the on-the-street, in-the-pulpit reality of the African-American experience. IMO, that Obama can see, hear, and feel the justified anger and bitterness of black Americans while not buying into the illogic, paranoia, and extremism that it can breed is a testament to his clear-headed, pragmatic, post-partisan, and post-racial temperament.
The notion that Obama has lots of shady connections is a nice GOP talking point but the evidence just doesn't hold up. If Rezko, Wright, Ayers, Raines are the worst that can be found after tens of thousands of hours of GOP oppo research on a public official who has already written a lengthy autobiography then Obama is about as clean as you can get, especially in contrast to a member of the Keating 5 and someone who is married into a separatist militia group.
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