flatrat
10-05-2008, 01:21 PM
10/05/2008
I like Obama, but ...
I like Barack Obama. And on some level I'd like to think he's the one candidate who might be able to bridge the racial gap in this country to some extent. And a lot of us don't "cling to guns or religion" and would be fine with a president who doesn't look like the guys on the dollar bills.
But then I remember how very far to the left he is, and how well that's been concealed. And that's when I conclude he's not the one.
* * *
Now, about Bill Ayers ...
That would be Bill Ayers of the bomb-planting Weather Underground of three or four decades ago ... Bill "no regrets" Ayers ("I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough" is how he was quoted in The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001) or ... Bill "Kill all the rich people ... bring the Revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at" Ayers. Anyway, he's now a "distinguished professor of education" in Chicago and is married to his fellow terrorist Bernadine Dohrn (whose most famous quote is what she said in 1969 about what the Manson clan had done to Sharon Tate and friends: "Dig it - first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach. Wild!")
Dig it - that Bill Ayers. I bring him up not just because of his close and longstanding relationship with Mr. Obama, but because of Mr. Obama's attempt to pass him off, during one of the primary debates, as just somebody from the neighborhood he may run into once in a while. Not only did he serve on several boards with Ayers, for several years, but he also launched his political career in the Ayers-Dohrn living room in 1995.
Just somebody from the neighborhood, indeed. How cagey can you get? So how are we supposed to believe in the new, relatively moderate Barack Obama we've been seeing since the primary race ended?
* * *
And then there's the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom I bring up not because Mr. Obama had a close and long-term relationship with a guy who preached "God damn America!" but because he had a close and long-term relationship with a guy who preached that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus in order to kill black people. How destructive is that?
* * *
And then there's the missus. I understand that we're not voting for first lady, but we will get one, whichever way we vote.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who was proud of her country "for the first time in my adult lifetime" only a few months ago.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who told an audience at a rally, just last March, that America is a "downright mean" country.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who tells inner-city kids, "Don't go into corporate America. Work for the community. Be social workers." That may be fine when your husband's a senator and you pull in $317,000 a year working for a big hospital, but what kind of future are those kids going to have, working "for the community?"
Yes, I saw her convention speech - heck, they practically had her baking cookies on stage - but there still wasn't enough sweetness and light and smiling and waving to conceal her anger or her elitism.
* * *
And yet, I like Barack Obama. And on some level I'd like to think he's the one candidate right now, and the only candidate we're likely to see anytime soon, who might be able to bridge the racial gap in this country to some extent. And a lot of us would be proud to see a president who doesn't look like the guys on the dollar bills. And I think he'd be amazed at how many people in this country don't "get bitter," don't "cling to guns or religion" and would be happy to vote for "people who don't look like them."
I know Oprah says he's the one, but I'm afraid - with all that baggage - I can't agree.
Reach Glenn Richter at grichter@record-journal.com or (203) 317-2222
Oh, Glen....you're slinging mud again...
On The McCain camps deperate attempt to link Obama with Ayers, lacking a coherent plan to deal with the economy and considering McCain's ties to Phil Gramm.
Is Bill Ayers the Republican's Kevin Bacon?
Obama's "real" connection with Ayers is explained here:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html
The only hard facts that have come out so far are the $200 contribution by Ayers to the Obama re-election fund, and their joint membership of the eight-person Woods Fund Board. Ayers did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls requesting clarification of the relationship. Obama spokesman Bill Burton noted in a statement that Ayers was a professor of education at the University of Illinois and a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and continued:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
On Obama's connection to Rev Wright:
Obama distanced himself from Wright months ago. Its old news. Who's going to best fix the economy, assuming its fixable? That's new news. I agree, Glen, lets keep religion out of politics.
Hey Glen,
How about Gov Palin's involvement in an extreme fundamental church and her ties to the anti witchcraft pastor from Kenya? She believes humans co-existed with dinosaurs and supports the teaching of creationism along with science in our public schools. Lets not pull the "Reverend" card. Neither side wins.
How about Palin's ties to the extremist Alaska Independence party, and her husband's (the "first dude") membership in that secessionist organization? I laugh when Palin tries to call Obama unpatriotic, when they supported Alaska's secession from the United States. How patriotic is that? And she thinks Obama should be disqualified from running?
On first wives, how about Cindy McCain's stealing money from charity to support her drug habit? How about John McCain's abandonment of his "first" wife because she was damaged from a car accident? And whats wrong Michelle Obama telling kids to be a community organizer? Its certainly a more honest and honorable profession that being a Wall St CEO.
I like Glen Richter. he sometimes writes some good columns. On some level I think he might be a good columnist. But I dont know, he has all this Republican talking point "baggage."
I like Obama, but ...
