It will be interesting to see how quickly the wind goes out of Obama’s campaign now that the death stroke of Jeremiah Wright’s very racist rhetoric, tacitly supported by Obama for 20 years, has hit the news.
“Obama warned against injecting race into the campaign.” That’s funny. Obama himself has injected it, and has been for 20 years. One of Obama’s main selling points, and why he has enjoyed a much higher level of support among whites as opposed to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton is that he has positioned himself as not being just another black race hustler, more concerned with the victimhood of his race and the politics of payback for centuries of white oppression.
Now, with one fell swoop, Reverend Wright has destroyed all that.
One of the main impediments to racial equality in people’s minds, as opposed to just in laws and constitutional amendments and acts of Congress, is the fact that black vote as a bloc, and mostly for other blacks, eschewing white politicians as being unable to adequately represent the black point of view.
This is reciprocated, by and large, by a white population who suspects, with good reason, that a black politician in a national office would work to support black interests over white interests.
The truly odious language promulgated by Wright spells out in the most lurid tones exactly what white voters fear is in the hearts of a black politician.
This is why this issue, not Rezko or Obama’s many foreign policy gaffes or Hillary’s jibes, has the power to destroy his candidacy, by proving it to Obama to be as venal and race-centric as Jesse Jackson or Farrakhan or Malcolm X ever were.
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And the fact that Obama’s support is largely based, at least on the white voters’ side, on hype and glory and a fanatical obsession with the idea that he transcends race and old fashioned politics as usual, and the old indentity brand of politics, dooms him.
I look for his numbers to crash and burn. A 20%+ loss in Pennsylvania. A greater than expected loss in the remaining primaries, possibly even in N. Carolina, where blacks were expected to bouy him into a double-digit win.
Obama has succeeded in doing to himself what the Clintons’ had hoped to do underhandedly: paint him as the “black candidate”, whose main interest is payback for the black victims of white America. His wife has been saying this for a while, but its mainly stayed under the radar. Now its out in the open for all to hear and see on YouTube and elsewhere.
“God Damn America” is the tightest soundbyte that encompasses the entire message of Rev. Wright, and one that will stick with and influence any Democrat voter who even considered voting for Obama based on the fact that he was different. In fact, the entire raison d’ etre for his campaign and his success so far.
Pastor Jeremiah Wright, who has become part of the national political dialogue in recent days, is viewed favorably by 8% of voters nationwide. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 58% have an unfavorable view of the Pastor whose controversial comments have created new challenges for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign.
Wright was Obama’s Pastor until he retired last month, but Obama has repudiated the preacher’s comments.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters say that Wright’s comments are racially divisive. That opinion is held by 77% of White voters and 58% of African-American voters. In addressing the issue, Obama warned against injecting race into the campaign .
Most voters, 56%, said Wright’s comments made them less likely to vote for Obama. That figure includes 44% of Democrats. Just 11% of voters say they are more likely to vote for Obama because of Wright’s comments.
However, among African-Americans, 29% said Wright’s comments made them more likely to support Obama. Just 18% said the opposite while 50% said Wright’s comments would have no impact.
Overall, voters are evenly divided as to whether Obama should resign his membership in the Church—42% say that he should while 40% disagree. White voters, by a 46% to 33% margin, say that Obama should leave the Church. African-American voters, by a 68% to 16% margin, say he should not. Wright retired last month as Pastor of the Church.
The story became big news in the past several days and has had at least a temporary impact on public perceptions of Obama. Last Thursday, 52% of voters nationwide had a favorable opinion of Obama. That figure has fallen to 47% on Monday (see recent daily results). In recent days, Obama has also lost ground to John McCain in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters say they have read, seen, or heard news stories about Wright’s comments.
Look at the disparity in percentages: One gets the impression Obama could rape and murder a white teenage girl at high noon in Times Square and 90% of blacks would be more likely to vote for him. This is the OJ syndrome: any time anything, absolutely ANYTHING is presented that negatively portrays a powerful black man, the tribe mentality kicks in.
Not to say whites are immune, but obviously less likely to be bound by it. If not, why didn’t whites vote for Hillary! in percentages blacks did for Obama?
Now, all that will change, and I think we’ll begin to see that Obama’s entire campaign was based not on the Audacity of Hope as much as Hype.
Never one to avoid embracing a loser, especially once they’ve proven they are dead meat, Kos doubles down on dissing, discarding and disgarding Hillary! Do we need any more proof Obama is toast?
Ok, I understand there are race divisions in this country and I, as the child of white middle class parents will never understand the drama and problems of a mixed race child, and the conflict and turmoil and unspoken injuries real and perceived inflicted upon poor Barry Obama.
What I don’t understand is why all this means we owe him the presidency. There are a lot of ills in this country. I don’t we should elect a president based on payback to one ethnic group or race in an attempt to “heal” divisions. I don’t think it works anyway. It just makes them worse.
Obama, far from helping heal racial divisions in this country, has set them back with his cynical pander, demagogue and guilt politics.
He may have moved the date when a person with a black parent can be elected in this country without stirring up racial rancor back decades. And he did it for his own selfish pride and ambition.
Thanks a lot, Barry.
this guy jacked my post title! I had it a day earlier!
(jk, I’m sure someone used it before I thought of it, was just funny I ran into this post today)