For Obama to be Uniter, He Must Challenge Left-wing Hate
It wasn’t just Biden’s whining about his rough treatment by Barbara West that struck me in the video I linked earlier today. It was also that he lashed out at John McCain for running a negative campaign, as if the only nastiness this cycle came from the Republican side.
His comments remind me of some of the e-mails I get from Obama supporters. They bemoan the mean-spiritedness, even the racist tone of the Republican campaign. But, when they provide examples, they either reference a strange comment from some insignificant party hack or include a long anti-Republican screed from a left-wing blog. The tone of the post, its very language is as vicious as they accuse us of being.
They seem oblivious to the vitriol in their own e-mails. And on their own side.
Yes, there has been some hateful rhetoric on the right, but it pales in comparison to that we have seen on the left. Just take a gander at the high-traffic conservative web-sites and compare them to the high-traffic sites on the left.
If Biden and his running mate want to unite this nation should they win next week, they’ll have to take stock of the venom coming from a good number of their supporters. If, as my recent interlocutor claimed, Obama can bring us together, he’ll have to stand up to the most hateful of his supporters and tell them to show more respect for their ideological adversaries.
To be sure, as John Hinderaker puts it, “Barack Obama can’t be blamed for all of his followers’ vile actions, but, like it or not, he trails in his wake a howling mob of barbarians.” While Obama can’t be blamed for their actions or rhetoric, he can at least express his displeasure at such conduct. And if he truly seeks to lead this nation, he will.
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There’s a saying that you have to dance with the guy who brought you. Obama can no more repudiate left-wing hate than Howard Stern can repudiate trash-talk.
Comment by V the K — October 27, 2008 @ 8:10 pm - October 27, 2008
If Obama is elected, the very first challenge he will face is the avalanche of Left-wing crazies who are convinced that they won him the Oval Office. You better believe that they’ll want the piper to be paid.
Comment by Right Turn — October 27, 2008 @ 8:17 pm - October 27, 2008
Furthermore, I’ve not seen anything that would lead me to believe that Obama would WANT to repudiate the crazies. It took him weeks to repudiate Jeremiah Wright, and only after it had been made patently obvious that it was utterly killing him.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — October 27, 2008 @ 8:20 pm - October 27, 2008
Speaking of the Obamanazis and the media, go to NewsBusters.org and catch FNC’s Megyn Kelly making mincemeat out of The Snob’s talking head. Priceless!
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — October 27, 2008 @ 8:43 pm - October 27, 2008
North Dallas, it took Obama twenty years to repudiate The Reverend Wright…. and, he still says that he didn’t hear what Wright was preaching from the pulpit.
Comment by Swampfox — October 27, 2008 @ 8:47 pm - October 27, 2008
The Dems (more so than the Reps) have cultivated a variety of left-wing crazies – many with incompatible agendas. I’ve long wondered how they will “ride that tiger” – I’m afraid we may get to find out.
Comment by SoCalRobert — October 27, 2008 @ 9:00 pm - October 27, 2008
#1 is right. Unite what?!? Your time will be better spent anticipating how GOP Senate Judiciary Cttee members can best grill Barry’s SCOTUS nominees.
Comment by Jeremayakovka — October 27, 2008 @ 9:18 pm - October 27, 2008
As long as the left is allowed to persevere in its self-righteous claim to “justice,” they will have neither motive nor reason to rein in their own:
from Rick Moran’s site:
[T]here came a point where Obama rejected radicalism as a solution and thought to remake the Democratic party – to mainstream some of his ideas – by adopting the tactics of the New Left (framing social change and economic redistribution as questions of “fairnessâ€). This is exactly what the New Party was attempting to do; pull the Democratic party further left by offering up candidates who believed not in Marxism but New Left ideas of “social justice.â€
Comment by Jeremayakovka — October 27, 2008 @ 10:49 pm - October 27, 2008
“Unite” will not be an option. Cf. Thomas Sowell’s “Obama and ‘The Left’” (emphases added):
A candidate who spends two decades promoting polarization and then runs as a healer and uniter, rather than a divider, forfeits all trust by that fact alone.
If Ronald Reagan had attempted to run for President of the United States as a liberal, the media would have been all over him. His support for Barry Goldwater would have been in the headlines and in editorial denunciations across the country.
No way would he have been able to get away with using soothing words to suggest that he and Barry Goldwater were like ships that passed in the night.
If Barack Obama had run as what he has always been, rather than as what he has never been, then we could simply cast our votes based on whether or not we agree with what he has always stood for.
Some people take solace from the fact that Senator Obama has verbally shifted position on some issues, like drilling for oil or gun control, since this is supposed to show that he is “pragmatic” rather than ideological.
But political zig-zags show no such moderation as some seem to assume. Lenin zig-zagged and so did Hitler. Zig-zags may show no more than that someone is playing the public for fools.
Some people who see the fraud in what Obama is saying are amazed that others do not. But Obama knows what con men have long known, that their job is not to convince skeptics but to enable the gullible to continue to believe what they want to believe. He does that very well.
Comment by Jeremayakovka — October 27, 2008 @ 11:09 pm - October 27, 2008
I’m not trying to be obtuse, but can someone please cite some examples? Cus I cant think of any.
Comment by American Elephant — October 27, 2008 @ 11:22 pm - October 27, 2008
Bueller? Anyone? Bueller?
Comment by American Elephant — October 28, 2008 @ 5:57 pm - October 28, 2008
[...] Interesting? Proceed here. [...]
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