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In May, 2006, I was asked to write some political articles by The Huffington Post. Many of my articles also run in RealClearPolitics.com (RCP). All of them are archived here and on PoliticalMavens.com.

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Apr 18, 2008
Liberal Mirror on the Wall
To supporters of Barack Obama or Hillary supporters who would vote for Obama if he becomes the nominee:

Can you look into the mirror and say you support a candidate who associates, not casually, with:

1) The unrepentant, former terrorist, William Ayres. He blew up buildings as a member of the radical Weathermen.

2) The unrepentant, angry-at-whites/America-had-it-coming, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. You're not buying Obama's little jig that he 'wasn't there' or 'didn't know' what the good Reverend said now are you? This same church honored Louis Farrakhan in 2007 as a man who "truly epitomized greatness".

A president shouldn't be a member of a church like this.

3) The indicted Tony Rezko, who clearly tried to buy influence with the willing candidate.

A president doesn't buy his home with the monetary help of a well-known, shady 'fixer'.

Are you really comfortable with Michelle Obama not being proud of America as an adult? She felt no pride as an American when she heard how Todd Beamer said "Let's Roll" when trying to overcome the terrorists on the plane that went down in Shankesville, Pennsylvania?

No pride, when the Berlin Wall came down, freeing hundreds of millions of people, because of Ronald Reagan's tough policies towards Socialism? Is "no pride in America" what you want in a First Lady?

Can you overlook the "post-racial" Obama's revealing "typical white people" slip? Imagine if John McCain had said "typical black person" in an interview: The race would've been over.

Can you overlook the candidate's personal trashing of his living grandmother, as a way to deflect attention from his association with Reverend Wright? If he would throw overboard the woman who sacrificed all to raise him and give him a good life, why should we think he'd be loyal to America? He can't even bring himself to wear a small pin with an American flag on it!

Can you overlook the clearly elitist sentiments that small town America is a bunch of gun and G-d-loving nuts? Oops, scratch that: most on the left already do think that.

The powers of denial on the left are notoriously strong and the aforementioned will probably not be enough to make Democrats quit Obama...yet.

Still, it's staggering that liberals can look at themselves everyday and say they are backing a candidate with such disturbing associations.

Comments | Post a Comment

Your latest article bashing Obama is nothing but rumor and innuendo,like virtually everything conservatives have been writing about him.I don't know if Obama would be a good president or not; I can't rule out the possibility.But he couldn't be worse than the jerk who will fortunately soon be leaving the White House. I'm not a knee jerk liberal:there are left-wingers who contemptible idiots,but there are plenty of conserva- tives who are just as bad or even worse. Conservatives have been screaming bloody murder over Rev. Wright. Admittedly what he said was awful. But conservative politicians and couintless others of the right routinely attend sermons by fire-breathing fundamentalist preachers who say far worse things in every sermon.They spew intolerance against gays,foster homophobia, demonize any one who does'nt fit their narrow world view. And Oklahoma politician Sally Kern made a stupefyingly idiotic and bigotted speech claiming that "gays are a greater threat to America than terrorism". Where was the conser- vative outrage here? The silence was deafening. And many evangelicals came to the defense of this Oklahoma idiot.

Appalling! Conservative commentators are doing everything in their power to demonize and vilify Obama, and truth is being sacrificed.Everything he says is taken out of context and misrepresented.

And all manner of rumors are being blindly accepted by conservatives. I'm not saying Obama would be a perfect president;of course not. But I think McCain,though basically a good man,might be a disaster. He claims to be "pro-life",but this merely means that he is antichoice. Does he really think that abortion will cease if it becomes illegal in the US? Apparently, just like all other deluded anti-choicers. How the heck will the government enforce the law if this happens? There is absolutely no way to do this.Women will seek and obtain abortions whether they are legal or not And many will be gravely harmed or die, just the way the routinely do in poor countries where abortion is illegal. And some anti-abortion fanatics want to make contraceptives illegal in the US. What a bunch of self-righteous idiots! This would only INCREASE abortions and create a black market in contraceptives. And if anti-choice politicians are so determined that all unwanted children be born,why don't they see to it that every pregnant woman, and her whole family get decent food, shelter,clothing education and medical care? But noo- that's socialism,and we don't want that in the US, do we? What a bunch of hypocrites.

Let's face it, as bad as some Democratic politicians are,and some Democratic policies,the whole right-wing agenda is the real threat to freedom and prosperity in America.

Robert Berger,an angry moderate.

Posted by: Robert Berger at April 23, 2008 9:04 AM

Robert wrote: "Appalling! Conservative commentators
are doing everything in their power to
demonize and vilify Obama".