I like Barack Obama. And on some level I'd like to think he's the one candidate who might be able to bridge the racial gap in this country to some extent. And a lot of us don't "cling to guns or religion" and would be fine with a president who doesn't look like the guys on the dollar bills.
But then I remember how very far to the left he is, and how well that's been concealed. And that's when I conclude he's not the one.
* * *
Now, about Bill Ayers ...
That would be Bill Ayers of the bomb-planting Weather Underground of three or four decades ago ... Bill "no regrets" Ayers ("I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough" is how he was quoted in The New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001) or ... Bill "Kill all the rich people ... bring the Revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at" Ayers. Anyway, he's now a "distinguished professor of education" in Chicago and is married to his fellow terrorist Bernadine Dohrn (whose most famous quote is what she said in 1969 about what the Manson clan had done to Sharon Tate and friends: "Dig it - first they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach. Wild!")
Dig it - that Bill Ayers. I bring him up not just because of his close and longstanding relationship with Mr. Obama, but because of Mr. Obama's attempt to pass him off, during one of the primary debates, as just somebody from the neighborhood he may run into once in a while. Not only did he serve on several boards with Ayers, for several years, but he also launched his political career in the Ayers-Dohrn living room in 1995.
Just somebody from the neighborhood, indeed. How cagey can you get? So how are we supposed to believe in the new, relatively moderate Barack Obama we've been seeing since the primary race ended?
* * *
And then there's the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom I bring up not because Mr. Obama had a close and long-term relationship with a guy who preached "God damn America!" but because he had a close and long-term relationship with a guy who preached that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus in order to kill black people. How destructive is that?
* * *
And then there's the missus. I understand that we're not voting for first lady, but we will get one, whichever way we vote.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who was proud of her country "for the first time in my adult lifetime" only a few months ago.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who told an audience at a rally, just last March, that America is a "downright mean" country.
And I'm afraid I'd rather not see a first lady who tells inner-city kids, "Don't go into corporate America. Work for the community. Be social workers." That may be fine when your husband's a senator and you pull in $317,000 a year working for a big hospital, but what kind of future are those kids going to have, working "for the community?"
Yes, I saw her convention speech - heck, they practically had her baking cookies on stage - but there still wasn't enough sweetness and light and smiling and waving to conceal her anger or her elitism.
* * *
And yet, I like Barack Obama. And on some level I'd like to think he's the one candidate right now, and the only candidate we're likely to see anytime soon, who might be able to bridge the racial gap in this country to some extent. And a lot of us would be proud to see a president who doesn't look like the guys on the dollar bills. And I think he'd be amazed at how many people in this country don't "get bitter," don't "cling to guns or religion" and would be happy to vote for "people who don't look like them."
I know Oprah says he's the one, but I'm afraid - with all that baggage - I can't agree.
Reach Glenn Richter at grichter@record-journal.com or (203) 317-2222
Oh, Glen....you're slinging mud again...
On The McCain camps deperate attempt to link Obama with Ayers, lacking a coherent plan to deal with the economy and considering McCain's ties to Phil Gramm.
Is Bill Ayers the Republican's Kevin Bacon?
Obama's "real" connection with Ayers is explained here:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherman_connection.html
The only hard facts that have come out so far are the $200 contribution by Ayers to the Obama re-election fund, and their joint membership of the eight-person Woods Fund Board. Ayers did not respond to e-mails and telephone calls requesting clarification of the relationship. Obama spokesman Bill Burton noted in a statement that Ayers was a professor of education at the University of Illinois and a former aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley, and continued:
Senator Obama strongly condemns the violent actions of the Weathermen group, as he does all acts of violence. But he was an eight-year-old child when Ayers and the Weathermen were active, and any attempt to connect Obama with events of almost forty years ago is ridiculous.
On Obama's connection to Rev Wright:
Obama distanced himself from Wright months ago. Its old news. Who's going to best fix the economy, assuming its fixable? That's new news. I agree, Glen, lets keep religion out of politics.
Hey Glen,
How about Gov Palin's involvement in an extreme fundamental church and her ties to the anti witchcraft pastor from Kenya? She believes humans co-existed with dinosaurs and supports the teaching of creationism along with science in our public schools. Lets not pull the "Reverend" card. Neither side wins.
How about Palin's ties to the extremist Alaska Independence party, and her husband's (the "first dude") membership in that secessionist organization? I laugh when Palin tries to call Obama unpatriotic, when they supported Alaska's secession from the United States. How patriotic is that? And she thinks Obama should be disqualified from running?
On first wives, how about Cindy McCain's stealing money from charity to support her drug habit? How about John McCain's abandonment of his "first" wife because she was damaged from a car accident? And whats wrong Michelle Obama telling kids to be a community organizer? Its certainly a more honest and honorable profession that being a Wall St CEO.
I like Glen Richter. he sometimes writes some good columns. On some level I think he might be a good columnist. But I dont know, he has all this Republican talking point "baggage."