So Who Shall We Blame? For Whom Shall We Cry?
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on September 17, 2008 at 7:47 AM in Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John McCain
Years ago, when we still lived in a 30 unit building, a next door neighbor blithely left her apartment with something burning on the stove. I was drying my hair in the bathroom, my husband was working out to music. We didn’t hear anything. We didn’t smell the smoke. But we heard a horrible, loud banging. We ran toward the living room. I was screaming, “We’ll turn off the music, stop the banging. Please!”
When a fireman burst through our door, a six and a half foot tall mountain clad in yellow with a large axe in his hands, the first words out of my mouth were “we have cats!!” He calmly said “Get them and get out.” We grabbed the carriers, and got a cat, two kittens and ourselves down to the lobby in thirty seconds flat. The firefighters were heroes and saved the entire building, except for the reckless neighbor’s kitchen.
Five minutes later it would have been a flashover and the whole building would have been gone. Gone. Five minutes.
When we returned to our home, aside from the door, there was no damage. None.
My hubby and I are real good at following instructions – when we get them from someone who knows what they are doing. We didn’t ask questions or hesitate. We knew we were in good hands and never looked back. That sense of safety, that calm, that knowledge is just something we could feel.
And I could not tell whether the fireman in the yellow mask shouting instructions at us was black or white. And I certainly didn’t care. I did what he told me to do because I trusted that he knew what he was doing.
Trust is not something you can buy. You cannot earn trust with threats. You can’t earn votes that way either.
Senator Biden is campaigning down south telling us we should vote for Obama because he is black. John Kerry said the same thing. Every time anyone criticizes this newbie Senator from Illinois on his various lies or flip flops, the DNC, the press and Obama’s campaign tend to unite in a chorus of the race card. So we’d better not criticize Senator Obama due to the color of his skin, but we should vote for him for that reason. Have I got that right?
Enough. This is nonsense. I care much more that Senator Obama reneged on FISA, touts Bush’s faith based initiatives, that he won through caucus fraud and received more from Wall St. than any other candidate. The color of his skin has no bearing here.
Russ Smith, in his Splice piece, The Audacity of Defeat, wonders:
What if the impossible happens and Obama loses the election? Among Democrats, expect a rash of rage, depression, angst and finger-pointing at the media.
Not among all Democrats. There’s a new T-shirt for sale. Expect me to be wearing it: Don’t blame me, I voted for Hillary. When that fire was raging in our building, they didn’t send a ‘Probie’ to our door to handle it. They sent someone who’s been through a few before. These pundit boobs act as if all Democratic candidates are interchangeable.
And how can any of Obama’s supporters finger point at the media? It’s been a love-fest from day one. We’ll be doing the finger pointing: Why did you not vet this guy? Why did you run so much interference for him? Why didn’t you fess up and tell the truth? Why didn’t you hold him to the same standards of accountability as the other candidates?
Here’s some more of Russ Smith’s nonsense for you:
New York magazine columnist Kurt Andersen, one of the few Beltway-Boston pundits who bashed Hillary Clinton a year ago, when her nomination appeared inevitable, was unstinting in his speculation of the fallout should Obama lose. He emailed me: “Even without post-November 4th rumors of rigged voting machines and the like, an Obama loss will be a deeply, traumatically depressing event for Democrats and other Obama enthusiasts. (Whereas if McCain loses, who will be seriously bummed outside of the McCain household?) There will be so many facets of potential unhappiness. That an eloquent, inspiring, intelligent, subtle black candidate lost—and if it’s close, it’ll be true that racism beat him… That the rest of the world will be reaffirmed in their belief that America is the land of nincompoops (or worse).”
Tom Bevan, co-founder of Real Clear Politics, was succinct: “Two words: Hari Kari. The base of the [Democratic] party is so vested in its nominee…that to lose in November would be one of the most demoralizing in the modern era.”
I’ll tell you who will be demoralized – Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Donna Brazile, Harry Reid and company – all the Dem elite thugs who kicked the best candidate to the curb so they could put their ‘empty vessel’ in charge of the clown car.