Um, no --OBAMA is "demonizing" himself: HE is friends with the anti-American, anti-white, "Reverend" Wright; HE is friends with the American terrorists William Ayres: HE is married to a woman who says American "souls are broken" and that she hasn't been proud of America in her adult life. HE belittles smalltown Americans as those that "cling" to G-d and guns because they are so depressed about their prospects in this country. The right doesn't need to "demonize" Obama: he's doing a great job HIMSELF.

Robert wrote: "and truth is
being sacrificed. Everything he says is taken out of context and misrepresented."

No, in fact, if it weren't for conservative talk shows, we wouldn't know of Obama's marxist leanings and his associations with former, unrepentant terrorists, HATE-spewing "spiritual leaders", Hamas sympathizers and shady real estate, wheeler-dealers (Tony Rezko). You should be thanking talk radio instead of burying your head in the sand (as liberals are wont to do) about who you want Obama to be as opposed to who he really is.

Posted by: Seth at April 23, 2008 9:23 AM

Thank God people don't blame me for the crimes of others I may have talked with or been in a room with at one time or another. You say Ayers blew up buildings. Did he? Was he convicted of ANYTHING?

BTW, can you point me to a picture of John McCain wearing a flag lapel pin? It's a shame patriotism has been reduced to a clothing accessory or bumper sticker. I'm reminded of the words of John Prine:

Your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Posted by: Bill at April 24, 2008 11:36 AM

So by your logic, John McCain isn't loyal to America, because I don't see him wearing a flag pin either. BTW, where's yours?

Bill

Posted by: Bill at April 24, 2008 3:23 PM

Bill wrote:

"So by your logic, John McCain isn't loyal to America, because I don't see him wearing a flag pin either. BTW, where's yours?"

Um, Obama is the only one making an issue of wearing a pin or not. First, he wore one. Then, he didn't. Then, he made an issue of not wearing one. Obama's a phony: he is trying to distract Americans into thinking he's a "post-racial" candidate, all while attending (and giving $26,000) to a church headed by a pastor who is an out and out racist. Obama is a classic "victim", in the way Democrats are comfortable with victimhood.

He always blames others when he loses --like in Pennsylvania, where he outspent Hillary 3-1 , running approximately 11,000 commercials: and then he got trounced by 10 points. Why? Because Pennsylvanians don't approve of his "friendship" (Obama's campaign's word) with the unrepentant former terrorist, William Ayres and his pastor Reverend Wright.

The coddling (of Obama) press while try and distract you as will Obama, but he will lose because Americans will never vote for someone who thinks of Americans as those with 'broken souls' (his wife, Michelle's words) or who associates with truly vile people.

Please, skip me ahead to November so I can witness McGovern II.

Posted by: Seth at April 24, 2008 9:10 PM

Seth, I have to say your commentary borders on the comical. It's almost like you're playing a character like Steven Colbert, only not funny.

When Obama is the nominee, much to the chagrin of the republicans, the DNC is going to pummel McCain on HIS endorsements, HIS anger issues, HIS fistfight with Congressman Rick Renzi, not to mention the Keating Five, his wife's addiction to painkillers and him calling her the "c" word in public. Not to mention his flip-flopping on the majority of the issues. Meanwhile, the public will be fatigued with the right's flogging of Rev. Wright and whether or not Obama wears a flag pin.

The right doesn't know how to handle Obama. First, he was too black. Then he wasn't black enough. Then it was: "He's a Muslim". Then after the Rev. Wright revelation he obviously wasn't a Muslim so they made him a radical black Christian. Now the rightwing would like you to believe Barack Obama is a weather underground bomber! They know he won't raise taxes on the middle class, but they have to make you believe that he will. Since they can't "get him" on something he is they keep trying to get him on something he isn't.

In the end, I believe the American people are smarter than the republican's give them credit for. McCain is more of the same. As Reagan said: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago". In case you need to be told--the answer is "no".

Posted by: Bill at April 27, 2008 10:26 PM

Uh, Seth, isn't it a case of the pot calling the kettle black when you call Obama "elitist." Supporting a president whose policies favor the richest 1/10th of one percent of the population -- That's elitist. More smug regurging of Fox News talking points. Look ALL of the candidates suck. The reason they suck is that none of them have any program to begin to take on the challenges ahead. Like you, they are generally happy with the status quo (campaign rhetoric aside).

While we're talking about it, who the heck are you to say that blacks in this country should not be angry? It's great that you're proud to be an Amerikun, but some folks get queasy about torturing prisoners, laying waste to countries, ignoring victims of natural disasters, etc. Are you proud of the heritage of slavery? Or the fact that black people's income in this country relative to white's hasn't changed much in fifty years (and it wasn't good then)?

