It's been a while since I've posted anything. Of course, the election of Obama was disappointing and I've been, among other things, taking some time to get acclimated to the news. That said, one thought that's been constantly running through my mind is that, contrary to the notion that the election of Obama represents a "sea change" in favor of "progressive" values, what Obama's ascent actually represents is a vindication of Republican values and American exceptionalism.
Bear in mind, during the campaign, we were told over and over that America is a hopelessly racist country and that any failure to elect Obama could only be attributed to racism. Obama's mentor, Reverend Wright, said we live in the "US of KKKA," and Obama himself revealed that what first attracted him to Wright was a speech wherein Wright intoned "white folks' greed runs a world in need." And let's not forget about Obama's friends, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, whose new book, Race Course Against White Supremacy, will be published in June 2009. "Progressive" axioms -- such as America being "no better" than any other country -- also permeated the message of "Hope" and "Change" that Obama promised to bring. And so it goes.
Now that Obama's been elected, it is perhaps natural to expect that the sort of ideology associated with the rise of Obamanation will gain a new prominence in American life. Interestingly, however, I don't think that will be the case. Indeed, what the election of Obama actually proves is that, whatever its flaws, America is in fact the greatest country in the world, a place where anyone -- regardless of race, religion or creed -- can achieve beyond his wildest dreams. And given that the new understanding of American greatness, patriotism -- oft derided as the last refuge of scoundrels -- may soon be making a comeback.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Remember What Happened to Obama in the NH Democratic Primary?
Here's a look at what the leading polls said heading into the New Hampshire Democratic primary:
Zogby:
Obama 42
Clinton 29
USA Today:
Obama 41
Clinton 28
CNN/WMUR:
Obama 39
Clinon 29
Rasmussen:
Obama 37
Clinton 30
ACTUAL RESULTS:
Clinton 39
Obama 36
And Obama also underperformed his poll numbers in the Democratic primary in key battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Does this mean McCain has the election in the bag? Of course not. But what it does mean is that the polls showing McCain down a few points should not be taken as the Gospel truth, particularly given that 14 percent of voters are still undecided, and undecided voters are widely projected to break for McCain.
By the way, guess what was the leading theory for why the NH polls were so wrong in the Democratic primary? They failed to account for undecided voters, who overwhelmingly broke for Clinton.
Zogby:
Obama 42
Clinton 29
USA Today:
Obama 41
Clinton 28
CNN/WMUR:
Obama 39
Clinon 29
Rasmussen:
Obama 37
Clinton 30
ACTUAL RESULTS:
Clinton 39
Obama 36
And Obama also underperformed his poll numbers in the Democratic primary in key battleground states Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Does this mean McCain has the election in the bag? Of course not. But what it does mean is that the polls showing McCain down a few points should not be taken as the Gospel truth, particularly given that 14 percent of voters are still undecided, and undecided voters are widely projected to break for McCain.
By the way, guess what was the leading theory for why the NH polls were so wrong in the Democratic primary? They failed to account for undecided voters, who overwhelmingly broke for Clinton.
Friday, October 31, 2008
"John McCain has served this country longer in the POW camp than his opponent has served in the United States Senate."
Thus spoke Ah-nold today at a McCain rally in Ohio.
It is quite a zinger, but it also makes a profound point. With McCain, you are getting a proven commodity, but does anyone really know who Obama is and what he stands for? I don't think anyone does, but from where I stand, Obama sure looks like a Marxist.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's Story of Race and Inheritance
Steve Sailer has published a new book, America's Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama's Story of Race and Inheritance, which can be downloaded for free here. Here's an excerpt:
The overarching thesis of my book is extremely simple: that there’s no secret about Obama’s big secret. He spelled out exactly what he considers the central mandates of his existence in the subtitle of his graceful 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father. To Obama, his autobiography is most definitely not a postracial parable. Instead, it is A Story of Race and Inheritance.
The then 33-year-old Obama who wrote Dreams from My Father is obsessed with ethnicity and ancestry, as he relentlessly documents across nearly each of the book’s 460 pages. For 150,000 words, nothing diverts Obama from the subject of his racial identity.
What is the precise concern about race and inheritance that galvanizes Obama’s innermost emotions?
Once again, it’s not exactly a mystery.
Obama’s 1995 memoir reveals a genetically biracial young man raised by his white relatives who incessantly interrogates himself with the same question that the 139,000 mostly turgid articles and web postings catalogued by Google have asked about him: Is he black enough?
Sailer further argues that Obama has fulfilled this lifelong quest to prove he is "black enough" by becoming a radical leftist:
To be black enough is tied up in Obama’s mind with being left enough. As someone brought up by whites far from the black mainstream, Obama lacks the freedom to be politically unorthodox enjoyed by men of such iconic blackness as boxing promoter Don King, or funk singer James Brown and basketball giant Wilt Chamberlain, both of whom endorsed Richard Nixon in 1972.
The overarching thesis of my book is extremely simple: that there’s no secret about Obama’s big secret. He spelled out exactly what he considers the central mandates of his existence in the subtitle of his graceful 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father. To Obama, his autobiography is most definitely not a postracial parable. Instead, it is A Story of Race and Inheritance.
The then 33-year-old Obama who wrote Dreams from My Father is obsessed with ethnicity and ancestry, as he relentlessly documents across nearly each of the book’s 460 pages. For 150,000 words, nothing diverts Obama from the subject of his racial identity.
