A Long High Drive, Deep to Left Field…

Obama’s speech—the text is here. It’s brilliant stuff, and it’s enough to make you feel that it’s possible to be inspired by our politicians and leaders once again.

In a different time in this country, such oratory could be uplifting and remarkable and a true “moment.” But that was in an America ascending, not one in decline. Look for the major media outlets to chop up his words into packaged sound bites and turn them against him. Don’t you know we’re working toward “post-partisan,” and we’re already “post-racial,” and John McCain is a great hero guy who invited the media to his ranch for a BBQ?

Even before this speech, the takedown of Barack Obama had already begun. It’s a cynical, multi-faceted takedown. Just like the “swiftboating” of John Kerry served to not only destroy his candidacy but also deter any future soldiers—most particularly, those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan then and now—from talking about the wars they fought in or running for political office opposing the militaristic party, this takedown is designed to not only destroy Barack Obama’s candidacy but the candidacy of future African Americans as well. After all, no candidate can be taken seriously if they are not a regular churchgoer, and a serious African American candidate will have gone to—you guessed it—a black church that may have a pastor similar to Rev. Wright. And this takedown has an added bonus—the voters energized by Obama, particularly the young, will be disillusioned and cynical about the whole process, particularly if Obama is not the Democratic nominee. Those feckless young voters can never be counted on to show up at the polls anyway.

The America we’re in now has a president who, in his eighth and final year in office, still can’t speak coherently unless he’s taking down his political enemies or talking about bombing the crap out of other countries. There is no leadership and there hasn’t been for quite some time.

We’ll inevitably hear about how Obama’s speech wasn’t “enough” (what the hell is “enough”?), and there will be the continued knocks on him that he’s inexperienced, he’s all fluff, he’s not a leader. The words he spoke today demonstrate leadership, but leadership to the media is only dressing up to be a fighter pilot, making light of great tragedy, and talking about patriotism and wearing your flag pin and who’s unpatriotic and un-American.

And speaking of lack of leadership, where are Bush, McCain, and Clinton at on this whole issue? I realize that all three are white, Bush and McCain could care less for various reasons, and that Clinton (as well as McCain) are the immediate beneficiaries of any wounds to Obama, but the racial issues that Obama talks about in his speech, as he makes clear, affect all of us.

Their silence indicates to me that political gamesmanship still trumps issues that matter. After all the shit that’s happened in this country—9/11, Katrina, the Iraq war, the subprime mortgage meltdown—politics still beats everything. No one demonstrates any leadership and reaches over and says, we got your back, we understand, we want to fully understand, and we also want to help in any way we can to bridge the divides in this country. No, everyone else seems content to just watch it happen and benefit when the media picks out some gotcha moments so that, when Obama is kicked to the curb and they’re in position to be president (or, like Bush, actually are president), they can tell us how they are the one to breach the divides in this country.

Perhaps I’m being naïve here, but is it too much for Clinton and McCain to say, look, we want to win, but not this way because America doesn’t win this way?

Conservatives Question Obama’s Blockbuster Rentals and a Potential “Project Mayhem” Presidency

Breaking news

A leak of Barack Obama’s Blockbuster video rentals shows that, in the summer of 2000, he rented the controversial film Fight Club, and kept it for two nights. While Mr. Obama has denounced terrorism and claims he has no ties to radical Islam, the film shows a troubled young man who evolves from seeking an outlet for his rage in underground fighting clubs to becoming a full blown terrorist who destroys buildings. The film being out for two full nights—the maximum for new movies at Blockbuster during that time before incurring late fees—leads to trouble questions as to why Mr. Obama held the film for two evenings and did not return it the same night or even the next day.

A source close to the Illinois legislature, who prefers to remain unnamed due to the sensitive nature of his employment, claims that Mr. Obama may have watched the film more than once.

It is entirely possible, though, that Mr. Obama was not able to watch the film the first night, watched the film the first night but, aware of the rental deadline, decided to wait until after the second night to return it, or did not watch the film in its entirety or at all.

“Busy people like Mr. Obama often rent movies but end up not being able to watch them because of their time commitments,” said Jonathan Santos, a Democratic strategist.

Still, the rental and its return time raises serious questions about the Illinois senator.

“We have to seriously question Mr. Obama’s patriotism if he did not denounce this movie and did not return it sooner than he did,” said Fred Jackson, a Republican strategist. “The film Fight Club advocates open confrontation, hostility toward law enforcement officials, and ultimately terrorism in the form of Project Mayhem. A person who has not denounced this film and who did not return it to the movie rental store within what only be considered a reasonable amount of time is not fit to be president.”

“Considering the tragedy that befell this country on 9/11, I cannot believe that Mr. Obama rented this film and held onto it for two evenings,” says Vince Toughman, a fellow at the Center for Responsibility in the American Public. “My question to Mr. Obama is, do you love America?”

George Tallon, a Democratic consultant, notes, “The movie came out in the fall of 1999, the rental in the spring of 2000, and 9/11 didn’t happen until September of 2001. Mr. Obama rented the movie in the summer of 2000, more than a year before that great tragedy. To somehow tie his movie rental choices that occurred a year before 9/11 to that event is patently absurd.”

Still, it may be difficult to convince conservatives of Mr. Obama’s movie choices, where they may fall in the timeline with regard to 9/11, and his loyalty to America.

