The Obamessiah's Knots

Barack the Obamessiah has been twisting himself in knots lately.  In addition to the ever-increasing list of things on which he has changed his position at least once, he also can't seem to keep straight his campaign talking points.

One of McCain's latest (which can be found at www.johnmccain.com) is called 'Celeb'.  It calls Barack Obama the world's biggest celebrity and compares him to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, questioning his ability to actually lead.  It then points out that Obama wants to raise taxes and rely on foreign oil.  While the implication that Obama is a rock star is debatable (personlly, I would consider him more of a pseudo-religious figure), the factual statements made in the ad are true.

In response, Obama made the following statement:

"Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they're going to try to do is make you scared of me," Obama said. "You know, 'he's not patriotic enough, he's got a funny name,' you know, 'he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.'"

The response to this statement has been a tidal wave of skepticism.  The obvious implication of this statement is race, right?  Well, not according to the Obama campaign, which quickly tried to clarify by saying he meant that he hadn't gotten to where he was by spending decades in Washington.  Riiiiiight...

Rich Lowry (and one of his readers) blows that argument out of the water.  First off, what does a non-Washington politician 'look like'?  Second:

Washington didn't even serve as president in Washington. And Lincoln, Jackson, and Grant weren't Washington time-servers. In fact, they are better as examples for Obama of how you don't need Washington experience (if you put aside, of course, the genius political and moral leadership of Lincoln prior to getting elected and the inspired generalship of Jackson and—especially—Grant).

Another attempt at explaining Obama's statement was:

"Obama himself didn't make clear what distinctions he thinks McCain is likely to raise regarding the presidents on U.S. currency – white men who for the most part were much older than Obama when elected."

Lowry kills that one, too:

I suppose Andrew Jackson ($20, 61) could fairly be described as much older than the Senator, and we could argue about George Washington ($1, 56) (and Thomas Jefferson (57), though I can't remember the last time I saw a $2 bill) – I'm 36 myself, and I wouldn't say that Senator Obama is "much older" than I – but Abraham Lincoln ($5, 51)? And Ulysses Grant ($50) was…46.

Peter Kirsanow throws in this perspective:

I suppose that last week when Obama — in terms similar to the Dollar Bill quote— told the crowd in Berlin, "I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city," he was referring to the fact that JFK wasn't as tall.

Not content with mere insinuations of racism, the Obama campaign publically signals their belief that we're galactically stupid.

Jason Lee Steorts has a different but equally damaging take:

I propose we take a second or two to feel disgusted by the sheer arrogance of that first sentence. Nobody thinks . . . Well, no; lots of people think Bush and McCain have some "real" answers to some challenges, and lots of people think Barack Obama's answers to the same challenges are mistaken. There are millions of such people, in fact. And I'll bet most of them wouldn't have the chutzpah to pretend that there aren't millions of other people who disagree with them. That's sort of the way it goes in politics, you know?  But I guess there are certain advantages to being the Blessed One Who Doth End All Strife. Among them, the right to use bullying and intellectually dishonest rhetoric. Ah, unity.

But it's not just conservatives - ABC's Jake Tapper, for instance, calls it 'pretty inflammatory'.  Even Chris 'Shivering Leg' Matthews agrees Obama played the race card.  The point is that McCain's charge that Obama played the race card is valid.  Anyone with a quarter of a brain reading or listening to that statement understands what Obama is really getting at - he's black, and that makes him different.  Michelle Malkin points out that Obama himself has often pointed out his own name and race as campaign issues.  Does this make him a racist toward himself?  Hey, for the Obamessiah, anything is possible, right?  I'm sure it's all Bush's fault, though.

Victor Davis Hanson wonders why he keeps invoking race at all:

Obama's problems with race have nothing to do with his half -African ancestry or his own experience with racism and unfairness, but boil down to his deftly wanting it both ways: reminding the Germans he is a different sort of American from what they're used to (false, they knew Rice and Powell well enough), while preempting by suggesting others will evoke race, but in a negative context. But his polls, I wager, will begin to slip from all this, because all this sophisticated triangulation is about to blow up in the public mind.

1) The voter is starting to hear serially from Obama about race; they were promised a racially transcendent candidate, but so far Obama seems obsessed with identity, either accusing others of racism, or using heritage himself for political advantage. This is a tragic blunder.

2) He has the same want-it-both-ways with odious racists: Rev. Wright is a former spiritual advisor, and "brilliant" scholar who nevertheless serially slurs America, whites, Italians, Jews, etc. Ludacris is "a great talent" and "talented" to such an extent Obama wants him in his I-pod menu, and has met with him—but also a racist to be shunned. Ditto Pfleger. A pattern is emerging: Obama associates with or tolerates racists when such quasi-intimacy cements street-cred as an authentic minority or someone cool in the anti-Bush mode; but then when they inevitably revert to form, he not merely casts them off, but is "shocked" at their usual expression, and so like speed bumps they litter the roadway as he barrels ahead.

3). The "typical white person", grandma under the bus riff, Pennsylvania "clingers" rant etc. , 'no more disown Rev, Wright/ but now leaving Trinity Church', etc. themselves are immaterial, but in toto provide a thin margin of tolerance when something like Ludacris or Obama's latest accusation of racism surfaces.

4) Right now Obama does not need to solidify his 90% African-American base or the Moveon.org white liberal adherents; but instead he must remember why he lost all those primaries to Hillary and to what degree his campaign since then has addressed those concerns that lost him those electorates. When a West Virginian hears that Obama is accusing others of racism, or hears him promise that racial reparations will now be a matter of government deeds not words, or a rapper brags he is a favorite of Obama and then slurs Clinton, McCain, Bush in thinly disguised racist terms, it starts to create an image of someone who is not bringing people together, but precisely the opposite.

Why all this? Inexperience and hubris—the same overconfidence that makes him say we need a Pentagon-sized new civilian aid department, to inflate our tires to avoid drilling, and must stop merely talking about reparations and starting doing something about them. His handlers need to return to the teleprompter, since all these incidents have in common the impromptu moment.

These are some outstanding points.  These things are starting to permeate the public consciousness despite the MSM's best efforts to shield him.  Three months remain until the general election; can he maintain his facade that long, or is McCain going to end up thumping Obama because we finally understand who he is?

It could be fun to see what other knots the Obamessiah will get himself into before November.

There's my two cents.