What is the precise concern about race and inheritance that galvanizes Obama’s innermost emotions?
Once again, it’s not exactly a mystery.
Obama’s 1995 memoir reveals a genetically biracial young man raised by his white relatives who incessantly interrogates himself with the same question that the 139,000 mostly turgid articles and web postings catalogued by Google have asked about him: Is he black enough?
Sailer further argues that Obama has fulfilled this lifelong quest to prove he is "black enough" by becoming a radical leftist:
To be black enough is tied up in Obama’s mind with being left enough. As someone brought up by whites far from the black mainstream, Obama lacks the freedom to be politically unorthodox enjoyed by men of such iconic blackness as boxing promoter Don King, or funk singer James Brown and basketball giant Wilt Chamberlain, both of whom endorsed Richard Nixon in 1972.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Obama's Shocking Post-9/11 Comments
Chicago Defender
Copyright 2001 Chicago Defender
October 17, 2001
Sen. Obama: Barriers `sad, symbols of fear"
The "ugly" barriers that have been erected outside of the Sears Tower, the Federal Building, the Daley Plaza and other city buildings in downtown Chicago following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are "sad, symbols of fear" and constant reminders of just how vulnerable America is, Sen. Barack Obama (D-13th) said Monday.
"Sad symbols of fear"? Good lord -- this pansy should be on Oprah; he should under no circumstances be commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Worse still, Obama insinuated that U.S. foreign policy may have been responsible for 9/11:
"We should also examine the foreign policies of the the U.S. to make sure that we occupy the moral high ground in these conflicts. In particular, we have to examine some of the root causes of this terrorist activity," Obama said, referring to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his "sleeper" cells throughout the world.
Copyright 2001 Chicago Defender
October 17, 2001
Sen. Obama: Barriers `sad, symbols of fear"
The "ugly" barriers that have been erected outside of the Sears Tower, the Federal Building, the Daley Plaza and other city buildings in downtown Chicago following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are "sad, symbols of fear" and constant reminders of just how vulnerable America is, Sen. Barack Obama (D-13th) said Monday.
"Sad symbols of fear"? Good lord -- this pansy should be on Oprah; he should under no circumstances be commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Worse still, Obama insinuated that U.S. foreign policy may have been responsible for 9/11:
"We should also examine the foreign policies of the the U.S. to make sure that we occupy the moral high ground in these conflicts. In particular, we have to examine some of the root causes of this terrorist activity," Obama said, referring to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and his "sleeper" cells throughout the world.
Obama: Life Mission Is to Help Blacks and "Plow" Gifts Into Black Community
Some telling excerpts from a 1990 Boston Globe article in which the supposedly "post-racial" Obama frankly explains that his life mission is to help blacks and "plow" gifts into the black community:
Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright Globe Newspaper Company 1990
February 15, 1990
Section: METRO
A LAW REVIEW BREAKTHROUGH
Linda Matchan, Globe Staff
...
What seems to motivate Barack Obama is a strong identification with what he calls "the typical black experience," paired with a mission to help the black community and promote social justice.
...
In college, he specialized in international relations at Occidental College in Los Angeles and, for his final two years, at Columbia University in New York. He transferred, he said, "because I was concerned with urban issues and I wanted to be around more black folks in big cities."
After short stints as a business journalist and as an advocate for a Harlem-based public interest research group, he conducted what he refers to as a "nationwide search" for community-based social action work with a liveable salary.
He found it in Chicago. He became the director and sole paid employee of the Developing Communities Project, a church-based advocacy organization for low- and middle-income blacks. His annual salary was $13,000. By the time he left, the organization had 13 employees and a solid record of accomplishments, from the removal of asbestos in public housing units to education counseling for disadvantaged youths.
Obama plans to return to Chicago after graduation -- "I've finally found a home," he said, smiling -- and intends to resume community work and possibly to enter politics.
"Having had access to the system, to a language that is sometimes foreign" to blacks, Obama said, "I have a certain mission to make sure that the gifts I've received are plowed back into the community."
Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright Globe Newspaper Company 1990
February 15, 1990
Section: METRO
A LAW REVIEW BREAKTHROUGH
Linda Matchan, Globe Staff
...
What seems to motivate Barack Obama is a strong identification with what he calls "the typical black experience," paired with a mission to help the black community and promote social justice.
...
In college, he specialized in international relations at Occidental College in Los Angeles and, for his final two years, at Columbia University in New York. He transferred, he said, "because I was concerned with urban issues and I wanted to be around more black folks in big cities."
After short stints as a business journalist and as an advocate for a Harlem-based public interest research group, he conducted what he refers to as a "nationwide search" for community-based social action work with a liveable salary.
He found it in Chicago. He became the director and sole paid employee of the Developing Communities Project, a church-based advocacy organization for low- and middle-income blacks. His annual salary was $13,000. By the time he left, the organization had 13 employees and a solid record of accomplishments, from the removal of asbestos in public housing units to education counseling for disadvantaged youths.
Obama plans to return to Chicago after graduation -- "I've finally found a home," he said, smiling -- and intends to resume community work and possibly to enter politics.
"Having had access to the system, to a language that is sometimes foreign" to blacks, Obama said, "I have a certain mission to make sure that the gifts I've received are plowed back into the community."
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