Sean Hannity of Fox News radio and television says, “We may have free speech in this country, but speech isn’t free. Mr. Obama, in light of this Blockbuster scandal, I demand that you end your candidacy now and save America from what can only be a disingenuous, potentially lethal Project Mayhem presidency.”

The Obama campaign could not be reached for comment.

The Wright Stuff, or How Democratic Presidential Candidates Get Destroyed by the Right Wing and the Media

I guess now with the furor over Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the supposedly incendiary pastor of Barack Obama’s church and the now-departed spiritual advisor to his campaign, we can at least lay to rest the “Obama is a Muslim!” nonsense, eh? Of course not, I’m sure! Yeah, it’s quite farcical to go from “serious” discussions about Obama’s Muslim-ness (is he or isn’t he? He says no but, is he or isn’t he? groan) to now the condemnation of Obama by proxy because of his pastor and some remarks he may have made on the pulpit. Yes, his pastor. The last time I checked, and I’m no theology scholar, Islam didn’t have pastors. I guess the media would’ve been able to supply the missing transition here if they weren’t spending time at John McCain’s ranch enjoying a BBQ.

Beyond the fact here that this is a classic guilt by association, and beyond the fact that we can expect practically zero coverage about John McCain’s church, his churchgoing habits, and any spiritual beliefs he may or may not have, though we’ll hear plenty of unsupported fluff stories about he’s a “man of faith” or “deeply spiritual” (and by the way, has anybody ever seen the supposedly born-again George W. Bush attend a church service at his church? Oh, that’s right, spiritual matters are supposed to be private, and it would be wrong to follow the man to church if he even goes), this is classic racial division politics. I was not convinced of this until I actually heard Rev. Wright speak (his “God damn America” line is being played over and over by all the major networks—surprise, surprise!). He is speaking following the tradition of black Christian churches in this country. As a white male, I have little experience with this beyond what I’ve seen on tv, but I get the general flavor of it and realize that it’s supposed to be inflammatory (in general, it follows the sort of “fire and brimstone” sort of preaching), it’s supposed to be theatrical and follow a certain line of rhetoric, and, like any belief system worth its salt, supposed to challenge both your secular and religious point of view. Taking anything literally and out of context from such sermons, I believe, misses the point.

It all leads to a racial-spiritual-generational narrative that is being built bit by bit by the right wing and perpetrated by the media and it’s designed to destroy Barack Obama, who is the one person right now closest to being the presumptive Democratic nominee. This narrative is a shady one, designed to paint Obama as some sort of radical, dark-skinned spiritual follower (you know, like those ones who flew planes into the World Trade Center) who is some sort of Manchurian candidate who hates America and is running to destroy us all! Tacked on to that is the issue of black spirituality, which is labeled as being either radical Muslim or the sort of radical Christianity that Rev. Wright is supposed to demonstrate. The ultimate goal of the right wing regarding what I talked about in the first paragraph is to rhetorically link both things: the “radical” black Muslims represented by Louis Farrakhan (and Malcolm X too—oh, no, the ‘60s and those lefty destroy America pinkos!) and the “radical” black Christians represented by Rev. Wright are one and the same and they are all out to destroy you and America. Indeed, the right wing has consistently had to deal with a black populace that has deep ties to Christian faith—a faith that the right wing, for all intents and purposes, has claimed as its own—but yet overwhelmingly votes against them (probably more so than any other major demographic group). So, the only thing to do is discredit them, paint them as fake Christians, which, of course, is tied to some supposed hatred of America.

This is all garbage, of course, but it’s being played out right now. Whether it’s Obama supposedly plagiarizing Deval Patrick’s words (a black man as a thief), questions about Obama’s patriotism (he doesn’t always wear a flag pin or put his hand over his heart when the national anthem being played—a black man as America-hating radical), Obama trying drugs in his younger years (black man as drug addict), or, even our own side engaging in this, Geraldine Ferraro and her comments last week (Geraldine Ferraro? Geraldine Ferraro? Has anybody even seen her since 1984?), it’s about race and it’s designed to further divide us by people who take their talking points straight from the likes of Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News, and the ultimate goal is to destroy Barack Obama.*

Really, I’d like to hear what the candidates have to say about Bear Stearns, the state of the economy, and how they will either provide some relief in what is looking to be ugly economic times. Not in this time or country, I suppose. Perhaps this time next year, when the election is over and the wrong person is president and the economy is in even worse shape, we’ll read stories about how the candidates should’ve focused on the economy.

*To be fair, if Hillary Clinton were in Obama’s position right now, the narrative would be as destructive, but it would be led by gender not race. It would still be tied to some sort of radicalness, and it would probably have ties to the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, other than her husband, no one currently alive in America has been scrutinized more, but they’ll either regurgitate the old stuff or make up shit. If it were John Edwards, it would be about lawyers (an acquaintance of his probably defended a person who was somehow thought to be connected to terrorists), hair cuts, and how Edwards’s wealth makes him a hypocrite to be an advocate for the lesser off. It doesn’t matter who the Democratic candidate is, this person will be assailed by the right-wing led media. The cumulative effect of years and years of this nonsense is that Democrats are terrible people who hate America and Republicans are great, patriotic people who you want to have a drink with.