Posted by: Lev Bronstein at April 29, 2008 3:14 PM

Lev wrote:

"Uh, Seth, isn't it a case of the pot calling the kettle black when you call Obama "elitist." Supporting a president whose policies favor the richest 1/10th of one percent of the population -- That's elitist."

The top 5 per cent pay over 50 % of all taxes in America. Your class warfare play, is predictable. The left uses it all the time to try and rile people up. But,in fact, 60 per cent of Americans think the tax system is fair.

"More smug regurging of Fox News talking points."

More 'blame the messenger'.

"Look ALL of the candidates suck."

Senator McCain doesn't 'suck': in fact, he's a hero. He comes from a long line of American heroes in his family that fought for your right to be silly.

"The reason they suck is that none of them have any program to begin to take on the challenges ahead. Like you, they are generally happy with the status quo (campaign rhetoric aside)."

I'm not happy with the status quo: I want a direct confrontation with Iran so that they don't use the nukes they are building with Tel Aviv's address on it. Conservatives face reality while liberals bury their heads in the sand and behind deeply phony bumper stickers like "War is not the answer". Would you have said that to Hitler? McCain is addressing "Iran" --by far the most important issue in this campaign, all while Obama is addressing Reverend Wright.

"While we're talking about it, who the heck are you to say that blacks in this country should not be angry?"

Why should they be angry? Would they be better off living in, let's say, Angola or Rwanda? They should feel lucky that they live in this country, and I presume that the vast majority of black Americans do feel that way -- just as the majority of white people, I assume, feel lucky to be living in the (by far) freest country in the history of mankind --even if, you don't appreciate that fact.

"It's great that you're proud to be an Amerikun, but some folks get queasy about torturing prisoners..."

You must mean, getting ilife-saving information out of terrorists who want to kill Americans...

"laying waste to countries..."

You must mean, giving tens of millions of formerly tortured peoples (like the Iraqis) FREEDOM --oh, what a terrible thing to do!

"ignoring victims of natural disasters"

You must be referring to the deeply incompetent New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Blanco, those that should have had their acts together, Re: "Hurricane Katrina".

"Are you proud of the heritage of slavery? "

I'm not a guilty liberal, no. It happened, it's been over for 150 years, 600,000 men fought and died to end it: it makes me proud of America to see a wrong and right it.

"Or the fact that black people's income in this country relative to white's hasn't changed much in fifty years (and it wasn't good then)?"

Must you be so factually challenged? There is more black home ownership than at anytime in history. Moreover, a "black GDP" would make black America the 16th wealthiest country in the world. But, the liberals beat into you that blacks are victims and you buy it hook, line and sinker. You gotta do better Lev than these comments: very weak arguments.

Posted by: Seth at April 29, 2008 7:50 PM

Ok. You got me. If by "free" you mean "dead" or "free from having a place to live", The US has REALLY brought freedom to Iraq. Geez. When you're country is in ruins, there is a civil war, 2.4 million are displaced, hundreds of thousands are dead, "freedom" is an abstract concept. Do you not understand this?

BTW I am not a liberal -- liberals shun class warfare -- I do not.

Seth, do you ever measure your quality of life against people in Angola? What kind of a standard is that? If you suddenly had to live on a median US income would you be satisfied?

As for the 5% that pay 50% of US taxes -- I'm guessing that they also earn at least 50% of the income -- but the idea of a progressive income tax is that people at the high end of the income curve can more readily afford to pay higher tax bills.

You don't dispute my facts, just cherry pick other facts. Black home ownership is up? How about black bankruptcy and foreclosure?

You like to kid yourself that we live in a meritocracy -- therefore you deserve your privilege. I don't bedgrudge it, man. I do however detest your self-serving apoligies for politicians that commit heinous crimes against humanity.

While we are at it here is a pop quiz.

Q: Name the country that was instrumental in the brutal Saddam Hussein's rise to power.

A: If you guessed the USA, you're right! (The CIA supported his rise in the baath party)

Q: Name the country that actually gave so-called WMD's to Saddam.

A: That would be the USA, again. We sold him nerve gas to fight Iran in the 80's.

The US never cared about what a butcher Hussein was until the Gulf War -- which was about flexing US military might in the mideast. I think that the current war with Iraq is a similar exercise, but carried out with a much higher degree of incompetence and hubris (and, perhaps brutality).

One last question for you, Seth. Remind me again how torture helps foster freedom?

Posted by: Lev Bronstein at April 30, 2008 11:51 AM

Seth--you forgot one thing in your assessment of who a president should or shouldn't associate with.

A president shouldn't associate with members of a terrorist's family. The Bush's are great friends of the bin Ladens. If you don't think Obama sitting on a board with William Ayres is appropriate, then you must have been outraged when you found out how cozy the Bush family is with the bin Ladens.

Posted by: Bill at April 30, 2008 12:22 PM