Tuesday’s Election Battle
By Larry Johnson on November 4, 2008 at 3:45 AM in Current Affairs
We will find out today whether or not the Washington Redskins are a bell-weather or not. Conventional wisdom holds that if the Redskins lose their last game before the election then the party in power (i.e., holding the White House) will be ousted. After Monday night’s lackluster show by the Skins (on national television no less), who were beaten by their own mistakes by a tough Pittsburgh Steeler team, I heard some fans speculating in the stands that the Redskin’s Coach, Jim Zorn, must be an Obama supporter because he did such a lousy job of preparing for this game. Redskins lost and that should hearten Obama supporters.
Anyway, despite the media and punditry certainty that Barack Obama and the Democrats will triumph today there are some signs that the best laid plans of Keith Olbermann and Chris “Tingle-leg” Matthews might be derailed. There are a sizeable number of Democrats who backed Hillary Clinton that don’t buy into the Hopey Changey mantra of Barack Obama and are disgusted by how the Democratic establishment sold out Hillary in the primaries–where she won more actual votes than Barack. Then there is the case of the undecideds. A surprisingly large number of folks in several key states have told pollsters they are not sure who they are going to vote for. My guess is most of these folks don’t want to admit they are voting for McCain rather than Obama, fearing that they would be labeled a racist or not part of the enlightened masses.
The other thing many Democrats forget is that the Democrats control the House and the Senate and that the favorability rating of Congress is lower than even George W. Bush. How much of an incompetent are you if you are considered worse than Bush? Which brings me to Barack Obama.
I hope I am wrong. I hope that Barack Obama is not just a prettified Chicago political hack with a smooth speech and calming manner who has never put principle over political opportunity. He had many opportunities as a state legislator in Illinois to speak out against the rampant political corruption in Chicago, but kept silent. He had twenty years to hear the rantings of Jeremiah Wright and could have challenged his anti-Semitic, anti-American rants, but did nothing until the real Reverend Wright was exposed thanks to video recordings of his many sermons. And even then Barack dissembled. He never heard a single discouraging word from Wright’s pulpit.
Barack had no qualms about accepting the money and help of Tony Rezko, a convicted felon, even when Barack knew that Rezko was facing a Federal corruption investigation. In fact, we now have clear evidence that Barack lied about the purchase of his mansion in Chicago. He got the equivalent of a bribe from Tony Rezko and this case will dog him for the duration of his Presidency should he be elected.
Barack had no problem seeking the help and support of Louis Farrakhan. I give Obama credit for being a smart politician who knew he had to pander to the likes of Farrakhan in order to win his first race in Chicago and take out one of Barack’s political mentors, Alice Palmer. But that is old-style, hardball politics, not a new vision that we want for the rest of America.
Barack also made a conscious decision to befriend, cultivate, and fund some of the most radical groups in America. He has covered up and lied about his longstanding friendship and business association with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. He has hidden his support for former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi and sat in gatherings with folks who talked wistfully about destroying Israel. We can point to no instance where Barack Obama stood up and challenged the hate and anti-Semitic rantings of these folks. Barack found a way to use them to get what he wanted. The end always justified the means it would seem in Barack’s utopian world.
Some want to give Obama a pass for these past associations. They insist these events tell us nothing about his judgment. Nope. His disciples recite chapter and verse that he wants to rid our country of “politics” as usual. Except he participated without a word of condemnation as his campaign unleashed vile, misogynist attacks on Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. He said nothing to challenge the bullshit charge that Bill Clinton was a racist. He stayed silent while John McCain was equated with elements of the KKK.
Old style politicians have enemy lists and carry out vendettas. But Obama does not do that. Right? Well, we did see his campaign savage a middle class American, Joe Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber, for having the audacity to ask “Mr. New Politics” about his plans to redistribute wealth in the United States. And his campaign did toss three major American newspapers off of his campaign plane because they dared to endorse John McCain. That’s the “new” politics we can expect from Obama if he is elected? God help us.
Barack also spoke sternly about the evils of lobbyists and earmarks while taking money from those lobbyists and their firms and proving that he loved earmarks as much as most members of Congress. I don’t fault him for seeking earmarks. That, in my view, is an appropriate thing for a legislator to do for his constituents. What bothers me is the blatant, audacious hypocrisy. Worse, the media by and large is happy to ignore the discrepancy between his words and his actions and have been complicit in spreading the myth of the “Man Above Politics.”
If Obama wins I wish him success and long life. I hope he proves me wrong and becomes one of the great Presidents in America’s history. But I am from Missouri. I was born and raised in Independence. I attended Middle School across the street from Harry Truman’s home and chanced to see Harry Truman walking the streets of my hometown accompanied by his elderly, portly body guard, Mike Kelly. You have to show me. I do not buy the words. I don’t think words matter. I think that words must match action in order to matter.
It is because of these reservations that I will be voting for John McCain. If you choose to ignore these warning signs of Barack’s unreliability that is your right. I have friends who are voting for Obama. I tell you what I have told them. If the day comes that you suddenly realize that Barack is a more articulate but equally incompetent version of George W. Bush I do not want to hear a goddamn complaint from you. If Barack casts his lot with the views of Louis Farrakhan and Rashid Khalidi when it comes to dealing with Israel, I don’t want to hear a single kvetch from my Jewish friends who are backing Obama. We have done our best to warn you. You have chosen to ignore hard facts and bank on a vague hope that is not based on any empirical evidence other than the golden tongue and soothing voice of Barack Obama.
If I am wrong and Barack turns out to be a political genius then we win as a country and I will freely admit I was wrong. But the nice thing about America is we still have the right to criticize those who aspire to lead this country and to challenge their veracity. We will continue to do this task at NoQuarter regardless who wins the election. I offer no quarter and I take no prisoners. Do not forget to vote.
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