If Senator Obama, this ‘eloquent, inspiring, intelligent, subtle black candidate’ cannot run on anything but the race card, then there really isn’t much hope for change, is there? Furthermore I am really not concerned with what the rest of the world thinks. Certain other world leaders just might have an agenda of their own in voicing their opinions.
Kevin Ferris, in his article Don’t Cry Racism If Obama Loses writes:
…[S]ome are already bemoaning the rampant racism that might keep a black man from ascending to the presidency.
Hey, Barack Obama could not have clinched the nomination without votes from white Americans. The other party isn’t supposed to just concede the election based on skin color. Voters shouldn’t have to choose based on race when they disagree on issues or believe a candidate isn’t up to the job.
But expect to see the bemoaners looking to the heavens and saying, “We’re not ready.”
Baloney. Maybe it’s Obama who’s not ready and the people who recognize that – men and women, whites and blacks, Hispanics and Asians – are just fine.
The Democrats, who are always trumpeting that they are the party that gave me the “Right to Choose” took away my only sensible choice: Hillary, who we knew would win and left me with Obama, who we knew would lose once he had to go up against a real Republican candidate.
This is the gentleman the DNC insists I vote for:
(CNN) — It appears Barack Obama’s teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.
The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn’t use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.
But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.
Senator Obama goes to casual campaign rally stopovers and he needs a teleprompter to remember what the hell he is campaigning about? If, after twenty months of campaigning about the same issues, you don’t have enough authority over your own policies and heartfelt beliefs to stand up in a strong voice and share them with the American people; if you don’t trust yourself enough to deliver that information without a script – then why the hell should I trust you with my country, my military, my safety or my vote?
Senator Obama calls himself a uniter. Then why does he feel so divisive to me? The more I think about it the more he looks like someone designed to destroy the Democratic Party from within. And now it seems that Barack Obama, so arrogant about his money raising capabilities that he reneged on his pledge to use public financing, just informed Harry Reid that contrary to his earlier pledges, he will not be able to help Senators with their down ticket races.
And now, the pièce de resistance to close Russ Smith’s misguided article:
Finally, Tucker Carlson, the witty veteran of cable television shows, who’s been mercilessly and unfairly maligned by left-wingers, expressed an opinion that’s close to my own. “Even those who supported Hillary in the primaries will scold the rest of us for voting against a black man. They’ll be shrill and self-righteous, more even than usual, and they’ll never stop. It’s almost enough to make you want to vote for Obama, just so we won’t have to hear them.”
Tucker forgets that the majority of the Democratic base voted for Hillary. That’s the same Tucker who just a few months ago sat agape on MSNBC and said he was “in awe” of Hillary Clinton. He seems to forget that at least 30% of Hillary’s voters have already said they are voting for Senator McCain. That’s 5.4 million. I’m sure that number is growing by the day. And it will not be out of spite. It will be because we sincerely do not believe that Senator Obama is up to this task.
Kevin Ferris concludes:
Don’t assume racism because voters don’t think a junior senator with great potential but no major accomplishments is ready to be leader of the Free World and a wartime commander in chief.
He’s right. When I cry the morning after the election, my tears will not be for Obama. My tears will be for the Democratic Party, who unwisely pushed a self-described ‘blank slate’ forward in what should have been a no-lose year for the Democrats.
My tears will be for people who have so lost their way that they left someone with authority, knowledge, toughness, preparedness and compassion by the side of the road so they could hoist the emperor with no clothes on their shoulders.
by Ronald Scott
* More novels by 
* 
(
)
- You'll have access to 18 million movies, TV shows, songs, magazines, and books, as well as ultra-fast Web browsing with Amazon Silk -- faster than iPad. Full e-mail and document access and a keyboard. Fire can transmit what is on your screen onto a connected TV or monitor without an accessory. It runs Flash (iPad doesn't). 
Pingback: What Young Women Take for Granted | Hillary or Bust
Pingback: Hollywood’s Noblesse Oblige to us little guys, Race card in KS, Define Sleaziest, Chicago “Change” means more of the same and Dem platform member switches to McCain : NO QUARTER